What do you see here?

Amy Welborn, on her excellent blog, posted the above picture and asked readers of her blog to discuss what word(s) came to mind when looking at it, and why that came to mind. The responses posted on the comment box varied greatly: "thrilling," "stuffy," "lack of women," "nothing," "vertically oriented," "transcendent," "beautiful, but cold," "more biblical and less sociological," "priest separated from the people" and "heaven."

I know some readers of this blog and of the Herald read her blog, but I'd still like to borrow her idea and post it here to see what our readers are thinking when they see this picture.

Here are some of Amy's thoughts when posting the picture:

One viewer looks at the photograph and sees a perfect replication of what Christ intended. The other looks at it and sees a violation of what Christ surely intended. And remember - both viewers are Catholic.

Here’s such a photograph. Commenters, if you please: In a charitable, clear manner, explain what you see here. What gratifies you about the action in the photograph. What bothers you. Those who see it as beautiful, explain why and its deeper relation to your Catholic faith. Those who are bothered by it or mystified by it, explain why.