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You are here: Home / Archives for Daily Dose: Catholic Living / Church Tours

Church Tour: Our Lady of Sorrows, South Orange, NJ

April 9, 2015 By Jenna 4 Comments

Since we got married two years ago, my husband and I have been parishioners at Our Lady of Sorrows parish in South Orange, New Jersey. We’re really lucky to have such a lovely church within walking distance. I grew up in northern Virginia, where most of the parishes look like 1980s Pizza Huts, so I’m always excited to find more traditional church styles. This parish is packed with beautiful symbolic details inside and out.

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The church was built in 1931, designed in the French Gothic style by Boston architects McGinnis and Walsh. The copper steeple is visible from far away, and is similar to the one on the nearby Newark cathedral.

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The exterior doorways feature images of Mary’s presence at her Son’s death. I especially like how the iron hinges on the doors are in a heavy medieval style. As with many older churches, the narthex here isn’t very big. On the left side is a room that was originally a baptistery, but is now used for vestment storage. The doorway carving here depicts Christ’s baptism in the Jordan.

There are many delicately carved wood elements throughout the church, like this screen separating the narthex from the nave.

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Inside the nave, there are two votive shrines to the Sacred Heart and St. Therese. The octagonal baptismal font sits in the middle of the rows of pews; the eight sides symbolize Jesus’ resurrection as the 8th day of creation.

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The nave is full of columns, pointed arches, and vaulted ceilings.

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The ceiling appeals to my architectural history nerd tendencies because of its zigzag tilework. This resembles the work of Rafael Guastavino, who designed vaulted ceilings for many famous spaces in New York City, like the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the oyster bar at Grand Central Terminal.

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Renovation work was done on the church in the 1980s, but fortunately not too many traditional features were removed. You can tell that the current altar replaced the marble one further back where priests used to say Mass ad orientem, but it matches the building’s overall look nicely.

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The oak pieces in the sanctuary are some of my favorite parts of the whole church. The pulpit features carvings of the twelve Apostles plus painted portraits of some Doctors of the Church: St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Ambrose, Pope St. Gregory the Great, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome.

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I also love getting a close look at the baldachin, or altar canopy, when Iím sitting in the sanctuary as a lector. The center medallion depicts the Trinity with Jesus as the Lamb of God. St. Peter and St. Paul sit on the corners, and the angels across the top look like they’re going to zoom up into the heavens.

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So many different saints appear in the stained glass windows, from Mary Magdalene to Thomas Aquinas to Joan of Arc. Since he went to a Jesuit high school, my husbandís favorite is the one in the left transept depicting the North American martyr missionaries.

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Weíre both fans of the unique artwork around the church. The Marian shrine has a painting of Mary being presented in the Temple along with the usual statues. I’ve never seen brass Stations of the Cross like this before. Did you know that all church Stations must have a small wooden cross attached? It’s a symbolic connection to pilgrimages in the Holy Land.

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Thanks for visiting along with me. Stop by if you’re ever in north Jersey; our choirs sing beautifully!

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Bklyn Bridge headshot Sarah blogs regularly at Catholic History Nerd. Learn more about her here!

Filed Under: Church Tours, Daily Dose: Catholic Living, Guest Posts

Church Tour Series: St. Andrews, Chicago, IL

March 23, 2015 By Jenna 1 Comment

Welcome to our Church!

I *love* visiting other churches, so I’m thrilled to bring you an electronic tour of mine.  This is a fairly small church, but it’s full of beauty.  Enjoy!

We’ve recently moved into our first house in a different town, and so we had to find a new parish.  Though I wouldn’t say it’s filled with a lot of young families/kids, it is certainly very family-friendly.  The usher seems to love us, at least!  Here’s what the pew of a family of four looks like in winter.  I can’t remember why Cupcakes isn’t happy here, but it’s probably that I asked her to put on her coat…  So, on to the tour!

cupcakes in pew

I know, I know, Christmas is over.  So I hope you’ll forgive me, but I really wanted to get pictures while the Christmas decorations were still up.  They’re so warm and festive!  These were all taken on the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord.

Let’s start with the most important place in the church: The Sanctuary.  Here you’ll find Jesus – truly present, Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity- in the Tabernacle behind the alter.  I love the angel candle holders.

Alter and Tabernacle

No Greater Love

I love seeing a crucifix in the sanctuary.  It helps us to reflect on Christ’s Passion, to remember just how much He loved us…  how much he loves *you* and *me*.  In our church, I love how it’s got a lovely cross backdrop.

Crusifix

When the Christmas season started, I was blown away by the amazing Nativity Scene here.  On the right, you’ll notice the three wise men.  They had been traveling toward the manger for months (just like in our house).  So beautiful.  Cupcakes loved the whole thing.

