Sunday 4 January 2026
I’d never been into the sacristy before, or any sacristy come to think of it. But S had asked me to take the collection bags there before communion, so I was glad to have an excuse to take a peek.
Inside was an Aladdin’s cave of Catholic paraphernalia. Priest stuff. There were vestments, boxes of used candles, papers, boxes. It reminded me of a shop in Florence called Ceruti on Via del Proconsolo, which sells little religious gifts, but also, in a cavernous back room, stocks the supplies needed by churches, bishops and priests. A toy shop for catholic merch.
It felt a bit like being allowed into the headmasters office, or the changing rooms at a football match. A place not normally part of your world, but in which everything is kind of fascinating, and off limits.
I put the money bags on an empty school desk, one of those old ones with a flip up lid (another nice aesthetic touch), then went back to my seat as mass started, trying to limit the conspicuous noise my boots made on the wooden floor.