The Faith and the Stones Are One.

It has been quite a spell since I have posted, but I am starting again with a modification.  While I want to keep this blog focused heavily on church architecture , I will add a little more rumination on tradition and its travails in the Church. At first glance, these two subjects might not seem to be related.  I would argue that they are related at a deep level, in that wreck-ovation and increasingly church closures, sales, and demolitions are a result of the reversal of the fortunes of the Church in the west, and that this reversal is itself  a result of doctrinal and liturgical confusion .

The quote from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, made when he was still only a priest illustrates this connections

“Let us go a step farther. From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge — a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes, so it will lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, it will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision. As a small society, it will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members."

Fewer, yet more fervent will be those spirits who love her, and fewer the monuments that testified to the faith of those who went before us.  And as we see the Church humbled the more and more despised  by the world around us, many realizing that the buildings are not essential, will state that "they are just bricks" with all the jejune sincerity a young lady "wisely" spouting the maxim "The more stitches, the less riches." in A brave New World.  They will miss, however, the deep significance of architecture and of place.  As it says in the psalms

"You will arise and have compassion on Zion,

for it is time to show favor to her;

the appointed time has come.

For her stones are dear to your servants; 

her very dust moves them to pity."

Psalm 102:13-14

Its been a while.. But I have been to many churches since then. Among them Wexford

Mrs H, Eszter Varga, and I found this church heading south along the Mississippi River  in Iowa. It is a little off the beaten path to say the least.  Set among those wonderful semis-steep hills that often flank the rivers of the mid-west, it is a quaint almost picturesque Church, with not much town nearby to speak of.  The small church and the old cemetery sit of  Great River Road near Wexford Creek. Always looking for new sights, I often visit and quickly seek another. Mrs H was so taken by the place that she really insisted we have a picnic by the cemetery.  Obviously, Irish form the name of the town, the Parish has kept aware of its Irish root, for some 160 years.  A plaque listing the original parishioners can be found within the church building and there is a computably detailed listing for the cemetery. Founded largely owing to the efforts of Fr Hore (from County Wexford), like many Irish immigration stories, the story of Wexford begins in 1850, in the shadow the famines of the 1840s. 1200  parishioners followed Fr Hore from Ireland  to New Orleans, on board three ships.. Ticonderoga, Loodianah, and  Chasca. Father had to leave many of them waiting in St Louis while he finalized financial and spiritual matters.  For a number of reasons, only 18 families followed him to Wexford (via the Mississippi).  As with many parishes of  the period, the first church was little more than a log cabin.  The current structure was built from locally quarried limestone.  Its high altar is intact, and the Stations of the Cross and statuary are still in good repair.  The walls are covered with what appears to be pressed tin, while the ceiling is a shallow vault of wooden strips.  As one might expect, the windows are simple medallion type, with medallion set higher up in the arch of window Like many rural churches it is  feeling the  pinch of consolidation.  While it no longer has a resident pastor, it is still a going concern.

Here is the parish website    http://www.icwexford.org/

And the pics.... Wexford pics

St Michael at Kalida

Having just left Glandorf we headed in a westerly direction for Kalida.... and perhaps Delphos.  As we approached the town, no steeple made itself visible.  Then, on our left we saw a square tower...hmmn must be one of the more modest 1920s churches with a stout and simple bell tower. As we drew closer it became apparent that bell tower was hardly a modest attachment to the church, but a free standing campanile..sitting to the left of what seemed a rather substantial Romanesque church, particularly for such a seemingly small town.  The chances of finding churches open generally sink with the sunset...and as sun was setting... I gave it maybe 50% chance of being open.  Unexpectedly it was, for one of the parishioners had dropped by on the way back from some errand.  The church was mildly dark with the setting of the sun, and the low light with the presence of a second tier of clerestory stained glass windows meant that I had my work cut out for me.  Meanwhile, my companion on the journey was speaking with the parishioner and learning some inspiring things about the church and its history.. The church dates from the 1920s an has a high barrel ceiling with numerous substantial columns.... There was of course no Gothic high altar , but a somewhat lowered marble altar with the tabernacle and a free standing post-conciliar altar adorned with the pia pelicana and capped by a floating ( suspended from the ceiling)  squared early 20th century baldechin.  The original altar at back of the sanctuary had been lowered slightly.... the one concession made to attempts to update this church.  The parishioners, we were told by our guide, Joann I believe,  resisted attempts to update the church noting that their forefathers had sacrificed a great deal for the beautiful interior and had bequeathed it as a trust to them.  The stained glass windows of the first tier depicted the mysteries of the Rosary. They were harder to shoot in fading sunlight... but were quite impressive as the bronzed light of a setting sun imparted an extra hint of vitality.   The windows, to my mind, were consistent with early 20th century American stained glass... deeper colors and a heavier presence of blue.  Some of the windows I seem to recall were the last few to be shipped over from Europe before the Second World war.... The rondelle at the rear of the church depicts a stern St Michael with flaming sword and scales ( note the inhabitants of the scales).  A final heartening detail was  the stars  painted within the canopy above the sanctuary.  While the stars are often employed is a motif -depicting the sky, representing the cosmic liturgy...these faint nearly imperceptible stars tucked in between lattice work, were explained in a slightly different take on the cosmic liturgy... as representing there forefathers who had gone ahead of them... but who were nonetheless present to them at the Mass.  Spirits that love her indeed!!!!



