This Shrine is absolutely beautiful, and I am only half jesting when I say, "If I am ever commissioned to build a Church I will build one like this one." I have ideas of beauty and a few things that strike me about today's modern Church's is that they lack vision of what is truly beautiful. I mean they lack majesty and awe, in the face of God. The beauty of the Church I believe reflects the faith of the community and I see it as a teaching tool in itself. You see beauty and it draws you into the majesty of God. Oversimplicity draws us into the drag elements of the earth. Colors and lighting affect the moods of people, and they affect worship, if we white wash everything then we can see people asking whats so special about the mass. Can you imagine people walking into mass, and seeing no solemnity or no respect held toward the sacrament. Then the place you worship in is a warehouse gray and dank, and then you try to say that your eating God himself. The bread of life on a pewter plate? How you worship isn't necessarily how you believe, but there is a strong correlation. If you see the Latin mass and think this is it with all the pomp and circumstance there is a risk to think that faith, hope and love automatically become the norm you must think again. Devout persons have to be careful to not fall into elitism, and forget what is truly important, loving our God and our brother.
In every age Christianity has survived decay, peace, war, paganism, and every Heresy. Protestantism and every other schismatic Christian are just old heresy's reborn as something else, and these will die just as heresies have in the past. What I believe survives in all these schismatic church's is that Catholicism that they adhere to without acknowledgment. In fact its the Catholicism that secretly keeps them alive.
The purpose of this post is in the fact that I get to travel on Saturday to La Cross to the Shrine of our Lady of Guadalupe. The Shrine is indeed beautiful and I will have to take many pictures and take in many ideas for the building of my own Church.
Anyway, Beauty is one of the transcendentals so it needs to be considered more in building things. I wouldn't mind building something over several years if I could build it extra beautiful. Another thing that makes for more beauty is Truth, as something represents truth in design their has to be beauty, I prefer realism, but at least abstract art that is respectful of the truth its representing.
Its too bad St. Thomas is wasting their money on stupid athletic facility's and wouldn't provide a few leftover thousands for a beautiful shrine to the unborn. It shows our secularism... I guess it wouldn't be such a big deal if our chapels didn't get striped of all beauty in the 80's.
What we need is not complaining, but work to be done. Certainly making things beautiful is part of it, but bring the light of Jesus takes precedence and through a combined effort we can make beautiful, and bring glory to God. Its not wasteful of resources, if it brings people to Jesus as then when we are brought to him through the beauty we can then bring others and we can worry ourselves about the work of feeding and clothing our bothers and sisters. God works through all things, but it doesn't hurt to use the beauty to further his kingdom, and bring it about. Our faith is what draws us outside of ourselves, and only it can give us loving hearts that care for the world beyond that superficiality we see of our pagan brothers. We see this simply in the fact that the Church is the largest Charity organization, and nothing else compares with the selflessness of its acts. Brothers and Sisters who give up their lives in service of the Gospel spread throughout the world are effecting the Kingdom of God.
I conclude with nothing more than the fact that I need to go pray.
God bless you!
