All Saints & All Souls Day

Friday we celebrate the feast of All Saints. In the painting above, by Fra Angelico you will notice that each saint in the painting is different, but all are celebrated together.

For this Holy Day you can attend Mass at St. Columbkille Parish on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. or on Friday at 6:20, 8:15 a.m. 12:10, 5:30 or 7:00 p.m.

All Souls' Day

There will be a special all Soul's Day Mass Saturday at 10:00 a.m. to especially remember our parishioners who have passed away in the last year.

What's the deal Saturday Night?

In the hierarchy of liturgical days, All Souls' Day takes precedence over a Sunday in Ordinary Time. Therefore the readings and Propers for All Souls' Day will be followed for the vigil Mass on Saturday, November 2, (5 & 6:30 p.m) even though it satisfies the Sunday obligation. In other words, the reading Saturday evening will be the ones used for All Souls' Day even though it "counts" as a Sunday Mass.

The Feast of Blessed Fra Angelico

Today is the feast day of Blessed John of Fiesole who received the nickname Fra Angelico (or "Brother Angel) from his peers.

One of his first big projects was in Florence decorating the Dominican Monastery of San Marco. When he was called to Rome in 1445, he left the completion of the works to his assistants. But, before leaving, he completed one of his most beautiful works in a nondescript upstairs cell that may have been his own. It's an Annunciation painted high on the wall against the vaulted ceiling. Not a lavish rendition of the holy event it strikes us as deeply religious in its simplicity instead. Like the man who painted it, the scene can best be described as simply "holy." The angel Gabriel is positioned near the center of the arched composition, enlightening Mary of God's favor while off to the left, in one of several one-point perspective niches, stands Saint Dominic. The effect is that of a vision within a vision as Saint Dominic's prayers conjures up the vision of the angel and Mary and the whole painted scene is that of a vision seen by the occupant of the cell.

This image influenced John Lajba as he sculpted the angels which are on the inside of the sanctuary-side doors of our tabernacle. Their arms are, likewise, in a position of humility.

The image of the angel on the inside of the chapel-side door to our tabernacle is by Fra Angelico.

Preparing the Tabernacle

By gracing Mary as the Immaculate Conception, we understood that God prepared her to be the tabernacle for Christ. As such, today seems like a good time to look at the work for our new tabernacle.

This week Fr. Damian, Fr. Vogel, David Batter, Michelle Grzywa and Deacon David visited John Lajba at his studio where he is working on the doors for the tabernacle. He was working on the clay version. When finished, they will be used to create a mold and then cast into bronze.

The two doors facing the sanctuary will depict a scene from Luke 24:30-31 on Easter Sunday when Cleopas and another disciple recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread. The inside of the doors will have angels on them so that when the doors are open we will see the angels in adoration. John is basing the angels upon the work of Blessed Fra Angelico. Above Fr. Vogel commented on how well John is capturing the sense of perspective Fra Angelico used and how it matches the perspective of the table on the front.

John worked to capture the sense of surprise, wonder and awe on the faces of the disciples. He has one disciple holding a basket of bread. He was tempted to depict her dropping the basket in surprise, but felt that would distract.

 Above John adjusts Jesus's hair to better suit how Fr. Damian thinks it should look.

The chapel side doors will depict an icon from the book of Kells that may have been written by St. Columbkille. Above our guests see an actual size depiction of that door.

The figure above is what John has suggested as an angel for the inside of the chapel side door. This angel was painted by Blessed Fra Angelico.

There was also a side visit to Lambrecht Glass Studio.

Four of the stained glass windows from the previous church will be in the new chapel. They were just finishing work on the last of those. The windows are in very good shape but they were arched at the top. A few pieces have been added to the tops to make them into rectangles.

The wall of glass that will separate the chapel from the sanctuary is completed and on a pallet ready to be delivered and installed. They took one pane out for a preview of how they look.

Everything is coming along well.