Of church windows and goods

Censer (thurible), incense boat and spoon. Our Lady of Good Counsel, Cleveland, O.

I appreciate stained glass windows. They are art and craftsmanship. They illustrate a story, and pictorially represent ideas and images. Some are accompanied with text.

There are people, who loudly profess their supposed christianity, that delight in assaulting catholicism as paganism, or something similar. Their brassy ignorance is sharply grating. One of their many vexations concerns the 'smells and bells' presentation of the faith. If the use of incense is pagan when catholics use it in churches, it would hold that it was paganistic when the jews of the Old Testament did so too, and such language in the Bible would also be. But rarely do these sort of protestant bigots make those necessarily related, and prior charges.

Psalm 140 DRC
1 I have cried to the, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to thee.
2 Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
3 Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door round about my lips.
4 Incline not my heart to evil words; to make excuses in sins. With men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them.
5 The just shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head. For my prayer also shall still be against the things with which they are well pleased:
6 their judges falling upon the rock have been swallowed up. They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed:
7 as when the thickness of the earth is broken up upon the ground: Our bones are scattered by the side of hell.
8 But o to thee, O Lord, Lord, are my eyes: in thee have I put my trust, take not away my soul.
9 Keep me from the snare, which they have laid for me, and from the stumbling blocks of them that work iniquity.
10 The wicked shall fall in his net: I am alone until I pass.
I was told long ago that a saloon/restaurant on the near West Side used to have items from St. Agnes'. Agnes', before merging with Our Lady of Fatima, was a prestige parish on the East Side. I was told a confessional became a phone booth (also a vanished thing), pews were seating, and stained glass was on the ceiling.

I went there Tuesday. The present ownership has been there four years, some remember the glass on the ceiling, the other stuff may have been gone before the second previous owner had the place. All that remains is a mezzaluna window embedded in brick. It is still lovely.

Some of you may be aware, that, the Cleveland Diocese has contracted with Henniger's to market church objects from closed parishes. Some of this is being advertised on the internet. I am told, one needs to go through the chancery to schedule an appointment with Henniger's to view items. Of course, not everyone is scheduled; nor are all items accounted for in inquiry. People have asked about items and have been given non-answer answers. One such inquiry concerns the multi-statue shrine of Our Lady of Fatima from Saint Lawrence, Cleveland.
Former shrine, now in bleak winter. Statues' whereabouts not public.