When Rudi and I traveled to France in November 2008, we visited Notre Dame on our first day in Paris. I was jetlagged and definitely dozed off in a pew while a tour guide was talking to us, but I was struck by the magnificence of the building and its grand history.

Today’s fire is saddening, but when you consider how much was saved and that no loss of life — from the public, the clergy, or firefighters — occurred, it is difficult to consider it a complete tragedy.

Horrible things occur, and this is horrible indeed. But not so horrible that it stands as the final period at the end of this particular story. This is not “the end.”

Faith and love are stronger than stone and glass and centuries’ old wood.

The children’s rhyme perseveres for a reason:

Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open the door and see all the people.

I have faith that the people of Paris, of France, and of the world will come together to make certain this is true and that Notre Dame is rebuilt.