Todays Adventure of a College Student
The importance of the chapels of our lives.
We are traveling back through Europe again. Is everyone okay with that?
When in Rome, the great city, I had a charming discussion with one of the Lovely ladies on the tour. While walking through out city that day, I had seen some absolutely amazing things,
the roman colosseum
this great building, built to withstand time and represent a people forever.
The amazing ruin of this great building only signifies what as a human race we are capable of. The history exudes from every rock, each corner and crevasse , each tour guide in their own special way teaching you of the events and people which took place.
the Roman Forum,
this barely covers the great expanse of history that is located in this spot here. There are 20 more decades of history under what you are viewing here. Amazing right?
Now you wondering where I am going with this right? I am not leading you on a tour I am trying to help you understand my train of thought this day.
We walked through the city with this amazing amount of history crammed into our heads, a growing love for this new wonderful place and pieces of time, and of course rumbling stomachs so we grabbed lunch at a locale grocer, during this short sweet time, I began a thought process that would forever change the way I view chapels anywhere in the world. After we had finished eating and began the walk to the next church, (forgive me I can not remember the name of it) I was thinking to myself, the purpose of the things I was seeing that day, Entertainment, public functions, city rulings, and general living. Once I had stepped into this church I immediately looked up ( I have a thing with ceilings) here is what I saw, 
pretty awesome huh? Well, the next thing I noticed in one of the atriums (side chapel) was child. A small 7 year old, kneeling on a bench that was a half a foot to tall for him. To put his elbows on the top his little arms are stretched over his head to reach and with his little head bowed in reverent prayer, I began to understand the purposes of these buildings. Luckily, for us members of the church our worship services are rarely interrupted by tourists, camera flashes and immensely loud tour guides speaking in multiple languages. But for this sweet child his church is a national museum, open to all, at anytime of the day. He can barely worship in the normal fashion because of his bite site figure and then if he dares to open his little eyes there is art, gold gilded ceilings, marble statues, marble floors, tourists taking pictures, people complaining, pushing each other to get to the thing that is most important in this museum that this child uses to worship his Lord.
this right here...
Joannes Lawerntivs Bernini, the great architect was buried here, and evidently I am not excused from the loud nosiy tourists I wanted my picture but felt ashmed at my behavior in front of this child who was worshiping our heavenly father. Can you imagine taking the sacrament in a place like this?
me either! Where is all of this heading?
Lets tie everything together. We go to a chapel every week in a church building most likely painted LDS casmere, with simple cushion benches, very few pieces of artwork, and no famous buried architect. The Sacrament is passed in a reverent manner, from boys in white shirts, who its a good possibly you might not even know their name, you have no idea who built the church, if it was Bernini or Wasatch Residential builders you honestly don't care, all that matters is that you get to partake of the saving ordinance and are forgiven of your sins so that someday soon you can attend the temple. You like that little boy are not interested in the greatness of the building, the year of the marble, or who carved the statue but have the chance to go to place that allows you the comfort of worshiping in a way that diverts from distraction.
Our Chapels are designed to bring you closer to your heavenly father with out the distraction. To feel safe , enclosed and comforted each week by the quite sweet spirit you feel when you attend your meetings. So this week, when you go to church, be ever so grateful for its design and invisibility in your life to be the place where you meet to learn, partake of the sacrament and receive the chance to go to the temple.
this is a temple I helped celebrate :)
Be grateful for the simplicity and the invisibility of the chapels you attend. and say a little prayer for my little roman friend , that someday his will find the gospel, and escape from all the tourists:) like myself.
-Hayley
I have often thought of the importance of chapels or "places of worship" to people of other faiths. Just because they are not the same religion as us doesn't mean that they are not speaking to the same God. Thanks Hayley for reminding me of the sacredness and reverence that we should give to all houses that are built for the Lord.
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