Worship and Sightseeing

Monday 3:30 local time, 1700 home

Treating nights like days in order to stay on U.S. time messes with your head after a while. Especially when you get to the weekends. I feel like I could sleep around the clock. I worked Saturday night for a while and then went to sleep.

a veil of gossamer, almost appearing wet and blowing against her

WORSHIP WITH PRAISE, ADORATION AND THANKSGIVING

I got up early Sunday morning and went to a mass at St. Mary’s here. They alternate masses in Hindi and English beginning at 6:00 a.m. I heard the end of the 6:00 mass which was very fun because the hymns were sung with Indian instruments such as the sitar. The 7:00 mass in English was very full. The hymnals were old and much worn out, threadbare with pages coming apart from the binding. A man came a bit late and sat next to me so I shared my hymnal with him. But on the next hymn, he used it for himself. I was trying to read over his arm and a woman behind me (a nun I think, she was wearing a soft orange sari and there were several women there with the same sari) handed me a hymnal to use for myself. On my left was a young couple and the woman helped me one time when I couldn’t figure out what page we were on. All of these tiny interactions may seem insignificant but they were great kindness I thought.

The sermon was on Luke 18:9-14, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." I remember when PJ preached on this last summer and he cautioned us to be very careful with this passage, for it is difficult to be truly humble. Hearing the sermon in India takes on new meaning when you are amongst people who truly have very little or nothing.

My driver, a young man named Abdul, asked me to pray for him and his family. Which I was very happy to do. After church he told me that when his daughter was born she was in ICU for 91 days. Now she is 2 and he feels he is a very lucky man. He said he is a Muslim and a Christian.

SIGHTSEEING WITH ABDUL

I went back to the hotel and ordered an omelet for breakfast (or is that my dinner?) and went to sleep until almost 1:00 p.m. I had to really force myself awake so that I could do some sightseeing with Abdul. He was very excited to show me around and of course, earn extra money. We went to the Salar Jung Museum. The museum houses art collections of three generations of the Salar Jung family.

The most amazing sculpture in the museum is the Veiled Rebecca. All one has to do is google “veiled Rebecca” to see many blog entries on how beautiful this statue is. For me, Veiled Rebecca ranks in the top 3 amazing marble sculptures: The Pieta at St. Peter’s in the Vatican, Winged Victory in the Louvre in Paris and now Veiled Rebecca in Salar Jung in Hyderabad. The sculpture is by an Italian artist, Benzoni in 1876 based on the story in Genesis 24: 64-65. Rebecca’s veil is so thin and gauzy, a veil of gossamer, almost appearing wet and blowing against her. It is very hard to believe this is marble. There are cross-hatch textures where the veil presses against Rebecca’s clothing. She is truly modest and truly beautiful.