The Art in My Church Poll

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I would have liked a vote for “just right” too. We have art galore–stained glass (including depictions of the 15 mysteries of the Rosary), we have statues (Sacred Heart of Jesus, various Polish saints, one of St. Anne w/ Mary as a child, we have a traditional crucifix, two-dimensional art (the Divine Mercy picture, a reproduction of Our Lady of Czestowchowa), beautiful Stations, and otherwise a veritable feast for the eyes–I don’t find it at all distracting to have so much to see (all of it has been donated over the years by various parishioners).

We recently had the ceiling repainted, which is about the closest thing to “new art” since we’ve been there (since before the twins who are now 3). I mean, the painting is art, considering all the ornate scrolly stuff up on the ceiling–and it did cost a fair chunk of money to get it done (but needed doing badly).
 
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Melissa:
I would have liked a vote for “just right” too. We have art galore–stained glass (including depictions of the 15 mysteries of the Rosary), we have statues (Sacred Heart of Jesus, various Polish saints, one of St. Anne w/ Mary as a child, we have a traditional crucifix, two-dimensional art (the Divine Mercy picture, a reproduction of Our Lady of Czestowchowa), beautiful Stations, and otherwise a veritable feast for the eyes–I don’t find it at all distracting to have so much to see (all of it has been donated over the years by various parishioners).

We recently had the ceiling repainted, which is about the closest thing to “new art” since we’ve been there (since before the twins who are now 3). I mean, the painting is art, considering all the ornate scrolly stuff up on the ceiling–and it did cost a fair chunk of money to get it done (but needed doing badly).
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It sounds beautiful. Any photographs?
 
If you are ever in St. Paul, Minnesota, you should see one of the most glorious Cathedrals in the United States.


I cannot find any pictures of the interior that do it justice, but it would seem more at home in Europe than in the middle of the United States. They just finished a huge renovation job, and all they did was renovate and clean not destroy! There are beautiful side chapels with stunning stained glass windows, statues, and hand written icons. The bells toll every 15 minutes and produce an amazing sound ringing the Angelus at the proper times. The only non-European thing about it is that there are no relics of saints. 😦
 
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Mjohn1453:
If you are ever in St. Paul, Minnesota, you should see one of the most glorious Cathedrals in the United States.
Webshots - Wallpaper / Screen Savers

I cannot find any pictures of the interior that do it justice, but it would seem more at home in Europe than in the middle of the United States. They just finished a huge renovation job, and all they did was renovate and clean not destroy! There are beautiful side chapels with stunning stained glass windows, statues, and hand written icons. The bells toll every 15 minutes and produce an amazing sound ringing the Angelus at the proper times. The only non-European thing about it is that there are no relics of saints. 😦
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I have been to this Church and you are right! It is one of the most beautiful --awe inspiring really-- churches in America.
 
When I walked into my parish this past Sunday, I was greatly pleased to see a brand new painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, painted by a very talented parishioner. Of course, now all we need is a real crucifix in place of the Risen Christ behind the altar and we’ll be set. :rolleyes:
 
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kmknapp:
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
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Is this St. John’s Cathedral in Milwaukee? If not. please pardon this rant.
***I used to sing there in college and at every rehearsal my friend and I would look around and say that it would be a beautiful place for a wedding. A few years later my sister ended up getting married there…a beautiful evening, candlelight wedding…and it WAS beautiful. Then Weakland had to spitefully rip it apart before he left. Personally I believe that he did it as an "I’ll show you…I’ll do it because I can! 😛 ". ***
***OK I’m done. :o ***
 
The most beautiful church I have been to (which isn’t saying very much) is St. John Cantius in Chicago. It was absolutely beautiful–built by Polish immigrants, and the Sanctuary is untouched from it’s original form (not even a table added for NO). They have NO in Latin and English (unfortunately), but all ad orientem. While I was visiting, I attended the Traditional Latin Mass there (which they have daily). deagan.com/Images/Photos/st_john_cantius_church_chicago_ill.jpg is a picture of the High altar with both side altars (during Christmas I think). cantius.org/Sacred-Art.htm is a link to some of the great Sacred art at the church.
 
My parish was built in 1948 and renovated in 1990. It is neo-Romanesque. The renovation removed the high altar, took out the altar rails and moved the altar to a constructed platform in the middle of the transept. Not my choice, but at least they used the marble from what they took out so that the platform and everything matches and is made of rich material. When the church had a more traditional look it was painted a hideous green, and even though I dislike the WHERE of the renovation, the paint job is in warm neutrals and really plays up all the marble. The material if not the arrangement of the furnishings really resemble an old Roman basilica. We have NO garish modern art, and no painted plaster statues which are no favorites of mine either. We have many statues which are made of many different types of marble.
 
