My View For Awhile: Shore to Shore Edition

It’s time to leave the shore of Lake Superior for the shore of Lake Michigan.

My flight is from Marquette to Milwaukee, where I will pick up my car and head back to Madison, perhaps after an errand or two.

Before boarding I had a good chat with the rector of a seminary who was in for the ordination yesterday.

UPDATE

Next flight. I automatically went to a gate for the wrong city, so I had to beat it back across the airport.



I did have time to check out the relatively new Illy coffee bar.  Almost right.

UPDATE

Okay… this guy has me beat.

UPDATE

Each time I walk through this I think: LSD.

My plans to visit my friend Fr. Foster fell through, so I headed off to a couple churches.

First, St. Josaphat.

Architecture reflects what people truly believe.  This is what they built… back then.


What’s wrong with this picture?

Then off to nearby St. Stanislaus, which is held by the Institute of Christ the King.

I met the priest, who told me about the restoration project they have going for the sanctuary and altar, with a new Communion rail.

What’s wrong with this picture?

That was a trick question.  Nothing.  That’s a temporary altar set up while they complete their work.

Take in that window!   All the windows are like this: not a single religious symbol.  The priest thought they might look good in a bar.

After the churches, I had a nail-biting drive back to Mad City in driving rain, amidst the semis.   I kinda hate that.

And why the heck do Illinois drivers have to tailgate everyone they follow?

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in On the road, What Fr. Z is up to and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

22 Comments

  1. acardnal says:

    Someday you really must visit St Josephat’s Basilica in Milwaukee. Gorgeous.

  2. acardnal says:

    I should have added a link to above comment. There are some photos at their website, too.
    http://thebasilica.org/

  3. frjim4321 says:

    Hope you are home safe now.

    That first picture reminded me of the “Passenger Shaming” site … I thought I would see some bare feet sticking up in the air.

    I would imagine with all of your air miles you have see a LOT!

    [I have.]

  4. churchlady says:

    My husband and I were just in Milwaukee last weekend and visited these two beautiful churches, attended the Low Mass last Saturday morning at St. Stanislaus. Absolutely beautiful, both of them. In the basement of St. Josaphat is a fascinating reliquary room. We also stopped in St. Anthony’s a couple of blocks from St. Stanislaus. We came in at the end of noon Mass (We hadn’t planned to go there.) and were pleasantly surprised by the people receiving at the communion rail and the women with chapel veils, Altar boys with cassocks & surplices, prayers after Mass, and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. What a joy to be Catholic!

  5. benedetta says:

    Those sorts of highway encounters can be exhausting. Take any opportunities for un po de relax and rest.

    Thanks for the beautiful photos of St. Josaphat!

  6. wanda says:

    Ha, LSD tunnel. Crimson and clover, over and over. Be safe Fr. Z. Pray for you often. And thank you for taking your readers on visual trips to beautiful churches, to see works of art, especially goldfinches, and letting us look over your shoulder.

  7. Gail F says:

    What is the story with those windows? In the photos the colors are beautiful, but they hve to be fairly recent….

  8. Eric says:

    What’s wrong with this picture?

    There appears to be marble table stuck out in the middle of the sanctuary.

  9. CatholicMD says:

    In St. Louis you can bank on the fact that if you get cut off the license plate will be from Illinois.

  10. “And why the heck to Illinois drivers have to tailgate everyone the follow?”

    It’s the effect of Illinois liberalism. The entitlement mentality has everybody in that liberal rat race thinking they’re the only ones deserving of the roadway, even at the cost of others’ well being. This mentality of the Stage 4 Illinois liberal transcends more than just bad driving.

  11. Venerator Sti Lot says:

    St. Josaphat: “What’s wrong with this picture?” I thought you meant the one above the question and wondered, ‘What can it be? No Pantocrator?’ (I’ve been thinking often this week of the Pentecostal dome mosaic in the nave of San Marco, in Venice, though I only know it from photos.)

    St. Stanislaus: But, Fathers, but, Fathers, every window-section I can see in that detailed photo has a St. Andrew’s cross.

