In 2020, when I was passing a church one day, I saw a big long banner hanging there with the words: "Love, Faith, Mask" - I thought I wasn't seeing properly. I will never forget that.

That banner seemed to me like a self-mockery of the church. So absurd that I was soon no longer sure whether it could have been meant seriously or as some kind of tragic joke. Perhaps the clergyman (or whoever took the trouble to devise and hang this poster) felt that he was being foolishly provocative.

My very first impulse was irritation. Followed by incredulity at the absurdity of this message fluttering in the air. The next thing I felt was fervent anger.

I believe it is usually called "love, faith, hope", if I am not mistaken. And when I think about it, it seems to me that even these three words are two too many.
Faith includes love as well as hope, and so you could just leave it alone.

The fact that it has been embellished over the course of time indicates that the church institutions have become institutes and have given up being a church. In other words, a place that represents the sacred.

Since city dwellers have a hard time finding the sacred on cobblestones and today's tarred streets, and little opportunity to see the sunrise and sunset from a hill or contemplate in front of a murmuring brook, all those natural shrines, it seemed sensible to build them out of stone.

It seems that the pendulum has just swung to the disadvantage of faith, certainly something that has been repeated since the beginning of time. As those who experience it, it is not easy to bear.