This is an important part of the novel as we can learn that not only can you spread a message through the land, it can teach you many things also about faith.
In Book 6, Cather uses Latour's connection to Mexico to represent how the landscape is and important part to his mission but also it connects to sense of place and the connection to spirituality. This is seen where Cather says "observing them thus in repose, in the act of reflection, Father Latour was thinking how each of these men not only had a story, but seemed to have become his story (Cather 182). In the time that Latour has been in New Mexico, he became connected to the land and the diverse people that occupied it. He seems to have a sense of palce there because he feels as if the community of people he gathers will become his true "cathedral". It won't be an actual place but it will play an important role to spreading Catholicism throughout the New World.
Cather repeatedly uses pieces of the land to represent the faith of Father Vaillant and Father Latour. There is one part of the novel where a rock plays an important role in the novel. Cather states that.
The rock, when one came to think of it, was the utmost expression of human need; even mere feeling yearned for it; it was the highest comparison of loyalty in love and friendship. Christ Himself had used that comparison for the disciple to whom He gave the keys of His Church. And the Hebrews of the Old Testament, always being carried captive into foreign lands,--their rock was an idea of God, the only thing their conquerors could not take from them. (Cather 256).
While talking about Christ in this quote and the church, Cather uses a rock to play an important role in the faith of this novel. Christ used the rock to compare to the land and the people. The rock is compared to beautiful scenery such as mountains and fields, yet it is the one that seems to represent the humans the most.
