Yesterday was set aside as a day trip guided tour to the city of Cordoba, about a 90 minute drive from Seville. Like most of the cities in this region, Cordoba has a deep and rich history dating back to Roman, then Visigoth, then Muslim rule, eventually giving way to Christian leadership. Every culture has left their mark on the customs, traditions, architecture and even the local cuisine.
Over the years, Cordoba served as everything from a region outpost (Roman times) to the Andalusian capital city. A river runs through the center of town and olive cultivation began thousands of years ago. To this day Spain remains one of the world’s top two olive oil producers and the Cordoba region is a top producer within Spain. We passed by miles and miles of olive orchards on the morning drive.
Our first stop, however, was the town of Carmona where we were given 30 minutes to walk through town and see the sights before moving on.
We chose to spend our few minutes at the local neighborhood church on the corner (and across the street from another Catholic church) known as St. Mary’s.
St. Mary’s may just be “the neighborhood church on the corner”, but that doesn’t mean that it’s just another church. This seemingly simple neighborhood church would easily pass as an impressive Cathedral in many other parts of the world, including many US cities!
And yet, in so many other ways this church is very similar to our own local parishes. Take, for example, the volunteer parishioners who happened to be cleaning up around the around the alter at the time we were there.
All of which just goes to show you that no matter how grand, how beautiful or how historic, the significance of the church is ultimately about its people and the community it serves and who serve it.
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