8. The Bride's Song

It didn't take me very long to return to the Creation. Once I landed I went straight to a church, which of course was empty of any little gods. It was very dark, but glimmers of light from the moon streamed through windows around the high dome so that I could see golden mosaics sparkling all over the ceilings and on some of the walls. In the center of the dome was a mosaic of Jesus Christ sitting on His throne surrounded by seraphim. I guess that if He had posed it would look something like this. But I have never known seraphim to be still, even for a second.

As I was flying around gazing at the mosaics of saintly gods three angels flew up to greet me.

"Hello! Pretty beautiful, eh?" They said in unison. In fact, I soon discovered that they always spoke either in unison or in harmony. It was as if they wanted to be one angel instead of three separate ones. I tried to overlook how strange that seemed.

"Yes," I replied. "Look at all these images of little gods. That one in the cornice is Saint John. Did you go to his party; wasn't it terrific?"

"We didn't go because we had much to do here for the celebration."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Let me ask you, why are these churches always empty? Doesn't anyone want to live in this beautiful place?" I inquired as politely as I could trying to practice being less sarcastic.

Suddenly as if out of nowhere spirits upon spirits poured into the great nave of the cathedral. "We all live here!" They shouted to surprise me. "We are the angels and member-spirits who have worshipped here since this church was erected. We live here and in heaven. Because we are no longer locked in time, we are no longer locked in space. How is it that you never noticed us before?"

I had to admit that whenever I had gone into a church, I was looking for bodies, and not seeing any I was blinded to the spirits of the men, women and children who were as much a part of the church buildings as the icons. I suppose one only sees what one expects to see.

The triplet angels chimed again to remind me of my mission, "Did you come to earth to learn about the year and you know nothing about the week?"

"As in music," they sang in three-part harmony, "the week is the rhythm which is a pattern that relates to a beat" and then in unison they bellowed like a drum, "Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday." The Bride uses this rhythm to build Her year around! The melody is formed by the many events, loud and soft that occur within this rhythm." And then they hummed a few more chords in harmony without any words at all.

"You must stay put for one week if you want to learn more about the mystical year of the Bride."

I quickly contemplated staying put and wondered what I would do confined in a building. I could imagine myself bouncing off the walls. Even though I did not want to stay in one place for so long, I knew that I had to. So I flew up to the balcony and landed in the farthest most pew, and started my week by sulking.