Note: Translator Pauline Bancroft Flach died in 1966, less than 70 years ago. Therefore, this work is protected by copyright, restricting your legal rights to reproduce it. However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now. Read more about copyright.
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IN PALERMO 337
“If it were he, and I saw every one crowding
round him, could I forbear from throwing myself
into his arms? Could I?”
• ••••••••
As soon as she can work her way out of the crowd
she takes a carriage, drives out of Palermo, and
passes through the plain of Conca d’Oro to the big
Cathedral of the old Norman kings in Monreale.
She goes in, and stands face to face with the most
beautiful image of Christ that human art has created.
High up in the choir sits the blessing-giving Christ
in glowing mosaic. He is mighty and mysterious
and majestic. Without number are they who make
a pilgrimage to Monreale in order to feel the
consolation of gazing upon his face. Without number
are they who in far distant lands long for him.
The ground rocks under any one who sees him for
the first time. His eyes compel the knees of the
foreigner to bend. Without being conscious of it
the lips falter: “Thou, God, art God.”
About the walls of the temple glow the great
events of the world in wonderful mosaic pictures.
They only lead to him. They are only there to
say: “ All the past is his; all the present belongs
to him, and all the future.”
The mysteries of life and death dwell within that
head.
There lives the spirit which directs the fate of the
world. There glows the love which shall lead the
world to salvation.
And Donna Micaela calls to him: “Thou son of
God, do not part me from thee I Let no man have
power to part me from thee!”
22
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