{"id":595,"date":"2015-06-05T13:56:15","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T13:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=595"},"modified":"2015-06-05T14:31:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-05T14:31:28","slug":"the-choir-loft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=595","title":{"rendered":"The Choir Loft"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"01-26-15<\/a><\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Howdy Prodigal, where are you going?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 I decided to stop in at this chapel.\u00a0 I heard it was beautiful!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 I have a story about another chapel called the Loretto chapel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 Of course I want to hear it!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Max Lucado in his book In the Eye of the Storm shares a story about the Loretto Chapel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A block south of the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, on the corner of Water Street and Old Santa Fe Trail, you will find Loretto Chapel.\u00a0 The Chapel was completed in 1878.\u00a0 Loretto Chapel took five years to complete.\u00a0 Modeled after the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, its delicate sanctuary contains an altar, a rose window, and a choir loft.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The choir loft is the reason for wonder.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1878 everything was complete:\u00a0 the doors had been hung, the pews had been placed, the floor had been laid.\u00a0 Everything was finished.\u00a0 Even the choir loft.\u00a0 Except for one thing.\u00a0 No stairs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The chapel was too small to accommodate a conventional stairwary.\u00a0 The best builders and designers in the region shook their heads when consulted.\u00a0 “Impossible,”\u00a0 they\u00a0murmured.\u00a0 There simply wasn’t enough room.\u00a0 A ladder would serve the purpose.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Sister of Loretto were then faced with a challenge of fifteen impossible feet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what did they do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

They prayed for the impossible to happen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The nuns prayed for nine days.\u00a0 On the last last day, a Mexican carpenter with a beard and a wind-burned face appeared at the convent.\u00a0 He explained that\u00a0he had heard they needed a stairway to a chapel loft.\u00a0 He thought he could help.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The mother superior had nothing to lose, so she gave him permission.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He went to work with crude tools, painstaking patience, and uncanny skill.\u00a0 For eight months he worked.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One morning the Sisters of Loretto entered the chapel to find their prayers had been answered.\u00a0 A masterpiece of carpentry spiraled from the floor to the loft.\u00a0 Two complete three-hundred-sixty-degree turns.\u00a0 Thirty-three steps held together with wooden pegs and no central support.\u00a0 The wood is said to be a variety of hard fir, one nonexistent in New Mexico.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the sisters turned to thank the craftsman, he was gone.\u00a0 He was never seen again.\u00a0 He never asked for money.\u00a0 He never asked for praise.\u00a0 He was a simple carpenter who did what no one else could do so singers could enter a choir loft and sing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pray for the impossible, you never know who or what may show up!\u00a0 God delights in surprises.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Luke 1:37<\/p>\n

For nothing will be impossible with God.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jennifer Van Allen<\/p>\n

www.faithincounsling.org<\/p>\n

www.theprodigalpig.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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