Christmas

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas.

I was blessed to be able to share Christmas with my family.

Photos of Saint Vincent de Paul Chapel

The Cardinal Rigali Center is the home of many offices of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, and is a former seminary. Inside is the beautiful Saint Vincent de Paul Chapel, done in the Gothic style. I was kindly given permission to photograph in here. I was not the only one here with this mission: some visiting Sisters, after they prayed the Divine Office in this chapel, were also taking numerous pictures.


The chapel from the entrance. The pews are in antiphonal form; long rows on opposite sides of the aisle face each other. This design derives from the ancient practice of monks chanting alternate verses of the Psalms of the Divine Office: one side chants a verse, the other side chants the next, and so forth. Some Modern churches have used this design as an alternative to seating-in-the-round.



Statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Surrounding the entire chapel are panels of richly carved wood, with quotes from Scripture in gold Gothic lettering.



A side altar in the chapel.



This building was once a seminary; there are a dozen side altars in this chapel. The Church now allows concelebration and no longer requires priests to say Mass daily, so the practice of building side-altars has nearly disappeared. That is a shame; for the intimacy of a side-altar Mass, especially a weekday Mass with few communicants, is hard to match.



The High Altar.



View down the aisle.



The crucifix. It is high up in the middle of the chapel.



Statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Coats of arms of notable churchmen are displayed on the walls of the chapel.



Each arch from the ceiling abuts to a carving of an angel.

Photo of Saint John Apostle and Evangelist Church

St. John's is the parish church of downtown Saint Louis.

Photo of Saint Gabriel the Archangel Church and Francis Park

A photo of Francis Park, in Saint Louis, Missouri. At the base of the hill to the right is Tamm Avenue Spring, which is well-lit at night, has masses of floral plantings, park benches, and stone bridges running across the tiny spring branch; the spring runs year-round and has a water temperature of about 60 degrees. In the background is the spire of Saint Gabriel the Archangel Church.

SCHISM

From Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam:

• It's Official: St Stanislaus is in Schism. Pray for them!


• Fr Bozek's Reaction Regarding His Self-Imposed Excommunication


• Cries of Anguish from the St. Stanislaus Board

Options after excommunication—from STLtoday.

Fr. Bozek's web page from his former parish. [Note: this page is now offline. Here is the Google cache of the page.] I noticed that he studied theology at a state-run ecumenical academy (which includes Protestant, Old Catholic, and Orthodox, but not Catholic, viewpoints) and also studied Liberation Theology. I think St. Stan's may be heading into more severe trouble if Fr. Bozek assents to these views.

St. Stanislaus had an irregular parish organization under canon law for over a century, and the Archbishops have reportedly worked for decades to regularize the parish. Cardinal Rigali, while Archbishop of Saint Louis, started the latest round of negotiation with the parish.

Note: earlier I said that the church was in a rough neighborhood. That is no longer true. I visited the area today and saw that it is coming back to life again, with many new townhouse developments. The church and its outbuildings are in excellent condition. Pray for all involved so that unity is restored.