ArchitectColorado 1: Holy Trinity’s Adoration Chapel

The summer 2009 issue of ArchitectColorado includes two features on projects at Holy Trinity. ArchitectColorado is the professional journal of the Colorado Component of the American Institute of Architects. This issue has a focus on religious architecture. Holy Trinity and Integration Design Group are featured in two articles.
The first article is “A Shared Vision of the [...]

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What is an Altar?

The Creative Minority Report has a great quote on the Catholic view of the altar. This is by Geoffrey Webb, from his 1939 book The Liturgical Altar:
“The reason for [the Church’s] meticulous directions is to be found in the supreme importance which the Church attaches to the altar in her liturgy. Not only does she [...]

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Abp. Coleridge on Beauty in Worship

Last week, The Most Reverend Mark Coleridge, Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, wrote a pastoral Pentecost Letter on the Liturgy to his archdiocese. The Archbishop issued new instructions as the Australian bishops begin the full implementation of their new General Instruction for the Roman Missal (GIRM). The archbishop points out that “The new version of [...]

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JPII on Images of the Mother of God

Except from La Vierge au Lys [The Virgin of the Lilies]
by William Bouguereau (1899)
REDEMPTORIS MATER
MOTHER OF THE REDEEMER
Encyclical – Pope John Paul II
March 25, 1987
PART II – THE MOTHER OF GOD AT THE CENTER OF THE PILGRIM CHURCH
* 2. The Church’s journey and the unity of all Christians
33. This year there occurs the twelfth [...]

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Interview With Architect Adam Hermanson

Q: To start – tell us a little of your background. Who is Adam Hermanson?
Adam Hermanson: I was raised in Big Sky Country – Billings, Montana. I was fortunate to attend Catholic schools there from the first grade through high school. Following graduation, I headed to Washington, DC, landing at The Catholic University of America [...]

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A Dominican on Liturgy and Architecture

Epiphany : a theological introduction to Catholicism
by Aidan Nichols O.P.
Chapter 9: The Rites of the Church
http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/anichols/epiphany/epiphch9-3.htm
The principal object to which the eye should be directed on entering the body of a church is the (high) altar. Early Christian altars were very small affairs, but gradually they underwent an expansion. Originally, nothing was placed on the [...]

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GIRM: The Altar and Its Appointments

From the General Instruction of the Roman Missal:
The Altar and Its Appointments
296. The altar on which the Sacrifice of the Cross is made present under sacramental signs is also the table of the Lord to which the People of God is called together to participate in the Mass, as well as the center of the [...]

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BLS on the Congregation’s Area

From Built of Living Stones (BLS), some details about the nave:
The Congregation’s Area:
§ 51 § The space within the church building for the faithful other than the priest celebrant and the ministers is sometimes called the nave. This space is critical in the overall plan because it accommodates a variety of ritual actions: processions during [...]

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Frazier on Beauty in Worship

Russians tell the story of how the pagan ruler of Kiev, King Vladimir, desired to learn which of all the world’s religions was the one revealed from heaven.
His emissaries traveled to the far corners of the known world to learn how different people believed and worshiped God. They observed Jews pray in their synagogues and [...]

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Lileks on Beauty

Writer, blogger and essayist James Lileks has an interesting riff on the idea of beauty. Lileks writes for the Minneapolis Tribune, and also maintains his own web site at Lileks.com. He grew up Lutheran in Fargo ND, and is the same age as my loving wife. I always appreciate his view, so I check his [...]

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