Tucked in the shadow of the high-rises lining Miami Beach near the intersection of Hwy 826 and SR 1, lies the oldest building in America. Yep. You read that right. This little gem was constructed in 1141. Erected in Segovia, Spain it served as a Cistercian monastery for centuries. When William Randolph Hearst ‘found’ the abandoned building in 1925, he did the Billionaire Thing and bought it. The plan was to take it apart and bring it – block by block – to Miami.

A few years later, 11,000 wooden crates were shipped from Spain to the US. Every 800-year-old block was carefully dislodged from its place and packed in barn yard hay for the passage. Unfortunately, at the time of departure, hoof and mouth disease had just broken out in Spain. While the blacks were en route to Florida, the US authorities decided the packing hay might carry the dreaded disease. Upon arrival, the crates were opened near the Miami port. The blocks were scattered. And the hay was burned. Regrettably, in the haste to burn the hay, the labeling on the stones was lost. No one knew how the stones were to be reassembled..

I’m not sure it mattered at that point. Hearst went bankrupt in the intervening years and was forced to sell the entire project in order to pay his debtors. The monastery stones that weren’t sold at auction were warehoused, which is where they remained for decades.

It was left to other wealthy men to purchase and rebuilt the monastery eventually giving it to the Episcopal Church as an event and gathering space.

I spent an hour or so walking the overgrown labyrinth and wandering the hallways and chapel. I thought about the nine centuries of life these stones have witnessed and the people who carved them. The mason’s inscriptions are easily seen in many of the stones. The scratched x or the simple T echoing the human desire to not be forgotten: “I was here!”

I love that. And I loved the connection of us through the ages. Faith being handed off – one to another. The Cistercian order of monks who once resided in this building was founded by Bernard of Clairvaux. One of his famous prayers is: “I have found him whom my soul loves: I grasp him and will not let him go…may my mind feel the power of your presence.”

Yes indeed. May you and I both feel the power of God’s pesence today.