The Art in My Church Poll

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I love the art in my church, the ancient (pre-1930’s fire), the old (from 1940s reconstruction), and the new (with and after the 2001-2 rehabilitation)!

The only problem is there isn’t enough of it yet. The 2001-2 rehab created eight new shrine spaces that did not exist before, but the parish could only afford to fill two right away, a shrine of Holy Mary, Mother of the Church

http://www.jsonline.com/news/image02/feb/12-12big.jpg

and a shrine ---- some say the first in this country — of Blessed John XXIII. In addition a kind donor group gave a very striking altar crucifix and corona.

http://my.execpc.com/~kmknapp/images/pomodorocorona.jpg

Real art costs real money, and it may be decades before all the shrine spaces have their statues and icons installed. The statue for the prayer garden has just been commissioned in the past couple of months (“Jesus washes the feet of a disciple”) and I know that by the time my grandneices are grown the church will be image-full and even more glorious than it already is.

karen marie
 
AAARGHH! Isn’t this the result of Weakland’s wreckovated, once beautiful cathedral. And didn’t he proceed despite protests from the people and an order from the Vatican not to do it?
 
AAAIIIIEEEE!! That “crucifix”, if you can call it that, is disturbing. Church art should naturally draw one’s thoughts heavenward. Looking at that thing is just painful.
 
Dr. Colossus:
Church art should naturally draw one’s thoughts heavenward.
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And it does. I am so blessed to be a Cathedral parishioner, in part because I get to pray almost every Sunday morning at Mass (I’m disabled and sometimes can’t go out to church) under that glorious corona. And, as my current archbishop says: “so you don’t like it? Tough luck! It shows the Wounds!” ---- not to mention those stretched sinews which “taught all strings what key is best to celebrate His most high Name.”

On the Pomodoro Corona and Crucifix

The altar of God:
square, as the heavenly Jerusalem is square;
erected over the relics of the saints of God;
the center of the Church;
the center of life.
Stone, permanent, not to be moved.
Above it, a corona,
“a form of honor canopy suspended from the ceiling, without pillars.”
And, in this case, truly a corona, a crown.
A crown of thorns to acknowledge our King,
our crucified Lord and Redeemer.
I look up and see
those golden nails that hold Him fast
as He gives His very spirit to His Father.
“Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”
It flies away like a dove.
And those thorns, first meant for degradation,
yet becoming glory;
for He is the King, the Lord.
On the cross, and on the altar.
In the tabernacle, and in our own hearts.

Now I know how fortunate I am in my own parish ----- now, what about your fortunes or misfortunes in your own parishes. That’s what the pollster is seeking, not more detraction about other people’s parishes and the pious-devoted-bishop-emeritus-who-must-not-be-named (on the Internet, anyway!)

So, please, tell me about your parishes.

karen marie
 
We have all of the basics inside of our chapel (stations, statues, and a crucifix). We sometimes have the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus displayed upon and other times we have the Divine Mercy image displayed. In our gathering room and all throughout the other rooms, we have various statues an posters of Jesus, Mary, and the Saints. Our priest loves to say that these are our heroes and that they should be the ones upon our baseball cards and such. I couldnt agree with him more! 😃
 
After visiting Europe with its grand parishes and Cathedrals the three parishes I attend seem very bare! When I become rich I’m gonna give enough to transform them into a new glory! But as for now I’ll have to survive with the few statues, and stained glass we have. Well maybe them being recently renovated and new building additions might have something to do with it!?
 
Compared to older Catholic churches (especially in the Northeast where I grew up) and in even small villages in Europe, our churches seem impoverished in the area of art. It may be that they are spending the money on other things, good (the poor) and bad (sex abuse settlements) but I crave the beauty that I see elsewhere that really lifts your mind and heart toward heaven…
 
my parish in washington state isnt actually a church. we are currently housed in a strip mall until we can build our perminent church. our perminent church is set to be absolutly gorgeous and fitting to its purpose, but as that takes a little more time and money to do, we have to stay in the strip mall for now. though we do have some pretty nice (but humble) icons around the worship space.

as for church art, i am very partial to older styles, moasics, stylized paintings (as long as they are not cartoony [ever seen the stations at the shrine of st therese in juneau, Ak, that is cartoony, no offence to bish. warfel’s flock]), wood and metal statues.
 
My parish church, the southern co-cathedral for our state is quite beautiful. We recently underwent renovations and it seemed like our pastor wanted to turn it in to a “church in the round.” Thank goodness this did not come to pass, probably because of the objections of influential parishoners. Instead, our church is more beautiful and more Catholic than before. The tabernacle is front and center, we have beautiful statues, a pieta, large stations of the cross, gorgeous stain glass windows, an old large marble altar imported from Italy. All we need is the altar rails restored and our church would be a classic beauty.
 
hi I have been sculpting some new works . Here is My mary at the Wedding of cana, it is at St Alphonsus Lagouri in Prospect Heights IL.

My home parish is fortunate ( in my way of thinking) because we still have an Altar Rail.
 