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Trad_Catholic:
The most beautiful church I have been to (which isn’t saying very much) is St. John Cantius in Chicago. It was absolutely beautiful–built by Polish immigrants, and the Sanctuary is untouched from it’s original form (not even a table added for NO). They have NO in Latin and English (unfortunately), but all ad orientem. While I was visiting, I attended the Traditional Latin Mass there (which they have daily). deagan.com/Images/Photos/st_john_cantius_church_chicago_ill.jpg is a picture of the High altar with both side altars (during Christmas I think). cantius.org/Sacred-Art.htm is a link to some of the great Sacred art at the church.
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What a beautiful Church!
 
Catholic4aReasn said:
Is this St. John’s Cathedral in Milwaukee? If not. please pardon this rant.
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My parish is the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, but I’ll pardon you your rant anyways. 🙂 I’m sure that our-father-in-Christ-who-must-not-be-named would pardon you also. 😃

I sit before the holy Tabernacle with Blessed John looking over my left shoulder, or before the Altar of God under the corona, able to get into the building by myself at last, which I hadn’t been able to do for years, awed not only by the Presence, but also by the light and the beauty. I only came to Milwaukee in the mid-seventies, about the same time the Cathedral was refurbished in preparation for Archbishop Cousins’ retirement (when they buried the stained glass windows behind huge ugly electric light fixtures, removed all the railings which fortunately they didn’t throw away, and lost the sanctuary lamp!) so I never knew it could be other than dim and gloomy, and trying not to be with a garish 27-color paint job. I still loved it because it is the Cathedral; also because he-who-must-not-be-named was such an excellent teacher of the faith from the pulpit and cathedra. After the rehabilitation, when I could finally go inside again — I’m a wheelchair user now — the stained glass which I had never seen, such beauty, and light! And the asbestos abatement people found the lost sanctuary lamp, which is restored and hangs in its rightful place before the Tabernacle of the Lord.

“magna non sine difficultate”, indeed!

karen marie
 
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kmknapp:
My parish is the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, but I’ll pardon you your rant anyways. 🙂 I’m sure that our-father-in-Christ-who-must-not-be-named would pardon you also. 😃

I sit before the holy Tabernacle with Blessed John looking over my left shoulder, or before the Altar of God under the corona, able to get into the building by myself at last, which I hadn’t been able to do for years, awed not only by the Presence, but also by the light and the beauty. I only came to Milwaukee in the mid-seventies, about the same time the Cathedral was refurbished in preparation for Archbishop Cousins’ retirement (when they buried the stained glass windows behind huge ugly electric light fixtures, removed all the railings which fortunately they didn’t throw away, and lost the sanctuary lamp!) so I never knew it could be other than dim and gloomy, and trying not to be with a garish 27-color paint job. I still loved it because it is the Cathedral; also because he-who-must-not-be-named was such an excellent teacher of the faith from the pulpit and cathedra. After the rehabilitation, when I could finally go inside again — I’m a wheelchair user now — the stained glass which I had never seen, such beauty, and light! And the asbestos abatement people found the lost sanctuary lamp, which is restored and hangs in its rightful place before the Tabernacle of the Lord.

“magna non sine difficultate”, indeed!

karen marie
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***I still think it was breathtakingly beautiful the way it was. We’ll agree to disagree. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say. 🙂 ***
 
While our church is beautifully decorated and has a very nice altar, Communion rail, stained glass windows, and some nice statues, it is still in an old baptist “church” building (this is a Traditional Latin Mass parish for the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter), but it always infuriates me to see the dishonor that the liturgy does to such beautiful buildings. It is terrible to see such amazing and lofty buildings coupled with cheap (and unbecoming) vestments and, most importantly, the superficiality of the typical Novus Ordo Mass. At the cathedral in my Archdiocese the Masses are all said (and in English on top of it). The Mass itself is not sung (at least in my experiences, save maybe the Kyrie and the Sanctus), but hymns are sung, of course. The organ has always been used at every Mass I have attended there. I have only attended a few Masses at the cathedral, but I think the most ridiculous thing that I have ever seen there was for the chrism Mass this year. All the priests of the archdiocese are invited to attend (of course), so our two priests from the FSSP parish decided to attend (but to sing in the schola, not to participate in the Mass). They invited my brother and I to come along with them since we had just finished serving the late Mass (9 AM) of the day, and we had not been to a Novus Ordo Mass in quite some time. At the Mass, with the many priests in the archdiocese, rather than have a seminarian or a priest read the first and second epistles, two laymen were employed for the task. From behind a pillar, at the beginning of the first epistle, I heard the high pitched voice of a woman as she began reading. I was offended that such a thing would ever happen in the direct sight and at the very Mass of such an orthodox bishop as our archbishop is. The second epistle was also read by a woman (both with uncovered heads, one with pants, the other with a business suit…). In any event, things like these are some of the saddest experiences with beautiful churches to honor God but disgraceful liturgies which contradict the great churches in which they are celebrated.
 
