Friday, October 2, 2009

Hallelujah!

For more than two weeks I had been calling the priest for our church wedding. No luck – the priest was never home, I always had the former (now retired) priest on the phone. I went to the church for the second time. No luck, it was the former (now retired) priest who did the mass.

On Tuesday I finally got the present priest on the line. Not that this helped me any further. “Oh, but you first have to check with the *French-speaking* priest if the church is available that day”. I started to loose my faith at that point.....
But not without a final battle. I went to the headquarters of the “Dutch-speaking” Church in Brussels. Guess who opened the door? Right, the former (now retired) priest.

“Miss, you again!”
“Yes, me again. And I still want to get married in your church, and I still didn’t get any help from your new priest, and I’m starting to get desperate.”


So the kind old priest let me in, and started the whole process to marry us in church (including sending letters to our “home-churches” to see if we aren’t secretly married to someone else).
The old priest kept talking and talking – apparently he was more than happy with my unannounced visit. We ended up discussing celibacy, the values of marriage, the problems of the church today, his entire career, etc, etc. I even got a tour of the house. I finally got out after almost three hours. With the promise that he would call me the next morning to tell me if the church was available on the 5th of December.

I came home, and inspired by the priest I started writing our wedding mass. Until well after midnight.

On Wednesday I waited. And waited. No phone call. Around 6 pm I lost my patience, and I decided to harass the former (now retired) priest once more.

“Yes, miss N, how can I help you?”
“Well, I was just wondering if it’s ok for our wedding – you know – on the 5th?”
“But of course it is! I told you yesterday not to worry!”


So, my faith was tested. And I actually start to believe that this wedding is going to get planned in time after all! Talking about miracles...

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