• About
  • Books I’m Reading
  • Links

Reflections of a Lay Catholic

Reflections of a Lay Catholic

Tag Archives: Cathedrals

Corn, Confession, Cathedrals and Car Trouble

07 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by Jerry Robinson in Churches, Confession

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Cathedrals, Confession

Day two of my solo trip from Cincinnati, Ohio to Seattle, Washington.

There is a lot of corn along I-29 through northwest Missouri, western Iowa and southeastern South Dakota, and then along I-90 west of Sioux Falls to the Missouri River.  I mean a lot!  And it goes for as far as the eye can see.  I think it made it to “knee high by the fourth of July”, as the saying goes, so the farmers ought to be happy.

I left my daughter’s house in Olathe, Kansas a little later than I expected but that’s okay, we had a good visit.  There’s not much to look at except rolling hills and corn, corn and more corn across Iowa.  I had to give the music CDs and the book on tape I brought with me a break so I turned them off and tuned into my own thoughts.  I reflected back on my post from the day before, specifically my comment about being able to throw my trash in the back seat without anyone telling me not to. That reminded me of something author Matthew Kelly says in his book The Seven Pillars of Catholic Spirituality.  He uses that as an analogy for our daily sins.  We sin a little here and a little there, and we let them slowly build up until we have a heap of them.  Kind of like the rolled up fast food bags piled up on the floor board of the back seat.  It’s been a month or more since I went to reconciliation and I started thinking about how the trash in my personal back seat was starting to pile up.

I had to stop for gas in Sioux City, Iowa so I logged onto masstimes.org again to see if there were any churches in Sioux Falls, South Dakota that I might be able to find that had reconciliation scheduled for about the time I would be passing through there.  The one that came closest was the Cathedral of St. Joseph, the home church of the bishop of the diocese.  I checked my GPS and I could be there ten minutes early.  Sounded like a plan to me.

I was glad I decided to stop because by the time I got there I was beginning to get sleepy.  I entered the church and found two lines for confession, each about six or seven people long.  Fortunately, there were two confessionals going at once and my line moved fairly quickly.  These were old fashioned confessionals of carved, rich mahogany wood, with screens only so I couldn’t actually see the priest.  I got lucky and had a very nice priest.  I had nothing too serious to confess but I think the priest, after me telling him I am still new at this business, gave me three Hail Marys for either practice or just so I wouldn’t think I was wasting my time.

St. Joseph’s Cathedral is a beautiful church.  I decided to stay for the Saturday afternoon mass since I didn’t know if I would be able to find a church on Sunday morning.  The priest gave a very nice homily.  The music was marvelous!  The organist made the huge, old organ sing.  After mass the thought occurred to me that it might be neat to post daily about the churches I am visiting on this cross-country trip.  So, I took some pictures, inside and out. 

St. Joseph's Cathedral, Sioux Falls, SD

St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Sioux Falls, SD

St. Joseph's Cathedral, Sioux Falls, SD

St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Sioux Falls, SD

St. Joseph's Cathedral Organ, Sioux Falls, SD

St. Joseph’s Cathedral Organ, Sioux Falls, SD

Back on the road heading west on I-90, I passed unknown millions of acres of more corn.  My stop at church put me getting to my sister-in-law’s house south of Rapid City, South Dakota a little later than I expected.  I was tooling along with the windows down, watching a thunderstorm roll in with a magnificent show of lightning, and otherwise enjoying the scenery with about 100 miles to go when the cruise control on my Subaru Outback decided to quit working.  In addition to the cruise light on the dash blinking continuously, the red brake light also began blinking continuously, the check engine light came on and stayed on as did the traction control light.  There was no change in power or performance so I assume it is simply a cruise control problem.  Of course, it was Saturday night and I have a lot of miles to cover before any Subaru maintenance shops would be open on Monday morning.  We’ll see where it takes me.

I arrived at my destination about 9:30 local time with about 760 miles under my belt for the day, 1,400 for the trip.  My sister and brother-in-law fed me a wonderful dinner of grilled chicken and asparagus and we caught up with each other’s lives.  They just moved into a new house in the Black Hills south of town and this was my first visit to it.  Upon waking this morning I looked out the huge windows of their family room across valleys of pine trees to see Mount Rushmore.  It was a beautiful view!

Tonight’s destination is a campground somewhere near Missoula, Montana.  Preferably near a mountain stream where I can dream about flipping a dry fly into a riffle where an 18 inch Rainbow is waiting.  Alas, with no time to fish, I can only dream about it on this trip.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 247 other followers

Recent Posts

  • Ask and You Shall Receive
  • The Good Shepherd
  • Be Like St. Mark
  • Random Musings on a Spring Morning
  • Peace in Knowing the Meaning of Easter

Categories

Top Posts & Pages

  • Ask and You Shall Receive
  • How we respond to Prayer Request
  • Without Cost You Have Received; Without Cost You Are To Give
  • Do Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • November 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

©2013 – 2022 Reflections of a Lay Catholic. Reposting and sharing of material in its full and original content is permitted, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author(s) and Reflections of a Lay Catholic.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Reflections of a Lay Catholic
    • Join 247 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Reflections of a Lay Catholic
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...