Notre Dame de Paris – the soul of France consumed unholy smoke
by Archbishop Cranmer:
The air is full of mourning and crying. The hearts of Christians are bereft; another tribulation of Christendom defiles God’s acre on the Seine. They sang ancient Elysian hymns as Notre Dame de Paris opened a portal to the fires of hell, its sacred relics reduced to ash and silent dust; celestial benedictions drowned out by an ocean of grief and screaming flames. Our Father’s mansion, Our Lady’s seclusion, raped by smoke and consumed by pollution. When the hours of a thousand years fade into darkness and decay, we are left with a soulless shell, a vacant chair and a voiceless prayer. The glory is departed, the blessing ended, the angels are all gone.
“We will rebuild,” they say. “Resurgam Notre Dame!”
Is it half a sin to to put into words the thought, the feeling that what will arise will be a shadow, a mask of healing? The medieval timbers which spied emperors and hunchbacks, which breathed pestilence, war and revolution, can never be replaced. “Notre Dame is our history, our imagination, where we’ve lived all our great moments and is the epicentre of our lives,” said the President of the Republic. “It’s the story of our books, our paintings. It’s the cathedral for all French people, even if they have never been. But it is burning and I know this sadness will be felt by all of our citizens. Tomorrow a national subscription will be launched for people around the country to help rebuild this great Notre Dame. Because that’s what the French people want. That is what their history requires. Because that is our destiny.”
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