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A Lapsed Catholic finds God in Nebraska

A lapsed Catholic finds God in Nebraska:

 

It’s strange how I decided to make the trip up to the chapel, after having driven past it numerous times (it is clearly visible from I-80). I had been reflecting on the famous statement made by Nietzsche who lamented that “God is dead.” And I guess the thing that made his words ring true were the countless times I found churches with nothing new and revivifying… the tradition was all there but there was no passion! And I began to feel the “deadness” because the words had become so rote and repetitive, and because the message was never applied to how I ought to act in the modern world. I began to think Nietzsche might have been right, and that perhaps those bland, relatively dark churches were in fact coffins in which we were holding a series of funereal rites.

But this dark thought caused me to look anew at the chapel on the hill… I looked and saw that someone must believe with all their heart to have built such a place. And I thought, “well if it is to be a funeral, at least here is an open casket!” It spoke to me as a lapsed Catholic because it did not attempt to recreate old styles of architecture, but rather it was built as something brand new and designed to be a natural piece of the landscape.

And so I visited, and I was filled with awe. I spoke to the deacon in the visitor center who told me the entire story of the construction of the place, and the series of miracles which allowed for its construction.  I have personally had intimations of miracles in my own life since coming to this place… and I find myself returning to it every week, since I am fortunate to live so close to it (in Omaha, NE).

There have been many miracles witnessed at this place, and I can only imagine it is because God is pleased by an offering of such transcendent beauty.

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