That said, with regard to modern Churches and architecture, I rather like this. It is simple but very reverent. The Blessed Sacrament is housed firmly in the centre, where He should be, with a beautiful relief of Angels adoring the King of Kings in the Tabernacle.
The Church is a Polish Catholic Church ran by the Marian Fathers in Ealing, London. I attended the Polish Mass there on Sunday evening and obviously, while I don't know Polish, the Mass was very reverently said and the liturgy good.
While there, however, I couldn't help thinking, "Another reason for the Latin Mass..."
The Church, as the Universal Church, used latin in the liturgy for so long and as many readers who view this blog will appreciate, that meant that you could go to any Church in any country or any city and you would be hearing the same liturgy in every one. Therefore, once people of all tongues had the hang of the Latin Mass, it was uniform, standard and everyone could understand it.
I'm no expert at latin, far from it, but the Latin Mass Society produce Mass books with english translations on every page for the layman and I'm sure they could, or someone else does, a Polish translation of the Latin Mass. Just a thought. More of the Latin Mass and you would also have more harmony and integration between British and Polish worshippers...Just a thought.
Anyway, whoever came up with this, well done and it just goes to show that not all modern artists/architects behave like crackheads when they're asked to design a church interior.
4 comments:
Unless of course it was an Eastern Rite Catholic Church.
Ah...You got me!
Spot on, Laurence. I think that the thoughtprocess with modern architects is: "looks like a nuclear bunker, admits light like a nuclear bunker, creates a sense of the imminent devine like a nuclear bunker, what have you got? A church interioir, of course!"
I went to Benediction the other evening, organised by a Polish group in my parish. It was very nice but at the end they sang Tantum Ergo in Polish. Which was a shame. I wish people would discover the beauty of Latin and appreciate its meaning for the Catholic church.
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