“My earliest recollections of anything pertaining to faith are not of words or instruction, but of primal sensory experiences of holy things within the built environment. From long before I learned how to read, and probably not so long after I learned how to walk, I recall momentary mental glimpses of the simple state of being in church with my family.
“Many of these mental images are vague, but some are quite vivid. Before any cognizance of the details of religion gained through Catholic school and catechism class, it was sacred objects – sacramentals – that cultivated the ideas of God and heaven within my fresh mind, even if I didn’t quite understand what it all meant yet.
“My family almost exclusively attended our own church, but every so often, my parents would take us to a certain neighboring parish that had a Mass later on Sunday that was sometimes more convenient. . . . I always looked forward to seeing the church’s several colorful, life-size, vintage Daprato statues, complete with glass eyes. So lifelike were they that, to a small child with very short legs, they seemed to be watching over me from high upon their pedestals, despite the tops of their heads being no more than nine feet above the floor.
“There was something enthralling about these steadfast ‘other people’ who were always in the church; who never flinched and never left their respective stations. They were firmly there in that place, yet I always sensed that they were somehow ambassadors from another place. To me, they seemed like antennas, as it were, to something powerful and invisible.
“It was in this way that I came to be introduced to the saints. . . .”
In a recent commentary, Michael Tamara reflected on the role played by statues of saints (and other sacred art) in reinforcing truths of our Faith.
To access Mr. Tamara’s complete post, please visit:
Crisis Magazine: Seeing Saints in the House of God (14 NOV 13)
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