I took this photo last Sunday and kept it on ice for a Sunday when the light was bad...such as today. The church looked the same today as last week though. :-)
I love this old church building. The stained glass is turn of the century beautiful, everything is always spit and polished, and it is a quiet and meditative place. In a few minutes all the pews will be jammed, and incense will ascend to the rafters. The organ and trumpets will do their part. Row upon row of altar boys will process down the aisle, and I will settle in to the familiar rhythms of the mass. Time will stop, and heaven will peel back in moments of clarity. All will be well.
9 comments:
That is a pretty shot Beth. It reminds me a lot of my church, the only real difference is our pews are white and brown :) Oh, and we have a mural over the altar that people are trying to get rid of. But the shape, the style, the size, the windows etc...all the same.
Hey, Beth...thanks for visiting my blog. I love your pictures..I'm really enjoying everyone's 365. I'm not disciplined enough to do that!
Gorgeous church!
Beth, is the white column in the front the Holy Water? What is the pole(that looks like a giant candle to me) with the colored symbols on it all about? It's just beyond the first column with the water?
I like that there is so much symbolism in design, throughout catholic churches.
Susan
Nice, Beth. I took a church photo today, too, but it didn't turn out well. Our small chapel is the epitome of simplicity, and I love that; I also love the regal, stained-glass beauty of the big Episcopal church I attend at times.
Susan, yes the white marble font is for the Holy Water. It is also the baptismal font. In many Catholic churches, the baptismal font is at the door, symbolic of baptism being the entrypoint into the Christian faith. So when anyone is baptised, we all face the back of the church for it.
The candle is the Paschal Candle, lit from fire blessed in the Easter Vigil ritual. This candle is inscribed with a cross, an alpha and omega, and the numbers designating the current year. Five grains of incense are inserted into the candle's cross, symbolizing the five wounds of Christ.
Is the Paschal candle kept continually burning? Thanks for sharing about the symbolism.
Susan
No, the Paschal candle is kept lit from Easter to Ascension, but thereafter only for baptisms and funerals. There is a candle that is eternally burning, called the santuary candle, but it is up near the front by the tabernacle, usually hanging and red.
That's a beautiful photograph -- I always enjoy trying to take photographs of churches in the area. The National Cathedral is one of my favorite.
Being an Episcopalian (Catholic-lite, as someone once referred to me), I'm familiar with some of the same rituals. It seems that Episcopal churches vary with where they place the bapitsmal font; our old church in Mobile had it at the back, while our current colonial church in Northern Virginia has it at the front.
Glad you saved up this picture and shared it!
- Matt
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