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Archive for category Art and Architecture

Chinese Architectural Mimicry

“In the West, copying signals a lack of imagination. But in China… ‘mimicry is actually a form of mastery, in a symbolic sense.’”

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Icons

The Holy Spirit speaks to us through sacred art.

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A Newly Refurbished Interior for St. Mary Cathedral in St. Cloud, MN

While the blogosphere abounds with drastic “before” and “after” photos of church renovations, the St. Mary’s project is worth noting because of its sheer reasonableness.

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Pope Francis Reverts to Pastoral Staff of Paul VI

Keen observers have noted that he is using the contemporary pastoral staff used by Paul VI and John Paul II.

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“Not so much about trappings and fine fabrics”: Pope Francis at Chrism Mass

“The beauty of all these liturgical things is not so much about trappings and fine fabrics than about the glory of our God resplendent in his people…” – Pope Francis

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Veiling for Passion Time

“The veiling of crosses and images is a sort of ‘fasting’ from sacred depictions which represent the paschal glory of our salvation.”
- USCCB

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Good Friday, the Child Abuse Scandal, and The Long Dark Winter’s Night

In his book The Long Dark Winter’s Night: Reflections of a Priest in a Time of Pain and Privilege, Father Philip Bergquist, formerly of St. Raphael Catholic Church in Fairbanks, Alaska, uses the metaphor of living through the long Alaskan winter to describe his own struggles with the crisis gripping the Roman Catholic church over the sexual abuse committed by priests and the reactions of bishops to that abuse. Theologically, it is a liturgical treatise on Good Friday, filled with stories and reflections about how a Church Grieving meets its suffering Savior at the foot of the cross, “where heaven’s hope and humanity’s wounds meet.”

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Who Moved the Candles?

Sure wonder what’s going on over there.

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Reading the Language of Papal Clothing

A model drawn from social anthropology can shed light on the differences in papal vesture.

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Baptismal practice and theology in 13th-century Italy

The 2013 Aquinas Lecture at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, given by Augustine Thompson, O.P., is a fascinating presentation of the baptismal theology and practice in Northern Italy in the 13th century.

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