Wonderful! I also love the Good Shepherd you did for the bishop’s office in Greensberg PA, your Annunciation and Pieta.

If ever I win the lottery and get rich beyond my wildest nightmares, I’ll commission you to fill one of those seven still-empty shrine spaces. The parish has agreed they want a Saints Francis and Clare, and I can see in my head an image of St. Francis cutting off the hair of St. Clare …maybe as a diptych with St. Francis renouncing his inheritance …

karen marie
 
I chose that I like the old sculpture. I wish I could have chosen “just right”. Our Church is Gothic style, completed in 1879. It has angels, animals (yes - animals) and flowers sculpted into the vaulted ceilings. We have seven very large statues (Sts. Patrick, Bridget, Therese of Lisieux, Joseph, Mary, Anthony with the Child Jesus and Anne with the Child Mary), beautiful stained glass windows (a rose window and a window with St. Patrick among them), a baldachino and Stations of the Cross sculpted into the walls. We also have a very beautiful organ with 6,000 pipes and two marble altars, one with a sculpture of the Last Supper in its base. Visit stpatsnorwich.org/church_tour/index.html to have a look!🙂
 
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kmknapp:
And it does. I am so blessed to be a Cathedral parishioner, in part because I get to pray almost every Sunday morning at Mass (I’m disabled and sometimes can’t go out to church) under that glorious corona. And, as my current archbishop says: “so you don’t like it? Tough luck! It shows the Wounds!” ---- not to mention those stretched sinews which “taught all strings what key is best to celebrate His most high Name.”
Click to expand...
To each his/her own, I suppose. But there are 2 problems I find with this particular piece of art:

-The corpus does not even appear to be human.
-From the photo, it does not appear that the corpus is actually on the cross at all

In my opinion, people gazing at religious art should not have to *know *what the art is depicting to begin with. It should be obvious, because Catholic art should be universal, like the Church. A person staring at a traditional crucifix will be able to say “why is that man dying?”, which can lead them to conversion because the answer is “for you”. A person looking at this piece will simply ask “What the heck is that?”. They may appreciate its artistic value, but not its theological importance.

The rest of the cathedral looks very nice, btw.
 
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kmknapp:
Wonderful! I also love the Good Shepherd you did for the bishop’s office in Greensberg PA, your Annunciation and Pieta.

If ever I win the lottery and get rich beyond my wildest nightmares, I’ll commission you to fill one of those seven still-empty shrine spaces. The parish has agreed they want a Saints Francis and Clare, and I can see in my head an image of St. Francis cutting off the hair of St. Clare …maybe as a diptych with St. Francis renouncing his inheritance …

karen marie
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Thank you , Karen Marie. I hope you win the lottery too. I have never seen a piece of Francis cutting off Clare’s hair --what a great idea. Have you seen such a work?
 
Brian

I know your Church is in a store front but it looks more Catholic than the church I attend and yes agree I like the plans for you new church. I’ve visited your church a couple of times. Infact we attened the 11 AM Mass last Sunday. I like the sermonets that are handed out before Mass.
 
http://my.execpc.com/~kmknapp/images/pomodorocorona.jpg

Real art costs real money, and it may be decades before all the shrine spaces have their statues and icons installed. The statue for the prayer garden has just been commissioned in the past couple of months (“Jesus washes the feet of a disciple”) and I know that by the time my grandneices are grown the church will be image-full and even more glorious than it already is.

karen marie

man… wouldn’t you hate to be around when and if that piece of [art]??? fell…

we have a florintine picture of the last supper above the sanctuary, painted by a prishoner who studdied the florintine style in italy, it’s beautiful… you could step right into the picture, the 3D is great… 👍
 
[about an imagined dipytch of conversions of SS Francis and Clare]
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JohnCarroll:
I have never seen a piece of Francis cutting off Clare’s hair --what a great idea. Have you seen such a work?
Click to expand...
Not yet, only read the descriptions of the incident from the Franciscan Omnibus of Sources, and, of course, it’s popular in Franciscan cinema.

Clare, accompanied by her aunt and chaparone Pacifica, sneaked out of her parents’ palazzo on Palm Sunday night to join Francis and his Lesser Brothers at the Little Portion. She changed her rich noble clothes and jewels for a cheap commoner’s dress, Francis tonsured her (Pacifica kept her long blonde hair for a keepsake, it’s now a relic), and then stashed her in a nearby Benedictine monastery.

karen marie
 
From the photos of the renovated Milwaukee cathedral, I can tell that St. Peter’s in Rome just can’t compete. How could the works of Michelangelo, Bernini, et al. even begin to rival such modern splendor. The retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland certainly outdid himself in establishing a modernized, worship space. I think it’s high time that all the old-fashioned, ornate churches, cluttered with sculptures and other recognizable forms of art be renovated to get with the spirit of the times. Who needs these distractions from the politically-correct, socially-aware homilies of our masters of ceremony? I’m now inspired to more fully appreciate our wondrous, new worship space, built at a cost of $200 million in LA.
 
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