Here are a few pictures form the interior... I think I will need another trip to truly do it justice.   I have included a picture of our guide... I hope she will not mind.
https://picasaweb.google.com/DocMeadows85/4211StMichaelKalidaInterior#

A Chesterton moment in St Ann Lafayette

So I have been in St Ann countless times to be sure... it was my home parish for a couple years, i attend a monthly Tridentine Mass there (indult for any Trads who might inquire), and I certainly go there frequently enough (perhaps to frequently) for 6:30 PM Wednesday Confessions.   So after being shriven, so to speak, I was waiting for the 7:00 PM.  Now not being possessed of much custody of the mind, my mind wandered as it is nearly always want to do.  I looked a the stained glass, and asked myself.... Doc, now you do travel far and wide within the adjoining states to visit old churches... what would you do if you came upon St Ann? What would it be like if you were right now encountering it for the first time?  So armed with my little Olympus I set about photographing the windows.  Many of the people in line for confession knew me, so I doubt they thought it strange... or at least already knew me to be a bit of an odd duck... so it was at least to be expected of me... if not per se normal.  So I will post a few exterior shots for those who do not know the church....and will focus mainly on the stained glass.   Very Irish I figure, as St Ann was the south-side parish for the Irish of limited means. Those with more pecuniary attributes headed up the hill to the Cathedral.  The saints largely stand in holy solemnity, as opposed to moving about as saints seem to do in more German stained glass windows. For a poorer parish, they are actually a step above the simple colored glass with medallion motif found in simple country churches, German or Irish. I think my favorite windows, though they are the few of simple medallion type are the stained glass windows in the confessional room. Now I lack the requisite philosophical or architectural knowledge to discourse broadly on the phenomenon, but I must say that there is a great satisfaction that comes from things being harmonious.   If you look closely the two medallions depict the all seeing eye of God and the keys of St Peter. Now one's sins are generally enough to occupy the mind....but should one, when the confessional is unoccupied, even by oneself, look at these windows... the connection to the Sacrament of Confession is both obvious and edifying.  Such things both grant the soul a subtle peace... and dare I say, for my wandering mind is ill suited to docility, they provide a simple starting point for meditation

.

I am also quite pleased with little details such as knowing if the child Jesus is pictured in a stained glass window.. He will always be blessing us...

 Here are the pics, see if you can identify all the saints
https://picasaweb.google.com/DocMeadows85/StAnnSelect#

