The paradoxical place where passage from the profane to the sacred world becomes possible

"In his book “The Sacred and the Profane” Mr. Eliade writes that our lives contain privileged areas — the scenes of first love, the first foreign city we visit when we’re young — that reveal a reality beyond our ordinary existence. And because we experience different realities, thresholds — like those found between the street and the church — are of great importance. “The threshold is the limit,” he writes, “the boundary, the frontier that distinguishes and opposes two worlds — and at the same time the paradoxical place where those worlds communicate, where passage from the profane to the sacred world becomes possible.”

Our Lady of Vilnius is one of three such "privileged areas" in my life that are still standing. I cannot express all of the reasons why this church is so precious to me, but Eliade's words, above, come close.

These words appear in a movie review. In today's New York Times Manohla Dargis presents a thoughtful analysis of Francis Ford Coppola's film "Youth without Youth." A movie that I will most certainly see.