Category: Art & Architecture

(The Annunciation was observed on April 4 this year.) (photo by Steve Schultz)

A couple of weeks ago I posted a exterior photo of the Ukrainian church in Silver Spring: here are a couple of interior pictures, thanks to eje…
		showing the Holy Table and the parish’s magnificent tabernacle. (Click through to see the photos in a larger format.)
Also, here’s a photograph from CL co-founder Steve Schultz, showing the tabernacle and baldachino at the Mary Immaculate Center in Northampton, PA, where he is living and studying this year. Thanks, Steve!

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.

Help a brother out here. I’m looking for an Encyclopedia of Catholic Symbols in general and information about dominican symbols specificially: the Dominican Shield, the habit, and the Dominican Cross.
Please help me out in the comments or over email! Thanks a million!

It’s time to get back to things Catholic like bashing church art since Vatican II. At first I thought to entitle this post “abstract art” in Latin, but upon consulting a Latin dictionary I found there is no word for “abstract.” Abstract art is ars quod nulo sensu percipi notio mente sola concepta or “art removed from the sphere of the senses.” Amazing what Latin tells us about ourselves, isn’t it? Abstract art isn’t entirely removed from the realm of the senses. Such as it is, it obviously presents something to the senses.

Consider a church that removed a beautiful Crucifix and replaced it with a big, red wall. The Crucifix is a symbol of so many of the treasures of the faith: the mystery of the Incarnation, the price of our redemption, the eternal high priest, the wisdom, power, and humiliy of God. I could go on but you get the point. The big, red wall is a big, red wall. “It’s the blood of Christ, Sal.” No, it’s a big, red wall. And near the big, red wall is a priest who never preaches about the Eucharist. You could say it is anything! It’s a sunset, it’s a sunrise, it’s red, red wine. The point is the meaning isn’t evident. Anyone can say it is about anything. They could even say red is blue or green if they wish.

An example are these visages of the Stations of the Cross. Aside from the Roman numerals there is nothing literally symbolic them. Are those the women (all two of them!) of Jerusalem weeping as the head of Jesus passes along the way? I think these stations are wretched. Welcome to that 70’s Parish.