Consecrated space

I went to my usual Sunday market last week and was dismayed that Mass was being said in the parking lot, barely a stone’s throw away from the vendors who seemed unsure of how to proceed – sell, not sell, at least face the service, but then ignore the customer – what? I was rushing on the way to my own Sunday service, but had to get some supplies for guests who were due that morning. I went about my business, but felt so uncomfortable shopping while there was a Mass going on, even if the priest seemed unfazed. I wanted to give the Mass due respect, but was unsure how, given my circumstances. I am never late for my own Sunday service and needed to prepare our space for it. So, I hurriedly got what I needed and left. I am contemplating not returning, just because the whole atmosphere bothered me. I can’t shop while there’s any kind of religious service going on – in the same space – because it makes me feel disrespectful.

Early this week, a friend brought up the same experience. She’d been to the market a few minutes after me and was also put off by the Mass being said in the parking lot amid the hustle and bustle. She said that when collection time came, the basket was passed all around the market and she didn’t feel good about that. Then we started talking about Mass being said in malls and how that also didn’t feel right. I value the way spaces are prepared for specific activities because I know it affects everything. I think that every service or Mass should be in a dedicated space that has been carefully prepared by the community it serves.

During a recent festival, I noticed that the children were reluctant to enter the designated craft area and saw that the teachers were in a huddle on the floor preparing the crafts. It’s not easy to feel welcome if you’re met with a mass of human backs, crouched low on the floor. So I asked one of the teachers to come out, welcome the children and bring them in. When this was brought to their attention, the space immediately opened up and the children could see that they could enter it. Soon they had claimed the space and were happily engaged in the crafts their teachers had lovingly prepared. Children who came later were immediately drawn to the space and had no difficulty coming in. That illustrates the importance of creating the right kind of physical space for whatever activity we need to begin. This increases a thousandfold when there is a spiritual task that must be fulfilled.

I understand that the Catholic church probably wants to bring itself to the people, so they will go wherever there is already a crowd, but I think that something valuable is lost in the process. It may not matter to some, but for others it makes a world of difference. I need to be in a quiet, contained, nicely held sacred space to be able to give and receive in full consciousness. I even have to be there ahead of time because I’m just the kind of person who needs to settle in. I find it difficult to come in from the road and straight into something that requires my full presence. Of course, any kind of religious service is not just about the physical space but the inner condition of those who enter it, but both elements must come together and help enhance the other.

I stopped attending Catholic Masses, partly because I feel the Mass has lost precisely this kind of sacredness. People are standing restlessly in the back, some are smoking even, texting, doing all sorts of things but not really being there. The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was a priest who was more like a game show host who kept asking the community to answer his questions in unison. They were inane questions and he even managed to inject jokes about people and events in show business. We already have too much of the inane around us, I want my church to bring me to a space that puts me back in touch with the divine. Of course, there are wonderful exceptions and I have attended some very special Masses as well, but I wish they were more the rule than the exception.

When I had my home space-cleared last year, the practitioner commented that she didn’t have to do anything in the basement because it had such a good energy and she felt that a lot of important, spiritual work had been done there. In fact, it’s where I’ve held some of our services over the last few years. What we bring into any physical space really does permeate it and gives us something back to help us deepen our work. That’s why I find it difficult to get into the mood of hearing Mass in an open parking lot in the middle of a market, or even in a mall beside the merry-go-round, between escalators that are in constant movement and energies going every which way.

If people care enough, they will go to church and make every effort to be fully present; to give to the space and receive from it as well. We all have to try to bring back the quality of whatever religious service we choose to attend, being careful not to make it just a social event or a way to attract people to further a cause, but a path and a place where one’s understanding of his faith can deepen. We have to create a space for contemplation that allows us to receive all that is coming at us, and a space where we can also give what is already quietly blossoming in us.

We are already of a consciousness that tells us we can’t just sit passively, letting the impulse of Christianity do what it will. We know that we have to rise and meet it. I think part of this practice means going to places that we have prepared through our regular attendance, prayers or meditation – places that have been consecrated not just by the substance of the service, but the imprint of our human striving. This is the minimum we must demand of ourselves.

If malls want to offer weekend Masses, they should build chapels so that a proper physical vessel is prepared, seasoned and made potent by the week and is kept sacred just for this purpose. As mature and authentic human beings, we should make the effort to go to these dedicated places and break the habit of putting our convenience first. Faith isn’t meant to be convenient and it’s time we took full responsibility for creating the right space in which to receive, nurture and deepen it.

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