Here is the door to the 11th century church (before 1086) in Gloucestershire, England — St. Edward aka The Parish Church of Stow-on-the-Wold. The great yew trees on either side of the church seem to have become part of the building itself. They have sent down deep roots — perhaps summoning us to be rooted in worship and the service of love.
Traveling around England while a seminarian in the early 1970's and visiting so many of the great medieval cathedrals and churches, I came across the following prayer inside a door, like the door at St. Edwards. Maybe we could make a phone note (until we've memorized it) to pray upon entering our own church. I wonder if we could give a copy to the pastor who might pass it on to the whole parish. It might cut down on some of the incessant and distracting talking which fills our churches before Mass. When I was a boy, church was silent as we waited for the bells which signaled the start of Mass. I fear we are rapidly losing our sense of the invisible and the vertical.
Enter Church
As if the floor
Within were gold,
And every wall
Of Jewels
All of wealth untold;
As if a choir
in robes of fire
were singing here.
Nor shout, nor rush,
but hush...
for God is here.
