Where Legions of Angels Welcome You

When I am writing this, it is Ash Wednesday. Carnival had his last day yesterday, and Lenten Season has begun. If you are fasting the next weeks I have very good news for you: every drink, every smoothie, every meal you can find on my blog Medici&More can be taken without remorse! Every day until Easter.

Last week I was in Leibnitz (in the South of Austria) where I am often visiting the parish church with my husband. Churches have a big attraction to me, not only because it is a place where I can pray and where I feel nearer to God, I enjoy being in the good company of the clergymen and all the other persons who are working there, particularly the kind sacristan with whom one can have a nice chat.

With “good company” I also mean the fellows on walls and altars – members of the Holy Family, saints and angels, painted or sculpted, who are there “ad maiorem dei gloriam” (= “for the greater glory of God”) and with whom one can have an intimate conversation. Watch them and you can find many details that will make you smile. This has always been the Roman Catholic Church´s and the artists´ aim, one must be distracted there and consoled when you are having problems, when you are suffering, when you are mourning.

Another eight angels at the high altar, surrounding the saints (s. photo above). There are many many more. By the way, I am keeping the best of all photos, which shows a part in the church where there are 17 of these lovable beings in one place. It will be for a certain reason published in the Holy Week …