The Church in the Distance

Many years ago (I won’t say how many), when Tiffy and I were just out of college, we used to road trip a lot to visit another friend in Minneapolis. Somewhere along the route I remember seeing a beautiful white church with gold trim. In my memory, it had two towers that were rounded, almost like onion domes but not quite. It towered over a sizeable city, and I wanted desperately to go see it, but Tiffy was not amenable to making such a detour. At the time, I was not particularly religious and so could not justify such a trip by saying I wanted to go to church there, but something inside of me longed to enter this church.

Remembering that memory after becoming a practicing Catholic, I had a vague recollection that the church had been in Eau Claire, so I did some internet research. There was a church there with two rounded towers, Sacred Heart, but it was brown, not white. Whenever I drove by Eau Claire, I tried to see it from the highway but couldn’t. The one church that did fit that description was St. Patrick’s in Mauston, a white church with gold trim visible from the highway, but it doesn’t tower over a sizeable city, and it only has one tower, and not a rounded one. I eventually decided I was conflating two memories: seeing St. Patrick’s on those road trips with Tiffy, and seeing Sacred Heart on a trip to Eau Claire with someone else back in college.

When Travalon and I drove to Sacred Heart in Eau Claire, it did tower over the city. I was so excited to see it, remembering my desire from so long ago. Mass was not a letdown, and the church felt very special, like my own parish. They are both historically German parishes, which may be why they are so ornate. As I pondered the fact that fulfilling my youthful wish had been even more wonderful than I’d hoped, it occurred to me that what I had been seeking back then was God, and not just a pretty building. To attend Mass at Sacred Heart as a regularly practicing Catholic, with my true love beside me, was a fulfillment of all my youthful desires – not just seeing the inside of the building, but seeing it with the eyes of faith, alongside the man who will help me reach Heaven someday. No wonder it was even better than I ever could have hoped all those years ago.  

Famous Hat