St Isidore Cuba, OH

The sweeps have indeed fallen for little St Isidore in Cuba, OH.  The parish is not only closed but the building is no more... hence the custom of pictures will be sorely constrained.   The manner in which I learned of the demise of the little parish is, however, of note and provides at least anecdotal evidence that the parish once existed.   On a swing through lower portion of northwestern Ohio, we effectively finished heavy photographing at St Micheal's in Kalida.... The church seems titanic in light of the size of the town, and it shall have its own post...but we digress.  When a parish closes a tie is lost.  Yes the universal Church endure until as Francois Mauriac says " ....the last of the priests (who) will celebrate the last Mass in a shattered universe..." and of which our Lord promised the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Still many underestimate the importance of place of grounding.  True we worship in Spirit (for such worshipers the Father seeks) but we are made of flesh and blood as well as soul.  When Our Lord came he did not come only in spirit but in the flesh and dwell among us.   Hallowed indeed is the Lord, but also the places where he dwelt. We too easily dismiss the physical elements of worship and indirectly  fail to fully take heed of  the Incarnation.  Walker Percy summed up the danger of disembodied worship in Love in the Ruins. "What she didn't understand, she being spiritual and seeing religion as spirit, was that it took religion to save me from the spirit world, from orbiting the earth like Lucifer and the angels, that it took nothing less than touching the thread off the misty interstates and eating Christ himself to make me mortal man again and let me inhabit my own flesh and love her in the morning." ~ (thanks for finestquotes.com for saving me from spending an hour finding this quote in my beat up paperback)..  Graffiti on the boarded up windows of the old church said "sometimes Satan wins."  I do not know who added this postscript nor do I implicate the bishop who closed it as acting in league with the aformentioned  apparent victor.  However, the closing of a church gives at least the passing impression that Church has indeed retreated in an area.... and as such leads one to wonder if the enemy will let the vacuum remain unoccupied.   A church is more than a pile of bricks in a similar sense as  the bodies of the faithful departed are more than a pile of bones. Now it of course terrible for people to leave the Church over a parish closing as is sometimes threatened, but we take , I think, insufficient note of the fact that a parish closing, even if deemed necessary by episcopal authority, is in fact a scandal, a stumbling block to the holy faithful, particularly of that parish. To militate against the scandal given, the Kalida parishioners gave the refugees, if you will, from St Isidore a small side area as a memorial to St Isadore, with original statue of the saint, and with two custom made stained glass windows with medallions that depict farming implements and  the church building itself respectively.  It is these I have pictures of....   I will attach a link on the closing of the church as well.

https://picasaweb.google.com/DocMeadows85/4211StIsadoreTribute#



http://www.limaohio.com/articles/torn-45137-church-cuba.html 

http://images.onset.freedom.com/limanews/medium/kt4pvu-kt4pvccuba4.jpg

St Mary of the Fields

Quite possibly one of the smallest churches I have been to but one of the most charming.  St Mary's is due northwest of Hooppole, IL ( no booming metropolis in its own right), and one would almost certainly miss it, if one were not looking for it.   The Church dates to 1883.  A victim, as many rural parishes in the area were,  to demographics,attendance (never particularly large by urban standards) diminished after the 40s.  In spite of this Masses were held regularly up to 2004.   The last Paschal Candle  in the Church is dated 2009, so masses were held with some frequency up until that date.  The foundation was, I believe originally German farmers, but the place has a decidedly Belgian flair.   The large rolle bolle rosary is a notable feature of the site.   The game of rolle bolle being a mystery to me, here is a link or two to explain it

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vangampleare/rollebolle.htm

http://www.belgiancookieiron.com/rolle.htm

Although this church, now a shrine instead of a parish, has been previewed in some media sources,   we received a tip about it while visiting the Church of St John in Bradford, IL.   This church will be featured in a subsequent post.  Given is small size and perseverance, based in no small part on the loyalty of its pastors and populace, the site is a site indeed beloved of the spirits of the past and some of the community of the present. Though its formal closure as a parish bespeaks that onslaught of time and "progress" against rural American culture  and adds a melancholic twinge to our visit, the fact that the site is still a well maintained shrine bespeaks the fact that, referring back to our Belloc poem (from which this blog derives its name) there is someone to answer to the spirits that loved her.   As is custom here are pictures from the inside. The church has been remodeled but it appears that much of the original statuary is preserved in a little museum of sort appended directly to the church proper.




https://picasaweb.google.com/DocMeadows85/91810StMaryOfTheFields#

Mystery Church

Moving to sadder things at the end of Guadete Sunday, here is a church that represents the sens of pathos that is in an undercurrent on this blog. Traveling along Rt 50 on a rainy and cold Thanksgiving morning, I saw the remains of an old town or neighborhood, peaking out of the valley between two hills. Amongst the old buildings my attention became riveted by a large steeple.   The church, a tall building towered over the rest  of the valley as it rested partway up a hillside.   As I drew closer the extent of its dereliction became clearer, but I could find no trace of its name

http://picasaweb.google.com/DocMeadows85/UnknownChurch#


Once again however the  Catholic Telegraph agency comes through ( near the bottom).
http://tctphotos.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

The Church is the old Our Lady of Perpetual Help (I am rather fond of that image) it sits in the old Sedamsville neighborhood of Cincy.

From there I found more, but disturbing information
http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,17276.0.html

Apparently the stain glass windows are still in the building, with some pieces of them lying on the floor.

"Ha'nacker Hill is in desolation, ruin atop and a field unplowed,
spirits that call on a fallen nation , spirits that loved her calling aloud"
"the sweep have fallen from the Ha'nacker Mill"