Recently in Art & Architecture Category

Every once in a while the local secular media asks me to write a story on the practice of religion within our community. Yesterday's assignment was one of my favorites; I was asked to do a photo-essay of the Ukrainian Catholic church's Feast of Jordan (Epiphany). Our local Ukrainian Catholic parish is the only Eastern church - Catholic or Orthodox - in the city.

Here's a pic of Fr. Jaroslaw blessing the water:

Here's a link to the story, complete with photo-gallery:

Ukrainians gather for blessing and borsch (photos)

Dropped in at Mary Immaculate of Lourdes parish in Newton for the Monday evening Perpetual Help novena, followed by Benediction. Here's how the sanctuary looks (click the picture for a full-size version).

There are some aspects that could be improved, of course. It would need a sanctuary rail for the distribution of Holy Communion; and, yes, the ambo on the left looks cheap and blockish compared to the dignity of the altar and the reredos. Still, in general this is a decently well-preserved parish church.

Just think of the great basilicas of our continent: in Mexico City, Washington, Montreal, St. Paul, Webster.

Webster?

Yeah, Webster. Some basilicas are not huge churches in great cities. One is in Webster, Mass., so I went to see it.

St. Joseph Basilica: official site

my photos from today

Up in Manchester, New Hampshire, the closing of one church made it possible for an Eastern Catholic congregation to buy it and move in from their overcrowded former church a few blocks away. So far they're making a good start with it. Nicely enough, their iconostasis from the old church fit perfectly in the sanctuary of the new one! Here are a few quick photos from my visit there today.

Update: I modified the link to work around a limitation in the MSIE browser.

For 44 years after World War II, the Communist authorities of East Germany forbade the rebuilding of Dresden's Church of our Lady, destroyed by Allied bombers. In 1989, though, the boot was lifted from that country, and the people and the Church in Dresden knew what they wanted to accomplish: a restored Frauenkirche.

Jem Sullivan spoke with OSV last year about the catechetical effect of art and how we need to recover its role in the Church:

One of the ironies of the past 40 years is this: As American culture becomes increasingly focused on the visual image through television, the Internet, and advertising, our churches are being stripped of images.

I'm in Mobile, Alabama for a few days, where most of my mother's family lives, so I attended Mass Saturday afternoon at the stately Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

The congregation was under 50 people, as the downtown area was practically empty on a steamy Saturday afternoon. (You know it's humid when you step out of an air-conditioned store into the parking lot and your glasses fog instantly!)

An enjoyable aspect to the Mass was that the priest and servers took the time to make the processions move calmly and slowly, giving us time to sing three or even four verses of the hymns. (Efficiency of motion is not the goal, men!) The hurried clergy up North need to learn something from these guys. The choices of music were OK: the hymns were "Be Thou My Vision" and "O God our Help in Ages Past", and the Mass Ordinary music was from the Mass in honor of Pope Paul VI and the Danish Amen Mass.

Mobile's definitely a Baptist town, but the Church was here first when the city was settled by the Spanish and French, and I'm glad to see her continuing growth here.

[Some pictures of the Basilica's very nice windows are on-line at stainedglass.org.]

After Eric Ewanco and I arrived in DC for the March for Life, we, as experienced New Englanders, ignored the public officials' warnings about the weather and headed into town anyway to visit the Holy Places. We started with the Basilica but, since Eric's Ukrainian, we also made a pilgrimage to the Icon and Book Service on Quincy Street, a treasure trove of all things Orthodox and Eastern Catholic. We also took a tour of the Franciscan Holy Land shrine, dropped in late for Melkite vespers in McLean, and met some friends for burgers.

The next day we attended Divine Liturgy at my favorite church in the Washington area, the striking and rustic Ukrainian parish in Silver Spring. The sign out front reads "Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Particular Church", so it's known around town as "the Particular Church". In spite of the quirky sign, it's an impressive place built in the late '90s in the style of Carpathia's Hutzul mountains. Now this is a church!

I'll check with Eric to find out when his pictures of the interior will be on-line.