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amarkich:
While our church is beautifully decorated and has a very nice altar, Communion rail, stained glass windows, and some nice statues, it is still in an old baptist “church” building (this is a Traditional Latin Mass parish for the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter), but it always infuriates me to see the dishonor that the liturgy does to such beautiful buildings. It is terrible to see such amazing and lofty buildings coupled with cheap (and unbecoming) vestments and, most importantly, the superficiality of the typical Novus Ordo Mass. At the cathedral in my Archdiocese the Masses are all said (and in English on top of it). The Mass itself is not sung (at least in my experiences, save maybe the Kyrie and the Sanctus), but hymns are sung, of course. The organ has always been used at every Mass I have attended there. I have only attended a few Masses at the cathedral, but I think the most ridiculous thing that I have ever seen there was for the chrism Mass this year. All the priests of the archdiocese are invited to attend (of course), so our two priests from the FSSP parish decided to attend (but to sing in the schola, not to participate in the Mass). They invited my brother and I to come along with them since we had just finished serving the late Mass (9 AM) of the day, and we had not been to a Novus Ordo Mass in quite some time. At the Mass, with the many priests in the archdiocese, rather than have a seminarian or a priest read the first and second epistles, two laymen were employed for the task. From behind a pillar, at the beginning of the first epistle, I heard the high pitched voice of a woman as she began reading. I was offended that such a thing would ever happen in the direct sight and at the very Mass of such an orthodox bishop as our archbishop is. The second epistle was also read by a woman (both with uncovered heads, one with pants, the other with a business suit…). In any event, things like these are some of the saddest experiences with beautiful churches to honor God but disgraceful liturgies which contradict the great churches in which they are celebrated.
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I’m new at this . I know Women can’t be Priests but can’t they read the first two lessons ?
 
stjosephlakeorion.org/church_1.gifThe art in my church is as beautiful as the outside of the church. Carved wooden stations of the cross. Hand carved altar and a magnificently beautiful tabernacle with the crucified Christ carved in gold. The pieta in one of the corners is magnificent. Give me the old style art anyday. The Crown of thorns is ok a bit large but the crucifix is very gaudy.
 
Hi,

I’m new here and I have to say that all of the Church’s that have been posted are beautiful!

I don’t want to be unkind in my post as I have not seen many churches that have the corona. My Mom’s church in Lubbock, Tx had one and it was the first I had ever seen. They are beautiful however, I have to say that the one that is posted here dwarfs the crucifix. I believe it would have been much more beautiful if the cross had been more traditional.

I go to another website of a priest from Wisconsin and his church is lovely and is very traditional. I am going to try to enclose it in this post. I hope it appears, he also has pictures inside but I couldn’t find them.

I have to also say that the Shrine to Our Blessed Mother is quite beautiful in the above picture in the Cathedral.

I don’t understand some of what is going on as my grandson made his Firt Holy Communion and when I saw the inside I was horrified. The new parish priest had the marble altar removed and now there is just a table. I suppose he thinks that it is too much to have a glorious altar. I just feel that it was already there and it was made to the glory of God. What a pity.

All of that said, I know it is God’s house and that is where we go to celebrate The Sacrifice of The Mass and is the place where we receive Jesus. It doesn’t get better than that!

Well, here is the church, if this doesn’t print than you can see it at www.frpat.com I hope you think his parish is beautiful!

Dolores

http://johnsgar.com/images/festivals/wpprjohnsummer.jpg
 
The church for my parish is a relatively new (1990’s) building and is kind of on the bare side.

However, saying that, we do have statues of a number of saint (and one of the Holy Family) with candles underneath them. The one advantage we have is one of our parishoners is a sculpter and has made, at least, two statues of local saints (Katherine Drexel and John Neumann) in the past year.

In addition, we have one statue of St Elizabeth donated that is over 100 years old.

PF
 
Hm… my church has old, very nice art. It’s adobe, and a few years ago they had a beautiful flower garland painted about halfway up the walls. The statues are mostly from about the 1920s and 1930s, except the ones I’ve named as otherwise… the painted plaster kind with glass eyes that I love to death. The Crucifix above the altar is the same kind, but iirc the one above the Tabernacle is 18th-century Spanish, like all the paintings and the tapestry in the church. But back to the statues… they are St Elizabeth of Hungary, St Rita, St Jude, St Anthony (18th cent), St Louis, Bishop of Toulouse (patron of the church - Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa; 18th cent), St Joseph(18th cent), Our Lady of Guadalupe (18th cent), Our Lady of Fatima, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and a Pieta. The paintings are all of Mary-related things, as is the tapestry. Hehe, you can definitely tell that we have a lot of statues… It is really too bad that they took out the high altar after Vatican II and installed this wacky-looking table that I think may have once been used in the sacristy. The Mass at Mission SLO is unfortunately very liberal… 😦
 
My parish is the Ukranian Catholic Cathedral in Philadelphia.

There are mosaics on the inside and out. Recently, moasaics of the Ukranian martyrs were added. The most prominent is the one in the center of the sanctuary of The Protection of the Mother of God. Here is the web page.
www.ukrcathedralphiladelphia.net
Another beautiful Byzantine Catholic church is St. Anne’s in Harrisburgh, PA. Every inch of the walls is covered with paintings.
 
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