Sunday Morning and Evening

Cathedral Interior

Sunday morning we attend mass (misa) at the historic cathedral in downtown Granada. A regal building, with a sky blue-and-yellow interior, with formal worship led a dozen white-robed liturgists, the gentle music echoes among its tall columns and arched ceilings. 

A sense of transcendent peace rises in me as I smell its incense, hear its bells, and feel cool breezes through its soaring windows. We leave quietly and anonymously. As I leave, I say to the little girl who has been smiling at us from the bench ahead. “Dios te bendiga. (God bless you.)”

Evangelical Wedding

Over lunch we ask a host about attending her evangelical worship service later today. Surely, she says, but she warns us it is not as quiet (tranquilo) as the service we attended this morning. We arrive just in time for the 4 p.m. service, but a wedding is still in progress in Iglesia Evangelica Quadrados, a cement block building with a corrugated aluminum. Bride and groom are seated in chairs up front, listening to a marriage message.

No problem. We join the wedding guests on their plastic chairs in the sanctuary. At 4:30, bride and groom rise, exchange rings, kiss, and the wedding ends. The wedding party leaves, and the pastor transitions into worship without missing a beat. 

The music pulsates loudly for the next hour—I turn off my hearing aids use them as ear plugs. The pastor preaches—with more drama than a black Southern Baptist—for a second hour. Just a half hour more of offering and announcements.

During the service people shake our hands several times, and as first-time visitors, we receive bottles of cold water. As we leave, several more shake our hands. “Dios le bendiga (God bless you),” they say.

“Mismo dios, una differencia de estilo (Same God, different styles),” I say to our host Maria Jose as we leave. She smiles and nods.

Different styles? My comment could earn a world competition for understatement. This morning and evening were black and white, day and night. . .

But then, in the beginning when God gave the Grand Blessing, it was evening and it was morning of the first day, and the second, and . . .