Quote Originally Posted by Paul Jacobs View Post
This picture was taken while on the way to my dentist, yesterday. I have lived near York Minster for 30 years and there have been few occasions when it has been free of scaffolding. Observing how hard we work to keep this building standing, I marvel that our ancestors were able to complete it in the first place....
When I was bicycle touring in southern England during the early 80's, I spent a very hot day riding from Chichester through the South Downs to Winchester. I got to Winchester pretty cooked after a lot of rolling hills on narrow roads. I parked my bike and walked through the doors of the cathedral, and a nun appeared (no kidding) in a beam of sunlight from one of the upper windows and said, "You look like you've had a day of it. Why not sit over here and rest a bit?" I went over and sat on a pew bench. It was cool, quiet and the sun was shining into the center of the cathedral in long beams. And I thought, aha I bet this was what it was like to be a pilgrim and to come all this way on foot and then enter the cathedral and be told welcome this is the house of God and believe it immediately.