Today, I went through the Holy Door at our designated “Jubilee Year Pilgrims of Hope church”. I know it has to do with plenary indulgences and confession, but I still don’t understand how stepping over the threshold of a church via a Holy Door shaves a few light years off in Purgatory. Still, I’m happy to go with it… just give me a lot more doors. No narrow doors either….I am quite portly.

Holy Doors have made me think about windows. There are windows everywhere! While I’m typing this blog, I’m using a computer—which can be a window into an encyclopaedia of amazing knowledge—but it can also be used to gain access to territories where bodies are seen as commodities to be expended and abused.

Mobile phones are the same. They provide wonderful ways for us to communicate and support each other, but for some, they can be windows into damaging comments and unwholesome relationships.

I’ve always wondered why we give these two potentially harmful windows to our innocent children. We encourage an addiction which is so hard to untangle. Why do we do it?

My own church has some beautiful windows, and these have existed for at least 120 years. They are “stained glass windows” which, in the middle ages, were respected as a new form of educational technology—taking the viewer into very holy places. While I do have a few sleepless nights over the twelve stained glass windows in my church (they’re always at risk of damage), they are none the less portals into the life of Christ and gateways into knowing that we are loved and treasured by God.

Now…. do something radical! Turn off your computers, put down your phones, gather your children and visit your local old church or cathedral. Most town and cities have one. Enter through the door (it might be a Holy one) search for a stained-glass window and see if you and your children can work out what it illustrates in its myriad of colours and shapes. These places are always free of charge (money for a bus fare and a sandwich might be useful) but I can assure you they will be doors and windows which will transport you and your children into holiness.