Such questions as what I find beautiful and what concerns me about the Roman Catholic church somewhat miss the point. C.S. Lewis once wrote his "analogy of a woodshed," in which he suggested, after noting a beam of light coming through a chink in the roof of a darkened woodshed, that one could look _at_ the beam of light or one could look "along" it. Thus, you can see the beam of light, or you can look along it and see the glory of the sky, the sun, and the trees above.

Lewis used this concept to describe being in love. If you look "at" being in love, you can note the emotional responses of lovers, their hormonal changes, etc. But if you look "along" the process of being in love, by being in love yourself, your whole world changes -- the flowers are brighter, the moon more romantic, the music around you more poignant -- all things speak to you of your beloved.

Living as a faithful Catholic is like being in love. And the Church supports us in this love affair, offering us the sacraments, sacred and mysterious liturgy, glorious masterpieces of Gregorian chant and polyphonic music, plus thousands of years worth of the stories of others who lived before us, and who also loved Christ and His Church.

I am an artist (a painter), and so I find myself not only looking at the Church with love, but also seeing it as if it were a wild and mysterious masterpiece unfolding throughout the ages. Faithful Catholics are in communion with and part of this whole glorious, quirky thing called the Body of Christ, and we are each called to become, as Mother Teresa once said, "small pencils in the hand of God." This so that we might add our small portion to the tapestry, the sculpture, the city on a hill that is Christ's Church on earth.

My hopes and concerns about my Church and my faith stem from my deep desire that the Church once again teach and proclaim, boldly, what she has always taught. Since the Vatican II Council, we have suffered through great turmoil, and many folk today who claim to be Catholic don't even understand or believe in what the church teaches. These very folk are like the wallflowers at a party, hoping for someone to ask them to dance. They are unhappy and skeptical of the Catholic church because they've never really known Her.

As G.K. Chesterton once said, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried." And yet, for those who embrace the faith, with all its wildness and all its mystery, and yes, all its seeming contradictions and perplexities, the difficulties vanish.

I would not know how to live without my faith.

P.S. I'm best known for my paintings and sketches of scenes from the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. As a result, a very "Marian" painting of mine of Galadriel from "The Lord of the Rings." This just to illustrate how impossible it is for me to remove my faith from all I do, even in the case of painting an elf from Middle-earth!