The Weight 437-439 (Patreon)

Last three pages of Chapter 13!

Also here is what my Grandpa Jack wrote that inspired these pages: 

"I attended a Catholic school with a Monastery nearby that was part of the church and school property.  The monks invited me to spend time with them while they worked in the fields. As I recall they worked in their shirtsleeves picking stones and building fence. They worked quietly except for occasional talk and laughter but I could sense that their spirituality and reverence was strong. For example, when we would hear a fire engine or ambulance wailing in the distance, they would all stop doing what they were doing and kneel and pray for the safety of those involved in the accident.  I noticed the quiet and somber nature of their existence and the strength of their faith."

I am not religious anymore but my family is very Catholic on all sides (Ukrainian, Portuguese, French Canadian) and I grew up going to church and was confirmed and all that. I sort of consider myself a "cultural Catholic" now, I don't know if that's a thing. I enjoy the imagery and stuff and the kind of morbid creepiness of it all (did you know in every Catholic church's altar there's a piece of a saint??? Like an actual piece of their body. I was told there was a fingernail in our church. But now that I write that I wonder if an adult was yanking my chain. I have never fact checked this. Going to wait for my mom to weigh in here.) 

((I did make Chuck go with me to see the fully preserved mummified body of Saint Catherine in Bologna, Italy though. She's sitting up, wearing clothes, in a glass box. It was terrifying and amazing.))