I Like The Feeling

I don’t believe in religion, but the aesthetics of Catholicism have stuck with me.   …   There is so much attention to detail.
I envy the faithful.  There are shrines dotted around the hillsides here in Ireland, places where saints have supposedly appeared and healed the sick.  There are wells of holy water and statues in the rocks, huts filled with prayer cards and gardens filled with painted stones in memory of loved ones who have passed away.  I like to visit them occasionally.  I sit in the stillness and observe people crying and praying and I close my eyes and try to let some of their hope get carried on the air and through my pores.  I would like to believe that everything is accounted for, that there is life after this one, and that all of our decisions hold some kind of significance or moral worth.  There is weight in religion.  It is an anchor of sorts.
I cannot believe in the vengeful patriarch of the Catholic Church but sometimes, in the daytime, when there’s no one around, I go into the church and light a candle.  I like sitting in the quiet and sensing my own insubstantiality against such old and serious things. I am learning that there is a good kind of smallness; a smallness in the face of the universe rather than a smallness in my own body.  I like the ritual of prayer and reverence, even though I can’t identify with it.  I like the feeling that other people believe in something.
—    Jessica Andrews
From:  “Saltwater: A Novel“
[This quote was found on one of the blogs I follow:  “Live & Learn“
Located at:  https://davidkanigan.com/
The specific post is at:  https://davidkanigan.com/2020/07/19/sunday-morning-124/
Please visit the site if you have a minute.    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2019	Somebody’s Watching You
2018	First From Within
2017	Or Vote Against You
2016	Cupid Must Say It Too
2015	Some Of This And A Pinch Of That
2014	Consensus Is Only One Side
2013	Not Ought
2012	If You Want To, If You Have Something To Offer
2011	I See Lots Of Fools
2010	Orange Inside!!
	And The Band Played On…
	Happy New Year!!

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