The Church of Our Lady, Interior

To continue the celebration, here are some pictures of inside the Church of Our Lady.  All the stained glass windows except the large rose window (1st below) have been cleaned in the last two years, but interior repainting is still to be done.  This church will be filled with people tonight for midnight mass.  I felt very welcome admiring the beauty of this church interior - see my story below.

 The giant east-facing great rose window over the entrance to the church.

 The view from the very back of the church, a majestic church to have built for 

a small town in 19th Century rural Ontario!

The second of five large stained glass windows down each side of the church, 

the sunlight glimmering off one of the pillars on the left.

The fourth of the five side windows, each sparkling in the sun the day I took these.

The smaller pair of side windows and high rose window in the south side entrance.

And finally, the front of the church, with the apse alcoves at the bottom and a ring of tall narrow windows at the top, under the domed roof, above the altar.

I had the nicest experience on entering the church with my camera - you couldn't enter this church the week before Christmas without sitting for a moment and whispering a small prayer for peace in the world.  I was the only person in the church.  Then an older woman walked in from a door in the sacristy at the front of the church, and came over and sat right beside me - now the only two people in the whole huge church!  I thought she was going to tell me 'No Pictures!'

But she was a sacristan for the church, and had been for 56 years, ever since coming to Guelph from Venice in Italy, in the early 1950s.  My wife is Italian too, and also immigrated in the 1950s, so we immediately had some common ground.  She told me her story in a quiet voice and we had a pleasant chat about her work for the church, and the ongoing restoration.  She hoped I was appreciating the beauty of the windows and would return after the interior repainting had been done.  I was left feeling very welcome, and I think I likely will return.  We parted wishing each other a Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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