Tag: #LA
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Experiencing the City in Ordinary Time
My favorite season on the church calendar is ordinary time. Ordinary time is the space between Pentecost and Advent. I’m not sure why I like this long season. Maybe it’s because I enjoy being an ordinary person experiencing each minute of each day in ordinary time. I like being reminded that I don’t have to…
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Sacred Spaces – Boyle Heights
When I step into Boyle Heights I am an outsider. I do not fully understand what I am seeing and hearing as I walk around the neighborhood. Last fall I went on a guided tour of Boyle Heights organized by LA Commons and led by urban planner James Rojas. A local informant not only points…
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Taste
I first visited the Jain Center of Southern California in Buena Park to meet someone I needed to interview for a class project. We had made arrangements by email, but I did not expect that on the day I visited the Jain Center they would be hosting a large ecology conference. I had no idea…
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Touch
One of the oldest built sacred spaces in the city of Los Angeles is Our Lady Queen of Angels, but more commonly known as “La Placita.” The early Franciscans established this small chapel and enclosed courtyard, but today it is a symbolic and meaningful sacred space claimed by the Hispanic community. La Placita is a…
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Sight
I did not expect St. Basil’s to be so colorful. I walked in to St. Basil’s from the sidewalks of Wilshire Boulevard. Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles was one of the first streets in the city intentionally built for cars. As someone walking next to the wide lanes my view was grey and sparse, and…
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Sounds
The predominant sense experience of the Pasadena International House of Prayer is sound. The sounds of this 24/6 space of prayer and worship can often be a sensory overload for the ears. Depending on the time of day there could be intense prayers of shouting, the mumbling of those quietly speaking in tongues, and the…
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Smell
When I think of a Daoist temple the first thing that comes to mind is the smell. The smell of incense instinctively stirs up memories of the years I spent living in Taiwan. Images flood my mind of colorful and elaborate temples, simple roadside altars, and the family altar in my uncle’s home. Thien Hau…
Finding Eden 