(1) A quote from David Pryce-Jones:

“For centuries, the character of Christian nations was formed and maintained by church architecture, stained glass, missals and poems like The Song of Roland, icons and frescoes, and statues and depictions of biblical motifs that even the greatest sculptors and painters concentrated on. Without such common belief and purpose, art in this secular age is reduced to “doing your thing.” Very few people have a thing worth doing, which is why the bogus, the ugly, and especially the transgressional have become modern standards.”

(1a) Discover the intricacies of this wonderful miniature tabernacle

(1b) A quote from the Song of Roland:

“Throughout all France terrific tempests rise,
Thunder is heard, the stormy winds blow high,
Unmeasured rain and hail fall from the sky,
While thick and fast flashes the levin bright,
And true it is the earth quakes far and wide.
Far as from Saintes to Michael-of-the-Tide,
From Besançon to Wissant Port, you’d find
There’s not a house but the walls crack and rive.
Right at high noon a darkness falls like night,
Save for the lightning there’s not a gleam of light;
None that beholds it but is dismayed for fright,
And many say: “This is the latter time,
The world is ending, and the Great Doom is nigh.”
They speak not true, they cannot read the signs:
‘Tis Roland’s death calls forth this mighty cry.”

(2) A quote from Ave Maria: an interpretation from Walt Disney’s “Fantasia”:

“One of the greatest pieces of devotional music ever composed, Schubert’s Ave Maria has been inspiring singers, orchestras, and music-lovers for more than a hundred years. When it was selected as a concluding number in the first Walt Disney Concert Feature, Fantasia, it offered an exciting challenge to the finest creative minds of the Disney organization. Hundreds of paintings and sketches were prepared in an endeavor to explore various ways of visualizing that glorious music—of translating its spirit and meaning from sound to sight.

(3) A quote from Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton:

“Bells are meant to remind us that God alone is good, that we belong to Him, that we are not living for this world. They break in upon our cares in order to remind us that all things pass away and that our preoccupations are not important. They speak to us of our freedom, which responsibilities and transient cares make us forget.”

*Scan is from Ave Maria: an interpretation from Walt Disney’s “Fantasia”