There's No Place Like Home

A trip to Greece gave Linda Kracht new appreciation for ancient beauty and for the everyday beauty she can find at home.

“There’s no place like home; there’s no place like home,” said Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Sometimes we have to get far away from home—for a while—before we realize that she’s right.

And so, we went to Greece for three weeks—part pilgrimage: The Footsteps of St. Paul (sponsored by Magi Travel and led by a priest friend) and part vacation. Greece was uniquely beautiful. It sits smack-dab between the Eastern v Western cultures and we could feel both influences as we navigated its highways and byways. The pilgrimage took us to sites where Saint Paul preached the good news of Jesus Christ: Corinth, Ephesus (Turkey), Athens, Philippi, Thessaloniki, Kavala, and Crete.

We also visited Patmos, where Saint John wrote the Book of Revelation. We visited the home where Mary may have lived with Saint John after they fled Israel. We also visited ancient, secular archeological sites including the tomb of Philip ll (father of Alexander the Great) and the Palace of Knossos, built around 7000 B.C.E. That’s right—nearly 10000 years old!

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The historical significance and age of the structures and artwork, vases, and sculptures that were unearthed and still standing were simply amazing. The Mediterranean Sea was crystal clear and warm enough to swim in—even in October. The Greek Island landscapes were picturesque. The Greeks repeated the tale that the gods threw leftover rocks into the Mediterranean Sea, forming Greece. That kind of matches what you see as you fly over or cruise around the various islands.

The Greeks still seem devoted to their ancient Greek gods and goddesses. Many beautiful icons and mosaics depicting various saints (whom Catholics also honor) grace the walls of the many Greek Orthodox churches and baptistries that we visited. Roman Catholicism is basically extinct in Greece since ninety percent of Greeks belong to the Greek Orthodox Church. The mountaintop monasteries of cloistered Greek Orthodox nuns and monks were definitely inspiring.

Click to tweet:
Since there’s no place like home, I need to keep stoking the everyday wonder and beauty that appears around me daily … in an ordinary day. #CatholicMom

Father Thomas Dubay, author of The Evidential Power of Beauty: Science and Theology Meet, wrote:

We need to begin to wonder, to be alive to reality, to respond to what surrounds us … Wonder is the normal response to splendor … Beauty is crucial to the human enterprise because it triggers Wonder.

Greece helped to awaken newfound wonder and beauty for me. However, since there’s no place like home, I need to keep stoking the everyday wonder and beauty that appears around me daily … in an ordinary day. No matter where I am or what I do, I am called to wonder, to be alive to reality, to respond to what surrounds me, and to wonder at the splendor and beauty that surrounds me … and ask questions … even when (especially when) I’m just home.

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