Canada Choir Tour, Day 3

Today, we walked in a great darkness. More on that later, however. Our day began with our own worship service, singing Taizé music, reading Scripture, and listening for God's voice in the silence. We began our singing at a day center for senior adults who are blind. We met many fascinating people and were blessed to share our gift of music with them.

For lunch, we had the unique experience of eating in total darkness, getting the feeling of what it is like to be blind. We ate at Onoir, a restaurant that allows no light -- zero, zilch, nadda -- in the dining room. We were even asked to leave such things as cell phones, watches, and other items that might produce light, no matter how small, in a locker during our meal. Our waiter, who is blind, led us in by having us place our left hand on the left shoulder of the person in front of us and trusting that we will be led to the right place. Cutting my steak was a little tricky, as was finding what else was on my plate. At one point during the meal, I had placed my napkin over shirt so I would not spill anything on my red "Concert Dress" shirt. After having gotten my hands messy in the sauce of my meal, I went to wipe them on my napkin which was supposed to be covering the front of my shirt. Well, it was not. It had fallen, but I did not notice until too late. Yup, you guessed it: sauce down the front of my shirt! And then came the chocolate (and very messy) cake. Let's just say that I wound up wearing a little bit of my dessert on my shirt, too! Being deprived of one of your senses is difficult to adjust to, but it was a great teachable moment for both young people and adults on the trip.

In the afternoon, we went out to Oratoire St. Joseph and preformed in their "small" chapel before mass. The chapel can hold up to a thousand people, but there were much fewer in there, mostly tourists and people preparing for mass. One devout pilgrim came crawling in on her knees praying as she went. As we left, we saw two pilgrims crawling up the 400+ steps on their knees, pausing to pray on each step.

Our discussions in the evening continued on the liturgical year, focusing on Ordinary Time and our own spiritual growth.

For more pictures from our Choir Tour, check out our Facebook page.