    I wonder about such waiting-for-the-multi-car-pile-up drivers in other places as well. Is it predicated on the assumption – or fact – that too few of the other drivers have the sense to leave safe stopping-distances, so if anyone tries to, others immediately fill it up?

  12. Dave P. says:

    The old stained glass windows at St. Stanislaus were discovered in someone’s basement. They will be replacing the abominations from the 60’s:

    http://www.wisn.com/news/stained-glass-windows-from-1800s-to-be-returned-to-milwaukee-church/33047668

  13. Cool Catholic says:

    Dave P.
    thanks for posting the link – it’s a real good news story!

  14. Kathleen10 says:

    In New England our worst drivers always come from Massachusetts. There is a rude name for them, which I won’t repeat here but which you can probably figure out. Mass drivers are the worst, and I’ve driven in quite a few places. Fast and reckless, throw in rude, you got it. Hate to say it, but the state is horribly liberal, and people drive with disregard for others.

  15. Jordanes says:

    My family attended a beautiful (and standing room only) Palm Sunday Mass at St. Stanislaus a few years ago. Whenever we visit relatives up there, from now on we only go to St. Stanislaus, after three previous awful liturgical experiences at “Novus Ordo” parishes elsewhere in the archdiocese. I’m glad to hear that a beautiful church building is about to become even lovelier.

    As for Illinois drivers, in fairness I think that’s mostly a Chicago-area thing. I hate driving in and around Chicago, because pretty much all the local drivers are completely insane and have no concern for others’ safety or even their own. Get south of I-80 and things settle down.

  16. Gerard Plourde says:

    The story about the stained glass windows is interesting. Was the original plan to remove and restore the windows but had the artisan commissioned to do the work become sick and unable complete the job forcing the pastor to get a substitute the parish could afford? That’s the sense I get from the linked news story. Stained glass is a beautiful but admittedly fragile art form. The lead used to hold the pieces in place deteriorates over time and has to be replaced. In some cases an almost total rebuild involving highly skilled artisans, much time and first-class replacement materials is required. By the 1960’s, the skill had become arcane and the materials needed to properly do the job scarce. It’s possible that the Holy Spirit was working to ensure that the windows would be preserved until a truly professional restoration could be effected. Let’s applaud the small miracle God has wrought.

  17. SanSan says:

    Can’t we please take out the “slab” altars and just turn around to the main most beautiful altar where are dear Lord is? Windows are so sad.

  18. SanSan says:

    interesting that most comments are about insane drivers and not the Church….just sayin

  19. Elizabeth D says:

    I also found the story about the finding of the window glass from St Stanislaus in a basement very interesting. In reading/viewing deeper into the story, I learned from a parish video about their restoration plans that was made before the finding of the glass, that the windows were removed in the 60s by breaking them inward into the church, while some women, very pained at the destruction of something so beautiful, stood outside praying the rosary. So the found glass is broken windows, and probably very partial. It was saved by a woman who seems to have had a hobby of making stained glass items. She became ill and passed away, her husband says she “intended to restore them” before she got sick but genuinely restoring the broken and partial windows seems like it may have been way beyond the skill of this lady so maybe she had intended to use the pieces to make smaller items? Now the boxes of pieces of broken windows have been handed over to a professional stained glass window company and it will be interesting to see what they will do with them. The news stories strangely did not seem to include any comment from or interviews with parish representatives nor refer to the pain of parishioners in the 60s when the windows were initially removed, nor the parish’s renaissance as a Traditonal Latin Mass parish.

  20. Dave P. says:

    Jordanes:

    St. Anthony (just four blocks away from St. Stanislaus) is a lovely church with Masses celebrated reverently in both English and Spanish (with lots of Latin as well). I invite you to pay it a visit.

  21. Joboww says:

    just an FYI. What was found constituted around 10% of the originals, but nothing whole. However we are very excited because we now have something to go by when we incorporate the originals into the new stain glass windows.

Comments are closed.