Editor’s note: Throughout July, we’re hosting 31 Days with St. Ignatius, a month-long celebration of Ignatian spirituality. In addition to the calendar of Ignatian articles found here, posts on dotMagis this month will explore the theme of “Finding God in the Unexpected.”
I had one goal in traveling to Vienna for the first time. I wanted to see the organ pipes in St. Stephen’s Cathedral carved by my grandmother’s grandfather. Before the First World War, my great-great-grandfather, a carpenter from Slovakia, helped create a magnificent instrument in the centuries-old church.
We arrived in Vienna and headed straight to the large square surrounding St. Stephen’s. It’s impossible not to pause to marvel at the mosaic-tiled roof. Still, I made a beeline to the entrance to see those pipes that my relatives had described in stories time and again.
Now we might presume to find God in a cathedral, but in Europe it’s easy to forget that due to a structure’s historical significance. I had no expectation of a personal encounter with God as I rushed to see a family “heirloom.”
Once inside St. Stephen’s, I saw gold-painted gates, common in many churches in Europe. They preserve the sanctity of sacred spaces
