finding God on the mountain top

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Individual:

I was not sure what to expect from our visit to Monserrat, but I was amazed by everything about the tiny city in the middle of the mountains. Throughout my life, I have always seen God most prominently through nature. Going into the mountains in the cable car and seeing all of the incredible views from the cross, I was so in awe of God and felt his presence so strongly. As our insight guides book states, Monserrat is a “religious shrine of great power and mystery”. Throughout our whole day there, I was constantly amazed by the architecture and the wonder that surrounded the monastery. God was so prevalent on that mountain top, and I feel very blessed that I had the opportunity to experience it.

Relational:

I didn’t speak to a lot of Spaniards during our time at Montserrat since it was primarily hiking and looking around. However, I did enjoy seeing how many people took the time to come and visit such an incredible place with such incredible meaning. Although many people who visit are not Christian, visiting a place like Montserrat can be a great starting point for exploring Christianity. One thing that I thought was really amazing was the amount of school children visiting and making the hike up to the cross. I never had the chance to go on a field trip that incredible as a kid, so seeing schools taking the time to take their students to such an amazing monument was really wonderful to see. As we spoke about, schools in Barcelona teach in Catalonian, and so it was really cool to see how they are also preserving their history by teaching the students about important Catalonian history as well as Spanish history.

Social:

Something I struggled with while observing everyone at Montserrat was that it felt more like a tourist attraction that a reverent shrine to Christianity. Although it does have amazing views, it seems that it is not being used in the way it was built for. However, this shift could be due to shifts in religious beliefs throughout Catalonia, as well as the relaxed culture that Christianity has taken throughout the past century.

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