Nativity Scene with Cupcakes

Our parish is actually trilingual!  (We’ve even been to one trilingual mass, though usually it’s just one at a time.)  Guess which three languages!  Alright, I’ll tell you: English, Spanish and Polish!  Here are some things:

Polish wall

I’m pretty confident that these are Polish words, a Polish icon, and Polish… artifacts?  relics?  I’m not sure.  I googled the words for you, and according to the translator I found, they mean “under” “your” “in defense of”.  Do any of you speak Polish; what does that mean?  I messaged a friend of mine who speaks Polish, and she informed me that these words mean, “under your protection,” and that they usually refer to Momma Mary.  Ah yes, that makes sense.  I’ve never seen anything like this display so I had to show you.

Here in the back, we have two of my favorite images: Divine Mercy Jesus pictured here next to the Vatican Flag and Our Lady of Guadalupe pictured above the intentions candles (is that the official name for those??) and next to the Infant of Prague, which has a pretty awesome story, so look it up if you have the chance.

DM and mary

Here’s the Confessional!  It’s conveniently located in the back of the church, with confession times right before the vigil mass, for your convenience.  So stop in a few minutes early, get your soul a squeaky clean up, and stay for mass.

Confessional

Look how at peace my son was after mass last weekend:

Caleb sleeping at church

He’s usually calm and observant during the first part of the mass, and then starts loudly yelling praying, “Da! Da! Da! Da!” (clearly praising his heavenly Father) during the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and then passes out right at the end. “Let the little children come to me,” right??

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little glimpse into our church; I’d love to see all of yours! If you post a virtual tour of your parish, link it below so we can see too. If not, at least tell us: what is your favorite part of your church?

IMG_9424-e1420209461948About Jamie: My blog is a Mom blog, but I write about motherhood,Catholicism, education, marriage, baby/toddler food, saving & making money, blogging…   My interests include: writing, drawing, reading, crafting, taking walks, and Internetting. I love my friends — they are all amazing!  Sometimes I socialize with the ones in real life, but many of them also live in my computer. I love my Catholic faith. I love Jesus; I love the Eucharist.  I am passionate about the Pro Life Movement. I LOVE LIFE!!!

Filed Under: Church Tours, Daily Dose: Catholic Living, Guest Posts

Church Tour: Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, FL

February 22, 2015 By Jenna 8 Comments

Today I am going to give you a tour of my church. My church is the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, FL. It is America’s First Parish. The amount of history in this church is such a cool part of the parish.

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We are about to celebrate our 450th anniversary of the city and the parish in September. Because of that the church is actually closed until Palm Sunday to finish the renovations and therefore I was unable to get new/better photos.

I did however find this great video about the history of the church and the restorations currently in process. I didn’t even know all the information about the restoration before watching this video.

The church has hired liturgical artists (I didn’t even know that was a thing) who go around the country and restore churches. The artists have been repainting all the murals and matching the colors in our church by hand. It is amazing to watch. One of our priests was telling us one week in his homily how he goes into the cathedral just about everyday to watch them in action and sometimes asks them questions about how they got into liturgical painting and other questions about the job.

The entire Restoration process has been really interesting for the city as well. We’re constantly in the news for different things. A few months ago they moved the altar to restore the tile and they found a time capsule from the 1960s. They will be creating a new time capsule from 2015 before restoring the floor and placing the altar back in March. I think they should put an old iPhone or other electronic gadget inside.

This past week the news was downtown at the cathedral once again as the Marble from Italy arrived! I think it’s been really cool to see how the city reacts so positively to the Catholic History and how the news and been really positive. It really makes me appreciate our faith and the history of our churches.

One of the things I did get photos of before the church closed for renovations was before and after pictures of Mary. I know these pictures aren’t the best but in the after photo you can see how the gold is more prominent and restored.

Mary-Collage

The ceiling images have also been restored nicely.

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One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to visit new churches. I always learn about new saints and art and the beauty that is the church when I visit a new church. I hope you have enjoyed this mini church tour of my parish and a little bit about church restorations. If you have any questions about anything I have explained feel free to leave me questions in the comments, and I will ask around until I find you the answer!

 

Keep in the know with updates from the Cathedral Basilica on Facebook!

 

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Beth Anne blogs at BethAnnesBest.com where you can enjoy her stories about her travels, being single, Lent Meals, and being Catholic. She believes everyone has a story that needs to be shared. She helps creative people with mundane tasks as a VA. She loves God, Disney World, and Chocolate.

Filed Under: Church Tours, Guest Posts

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