Notre Dame is burning.

To quote the CNN commentator, “It was a reminder that there is still beauty in the world….  We all need beautiful things right now…. It is a reminder that there is something bigger in the world than you.”

There are several buildings whose destruction would pain me more — Westminster Abbey, the Prado — but very, very few. Watching Notre Dame’s nave burn and its spire fall hurts.

I have been to Notre Dame. Yes, I had a money belt stolen there while I was maneuvering though the crush of tourists. But what I remember is sitting the cathedral, of praying for my family. Of lighting a candle for my sister who died.

Thank God no one has been killed. The loss of the art (and those amazing stained glass windows) is terrible, but it would have been worse to lose people.

It’s Holy Week.  There is a resurrection at the end, but I can’t see that in those flames.