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On Pilgrimage in Spain: Experiencing La Sagrada Familia With Father Dave

Father Dave and Brett joined Lino Rulli and Tyler Veghte of “The Catholic Guy Show” on SiriusXM’s Catholic Channel for the “Spanish Saints, Sacramentals, and Sangria Pilgrimage.” They traveled with 95 listeners to famous Catholic churches and cities across Spain, including Madrid, Avila, Toledo, Barcelona and more.

One highlight of the pilgrimage included visiting Basílica de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona. Designed by Antoni Gaudí, the Basilica began construction in 1882 and is still ongoing today. “It’s a stunning monument,” Father Dave describes. “But the outside is totally different from what you experience on the inside.”

“To call it modern or contemporary doesn’t really fit, because one of [Gaudí’s] great gifts is wanting to use God’s creation in his own creation,” Father Dave continues. “He wants it to feel like it’s organic or coming out of natural creation. So for instance, the columns on the inside don’t look like straight up marble columns like you’d have in most churches; they look more like trunks of trees.”

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Father Dave reflects on the Basilica still being unfinished. “They broke ground in 1882, [Gaudí] died in 1926, and it’s still under construction. It just reminds me of the persistence and consistency that we are asked for in our spiritual lives,” he says. “Like those parables where Jesus says to keep knocking on the door and the person will open up the door in the middle of the night.” The foundation overseeing the project hopes to have La Sagrada Familia finished in 2026 for the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death.

“Spiritually speaking, I need constant examples that persistence pays off,” Lino Rulli says. “Jesus says, ‘Ask and you shall receive.’ Everybody who has ever prayed knows that’s not always the case, or maybe, it’s that we don’t have our answer yet and we have to be persistent.”

Brett shares that he visited La Sagrada Familia many years ago, but felt more overwhelmed with emotion after seeing the latest construction during this trip. He says, ”When I first walked in, I was just laughing because I was overwhelmed by the beauty. That segued pretty quickly to crying.”

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Brett continues, “The thoughts that accompany me when I get that emotional at beauty usually go in this order: I end up saying thank you [to God] for having this much beauty. Then saying, I love you. Then I say I’m sorry because I don’t deserve this.”

Father Dave responds, “That’s very sacramental, because that’s what we do at Mass. We say I’m sorry; It’s the first thing we do. We say, Lord have mercy. Then, we give thanks…and of course, it’s all about love.”

“I hope that of the millions of people that come through this beautiful edifice over the course of a year, some of them walk in having no relationship with God or Catholicism, and similarly experience that,” Father Dave adds. “Maybe they don’t even know how to name it and just say, ‘Wow, I’m overwhelmed with whatever this is.’”