I walked through a Holy Door yesterday.
It is not the first I have gone through, but it was very special. I admit I was super excited. We took a group of high school youth and their families to the Our Lady of Victory Basilica for the Year of Mercy to go to mass and take a tour. Each time I make a pilgrimage, I am overwhelmed by the largesse which makes up our faith in holy places, church spaces and the diversity of its people. I also think the thought of a Jubilee indulgence is pretty cool. I wanted to take everyone I know with me and I prayed for as many as I thought of as we toured this magnificent space.
Being a cradle Catholic, I admit I only know this paradigm with a from birth experience. It definitely has colored my world and family view. This is a blessing to me. I see things and appreciate them because of it. I see that by the hands and feet of generations, our church buildings have been constructed; pennies given when pennies were dear, to the cause of each new parish. On a vacation with two of my dear colleagues, we took the road less traveled in an area called Proctor, Vermont and toured the Vermont Marble company museum that provided the marble for monuments in our nation’s capital and for some of the churches I have knelt in on a regular basis. The process of monument making explained, has made me respect these spaces for the exacting nature and manual labor that extrication from the quarry has cost. Powerful is the feeling of seeing the face of Jesus and his mother, lovingly carved from one solid block of Carrera marble now that I know the toil and care it takes to do that work.
I took a stained glass class with my husband and we each made a stained glass thing for our yard. It took three hours and both of them needed repair after a year in the weather. Trust me, they were not even a blip in the size of a window in a basilica or a cathedral. They made all the windows in the OLV basilica in five years and the features and details are amazing and breathtaking. The windows in my own parish have needed repair recently and they are valued at over $12,000 a square foot.
Our docent was lovely. A powerful former Buffalo public school teacher packed into a petite figure, she was able to boom her voice so we could all hear her in the expansive space. She explained so well, we had few questions as we took in her passion and knowledge of the building, its architecture and history. Her passion for the subject matter and for giving this tour was evident. She asked me how much time we had. I think I could have listened to her until she felt done with talking. I hope her former students had that same experience of her in her classroom. She loved doing this and I enjoyed it all the more because she did. She sent us all home with homework.
The sacred nature of this space and the joy of our trip was passing on the legacy. I love our history as American Catholics. I am grateful for the struggle of our ancestors to ensure we are able to worship boldly and that I can practice my faith. The commitment and passion of those who came here as immigrants to build a home to worship always clutches at my heart. It is a gift I try not to take for granted, but as churches close all around this country, it also challenges me to be the type of teacher and lay leader who shares how lucky we are to have had this history and to share that we are but one generation away from losing such spaces to bulldozers due to apathy, lower church attendance and finances. It costs a lot of money to keep these older buildings going and to maintain the mint condition that is necessary to continue to use them. I work in a historic parish. We have been on this site for 165+ years which is a significant reputation to honor every day you come to work, but it is one I treasure. I try to show the children the cool and unique features of our church and its architecture and to appreciate the cost given to put it here.
The most important thing shared as we walked through that Holy Door is HOPE. Our faith built that Basilica and too the parish I work in. That faith is still strong. We must be people who live that faith out in the world, and though we may not need as many new churches here in WNY, perhaps that is the next phase of our faith. A renewal and rebirth of a lived out Catholic experience.
I look forward to what comes next on the journey of faith in WNY. I am thinking I will try to hit all seven of these Holy Doors this year. Anyone want to come with me?
People Collector 
You must be logged in to post a comment.