A Place of Tears

This is the bell tower of the St. Feliu - a cathedral I visited in Girona last Summer. I visited three cathedrals while I was in Spain. The first one I visited was in the Barri Gotic of Barcelona - the Cathedral de Barcelona, which is undergoing a major renovation. I walked in and was instantly brought to tears. It was very unexpected and a bit embarassing. The second was the Sagrada Familia - again tears welled up as I began to take in the space. It is a surprising thing when tears just well up for apparently no reason. But it was my experience in all three of the cathedrals I walked into that this welling up of tears took place. It must have been the intention of the people that built these cathedrals. There are several natural places that do this to me - grand and epic places, or even simple sunsets and sunrises. But there are very few man-made places that do this. Outside of cathedrals, the only one that comes to mind is a turkish carpet shop I once visited in Austin, TX. I'm not sure what it is exactly that evokes this feeling but I believe it has something to do with being in a place where the intention of the people who made it was to strengthen others in their feeling, or specifically in the case of these three cathedrals, to make a gift, or an offering, to God.