The Gift of Faith

by The Main Thing Blog friend, Teresa Keogh

This week work has brought me to Palermo, Sicily. I needed to leave home at 4.30am on Thursday to get to London Heathrow to check in. In the departure lounge there were seats that said ‘Re-charge here’ – of course, the sign referred to cell phones, but I started to wish it were that simple for us tired passengers! One gift of this trip is that I should have flown on Friday, but there were no flights as British Airways is operating a winter schedule; so a day off! I went by bus to a small town outside of Palermo called Monreale to see the mosaics. Entering the church is a stunning feast for the eyes…

The walls are lined with scenes from the Old Testament and the New Testament – the whole of salvation history in pictorial form. I began to reflect on the gift of faith – the gift of the artist and those who worked the mosaics; the delicate work of inserting the tesserae to make the whole. I thought of those of faith – of those of no faith – who have visited over the centuries. And I reflected in gratitude for the gift of faith as I viewed the splendour of the sight and the intricate detail of who and what we believe in.