Friday, April 23, 2010

Our Lady of Peace, Geneva NY

Next year I will spend my Pastoral Year in Geneva at Our Lady of Peace parish, which consists of St. Francis deSales Church and St. Stephen Church. Praise God for this great placement! The parish has perpetual adoration, the people I've met from there are all wonderful, and the physical campus is absolutely gorgeous. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll direct you to the Flickr page for a visual feast. Here are some highlights:


Did I mention Perpetual Adoration?


The exterior of St. Stephen's. The parish was built in 1912, the rectory in 1924. This picture is currently my desktop background.


The high altar in St. Stephen. Trivia: the artist who made the wood carvings is the same one whose work can be seen in Blessed Sacrament in Rochester.


Just one of many examples of the beautiful stained glass windows.


This is the front door of the rectory. No, really! Can anyone identify the third figure in the top piece?


The dining room. The inscription reads:
"Manducate ex oblatis, quae dat vobis Deus gratis,
et si vobis non sint satis, mementote paupertatis",
which I translate:
"Eat from what has been offered, which God gives to you freely,
and if it should not be enough for you, be mindful of poverty."
Or perhaps, to preserve some of the original poetry,
"Eat you now what things are given, Which come to you from God for free;
Should you think them insufficient, Think you, then, on poverty."


A display case in the rectory. Notice in the upper right a picture of Fulton Sheen's visit to the parish. In the center, the breviary has been left open to the Feast of St. Stephen. Ah, detail: it's the little things that count!

Please pray for me and for the people of the parish. My assignment there begins September 1.

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Friday, April 2, 2010

Pearls of Wisdom: Insipidity

"Not Herod, not Caiaphas, not Pilate, not Judas ever contrived to fasten upon Jesus Christ the reproach of insipidity; that final indignity was left for pious hands to inflict. To make of His story something that could neither startle, nor shock, nor terrify, nor excite, nor inspire a living soul is to crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame." — Dorothy L. Sayers, The Man Born to be King

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