Beauty for Mission: New Renovation of Lourdes Helps Lift Our Hearts to God

In the Catholic philosophic tradition, truth, goodness and beauty are known as the transcendentals. Catholics believe that truth, goodness and beauty find their origin in God and, through them, we are able to transcend our human nature and touch the very essence of God. Whether it is the truth of natural law or Sacred Scripture or the goodness of saints like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, we are able to experience the presence of God in the here and now. So too with the beauty – the beauty of creation and art, our spirits are lifted to God who is both the source of beauty and beauty personified. This is why beauty has been such an important part of Catholic liturgy, art and architecture for more than two millennia.
 
When we encounter a beautiful church or participate in a beautiful liturgy we are transformed and our hearts our lifted in worship of God. Beauty gives us hope, including the hope of heaven. In addition, beauty leads Christians to live out our mission in the world as we recognize the dignity of our neighbor and live with integrity our faith in Jesus Christ. We are called to live in the world and in so doing to make the world a more just, humane and beautiful place and in the process to give glory to God. Thus, the beauty of Catholic churches, art and liturgy are not for their own sake, but for sake of self-transcendence, worship and mission. As we unveil our newly renovated church and celebrate our Patronal Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes, I wanted to take the opportunity to briefly set forth the theological vision which underlies our renovation.
 
First, creation and liturgy speak to the drama of salvation history – the acts of God creating and redeeming the world. Good Catholic aesthetics make use of light and darkness and contrasting colors to represent well the reality and dynamism of creation and faith. In choosing the paint colors we have, we used classic church colors of cream, terracotta and slate. The flooring represents earthen colors and our new ceiling color is a traditional French/Marian blue, which not only is traditional for Marian churches but also represents the sky that God has created. The new paint colors in the soffit area and in the dome help accentuate the unique architectural features of our church. From the back of church, the dome now looks, as it should, like a crown.
 
Second, the sacred art in our church highlights the importance of the saints who are with us on our journey of faith and who surround us like a cloud of witnesses. In the back of the church we have a pair of strong women saints: St. Joan of Arc, a beloved French saint and a newly completed icon of St. Teresa of Calcutta who was a saint of our time. Moving to the east side of the church, we have our extraordinary new mural of three beloved saints deferring to the Lamb of God. The St. Anthony Falls are depicted in the background and St. John the Baptist, St. Francis and St. Therese represent the three great epochs of church history: the early church; the middle ages and the modern period. St. John the Baptist is the patron saint of French Canada and St. Francis and St. Therese are universally beloved. In the rib areas of the church ceiling you will see the newly completed figures of the four evangelists, which is traditional in Catholic architecture. The four evangelists remind us of our Christian goal of heaven as well as our call on earth to continue the evangelical mission of the Church. Lastly, all of the statutes of the saints have been repainted and our statue of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette now sits on a beautiful new pedestal which raises them up and also contains a first class relic of St. Bernadette to aid us in our prayer.
 
Finally, our new renovation of the interior of Lourdes in many ways could be more aptly described as a restoration than a renovation. It is a return to solid Catholic aesthetics and to a more traditional look that has marked most of the history of the Church. Please see the picture of the historic church in the bulletin and you will notice an image of the Holy Spirit, traditional church lights and a high altar which housed the tabernacle. These elements have now been restored as they represent, in my opinion, the best of Catholic aesthetics and liturgical art. The new marble altar of repose and baptismal font complement the altar and ambo and are unified by the traditional French symbol of the  fleur de lis. Our new lights, which now have a warm glow, are a restoration of what had been in the church for many years and are much more in line with traditional Catholic aesthetics. I and others believed that the numerous crystal chandeliers throughout the church were discontinuous to the church architecture and the Catholic aesthetical tradition. The dome of the church is now highlighted by new paint, newly painted  fleur de lis,and a sunburst and light fixture that convey the light of God to which we are called.
 
I am most thankful to all who worked so diligently and well to make this beautiful new renovation/restoration happen and to our parishioners and friends who generously supported this effort. Now it is time to celebrate the gifts of truth, goodness and beauty that come from God!
Fr. Griffith