Yesterday, I Sat in a Church

My time for repose and reflection

I needed a day off--a day to wander, to be a flâneur. Fortunately, Prague is a great old city, seemingly built to be continually discovered and rediscovered. To wander about with no destination and no plan is a pleasure for which I need to make more time.

I know, “take time for yourself” is great advice. I’m not good at taking it, unable to tear myself away from my work desk to take care of myself. Partly to affirm myself and to pay the advice forward to others, here are some thoughts from yesterday.

I set out on a warmish, sunny spring day and felt, "I'll head that way." After a while, I was walking past a church, and I felt compelled to enter, to sit for awhile. I’m not religious, but I do enjoy visiting churches, whether or not a service is underway. Europe has so many beautiful churches, basilicas, and cathedrals. I’ve been in St. Peter’s in the Vatican, Westminster Abbey, St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, and others, but I most love the neighborhood churches — the ones that working people attended. They offer an environment one can’t get anywhere else.

The church that had manifested before me, though obviously it had been there for quite some time, so, I was led to it, was the Kostel svatého Ignáce z Loyoly or, in English, the Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The church was completed in 1671 although interior work continued until 1699.