“Spira, spera.”
(breathe, hope)
Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
The day we met,
Frozen I held my breath
Right from the start
I knew that I’d found a home for my heart…
I have loved you
For a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more…
(Lyrics from Christina Perri A Thousand Years)
(Pieta by Niccola Coustou / Notre Dame Cathedral / Paris, France / Julie Cook / 2019)
Notre Dame—Our Lady of Paris
850 years of–
Christianity
faith
religion
spirituality
mysticism
relics
history
ingenuity
construction
architecture
labor
sacrifice
art
sculpture
poetry
prose
music
colored glass
revolution
desecration
coronations
funerals
burials
weddings
bishops
nuns
confessions
monastics
saints
sinners
humanity
bloodshed
loss
wars
peace
victories
humankind
survival
life
death
breath
hope…
Yet for now, there are too many emotions to express regarding this collective sense
of sorrow, grief and loss.
Our frail and feeble earthly attempts to reach upward to God will each eventually perish
while fading to both ash and dust…
and yet…
Our Heavenly Father’s reach, downward to us his children, will remain for eternity…
(detail of Virgin and Child by Antoine Vassé / Norte Dame Cathedral / Paris, France/ Julie Cook / 2019)
(detail of the iron work on the main entrance doorway / Norte Dame Cathedral / Paris, France / Julie Cook / 2019)
(detail of the central portal (central enterance) of Notre Dame Cathedral / The Last Judgment, constructed in 1220/
Julie Cook / 2019)
(vaulted ceiling of Notre Dame Cathedral / Paris, France/ Julie Cook / 2019)
(South Rose Window / 1260 / Notre Dame Cathedral / Paris, France / Julie Cook 2019)
(South exterior of Notre Dame Cathedral / Paris, France / Julie Cook / 2011)
(detail of flying buttresses and gargoyles / Notre Dame Cathedral / Paris, France / Julie Cook / 2011)
(detail of bell tower / Notre Dame Cathedral / Paris, France/ Julie Cook / 2011)
(south view of Notre Dame Cathedral / Paris, France / Julie Cook / 2011)
(Notre Dame Cathedral / Paris, France / 2011)
(Wesrtern facade of the bell tower entrance Notre Dame Cathedral /Paris, France / Julie Cook / 2011)
“He therefore turned to mankind only with regret.
His cathedral was enough for him.
It was peopled with marble figures of kings, saints and bishops who at least
did not laugh in his face and looked at him with only tranquillity and benevolence.
The other statues, those of monsters and demons, had no hatred for him –
he resembled them too closely for that.
It was rather the rest of mankind that they jeered at.
The saints were his friends and blessed him; the monsters were his friends and
kept watch over him.
He would sometimes spend whole hours crouched before one of the statues
in solitary conversation with it.
If anyone came upon him then he would run away like a lover surprised during a serenade.”
Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
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