See the Saints!
Dear All Saints Family,
The unveiling of the Saint portraits on our parish feast day was a highlight moment that I won’t soon forget. Having our “little saints” dressed up in their saint costumes, all of us having just received Eucharistic benediction, singing God’s praises with our choir…it all came together so wonderfully, and I am grateful.
A good few of you have asked the same two questions: “Who exactly are these saints?” and “What’s happening with the Stations of the Cross?”
The saints are (starting on Our Lady’s side, closest to the altar): St. Patrick, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. John Paul II, St. Faustina, St. Juan Diego, St. Josephine Bakhita, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Monica, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Padre Pio, St. Joan of Arc, St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Peter, St. Jude, and St. Michael were high in the vote count but were replaced because the artist that we chose did not have portraits of them that my team and I liked. We will certainly be including them in future sacred art projects!
The Stations of the Cross: We WILL have Stations of the Cross certainly by the start of Lent. The original idea was to simply lower the Stations we currently have lower on the side walls of the church, but as I looked at them, they are virtually indistinguishable from one another. The plan now is that we are looking to acquire some new Stations that are easier to identify and thus better to pray with. We still have the originals, so if we are not able to get a new set before Lent, we will use those to guide us through that holy season.
While we’re talking about the sacred art in the church, I’d also like to draw your attention to the new large painting that hangs in the narthex, opposite Bl. Carlo. It is a replica of the great renaissance painter Raphael’s Disputation of the Holy Sacrament. The original is the Vatican Museum, juxtaposed to another of Raphael’s masterpieces The School of Athens, wherein the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato are debating what is ultimately real, the physical and tangible realities we see or the forms, the ideas of things in the spiritual realm. When we take in the scene of the Disputation, we are drawn into contemplating the reality that what is present sacramentally on the altar is in fact the same reality unfolding in heaven with the Holy Trinity in glory. Stop and stare at it sometime, paying attention to what moves in your heart or thoughts. That’s a great place to start praying!
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!
All you holy saints of God, pray for us!
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Michael
Pastor