Signs of Hope

After years of living in whitewashed churches, it can be depressing to stare at the blank walls and abstract art and wonder what sort of decorations have been obliterated in the name of spartan simplicity. But in our parish, young artists have finally found some employment: our pastor, Fr. Edward Hathaway, hired two aspiring female painters, Mandy Hain and Michelle Scheibel, to redecorate our Eucharistic chapel, a historic Gothic chapel that underwent a monochrome rennovation in beige and brown sometime in the 70's. After weeks of Lenten working, creating faux marble finishes on the walls, gilding the soaring beams overhead and painstakingly applying elaborate stencils, the artists finished on Holy Thursday, in time for the Tridduum. During the restoration, our pastor replaced the sterile wood resin Mary with this hundred-year-old marble Madonna, and he has plans for the stained glass windows as well.

It is breathtaking to see how beauty has been brought back to this holy space. And a sign of hope for the cause of beauty in the American Catholic Church.