Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. We have all heard that said often. We had a good example of that plus an unexpected random act of kindness when we were in Chicago last September. We had met some people on our train and they invited us to walk with them to a market that also served great food at reasonable prices. Only a few blocks they said. That sounded doable since we had a few hours before our next train. So we set off to get dinner and take in a little of the city as well. We felt quite safe.
One soon learns that city blocks in a large city are not like the blocks here in our southeast Kansas towns. They are often a little longer. Well, our short walk turned out to be over a half mile…one way. We did have an enjoyable dinner and when our new friends decided to do some shopping we headed back toward the train station.
After walking a relatively short distance we saw two very tall church spires so we decided to turn down the street toward them to check them out. The two spires were not alike. Why was that? We walked up the steps and sure enough the doors were locked. It was after 6:00 pm. There was a man sitting to one side on the steps. He looked like a person off the street but he was friendly and asked if we were hoping to go inside. We said we were curious about the church but that we would have to wait until later to see it. He said, “This is Old St. Patrick’s Catholic Church. It is the oldest church in the city of Chicago. It survived the Chicago fire of 1871. Would you really like to see the inside? We said yes but…to which he said, “I am the custodian of the church and I will let you in.” So he unlocked the big entrance doors, went up behind the altar and turned on all of the church lights. He said he wasn’t Catholic but had been the custodian for 12 years. The church started on Easter Sunday in 1846 in a wood building and this church replaced it in the 1850s. The congregation wanted it to be a church of unity so the two octagonal spires represents the Eastern Church and one the Western Church and were were added in 1885. By the 1880s the parish was composed of Irish-Americans. It is the cornerstone of Irish culture in Chicago today. Old St. Pat’s is known for hosting an annual summer block party, which it describes as the “world’s largest”.
What a surprise to find such an interesting and very kind person in the big city of Chicago, willing to spend some special time with complete strangers. And here we had so sadly misjudged him when we first saw him. Yes…Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.
