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WHY RENOVATE?

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18 June 2010 - 11:04am — joyce

By Father Will Prospero, S.J., Pastor

As you are aware, St. Mary’s is undergoing a renovation. While the renovation is cosmetic in nature, our intention is to make our place of worship a true meeting place between God and us. We come here primarily to worship together the living god of Jesus Christ, who is also the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So we worship the God of the patriarchs and the same God who comes close to us in Jesus Christ. Worshipping God well makes us like God and keeps us close to Him.
 
Our church’s configuration has changed since its original form in 1959. Certain liturgical documents after the Second Vatican Council brought some confusion about the placement of the tabernacle. There was bit of experimentation about the best way to emphasize the altar as center of worship, and to promote personal devotion to the presence of Christ in the tabernacle for worship outside of Mass. Separate spaces for personal devotion to the Blessed Sacrament were encouraged. However, after seeing a decline in belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, new norms are being published by Church leaders to help us to keep the sacred Presence of our Lord in our devotional lives. Now, the Church asks that the tabernacle be visible from every place in the church. Our old configuration prevented this from happening. Removing the wall and moving the tabernacle to the center will allow for us to see the tabernacle from everywhere in the church. At the same time, our altar will be architectually the focal point of our new configuration.
 
The most important dimension of our church is the altar as center of worship. Architectually, everything should point to this basic center, and be built from it. Hopefully, when our new altar is complete, it will stand up to this grand purpose. The Paschal Mystery, the dying and rising of Christ, is the central act of Christ that saves. The altar is the place where the Paschal Mystery is made present in our midst at every Mass. When Christ’s dying and rising is the center of our worship, it is meant to be lived daily in our lives.
 
Finally, we are trying to recover a strong sense of beauty in our new design. Beauty can bring us in touch with God, that is, with his transcendence and creative goodness. Beauty brings joy to us, knowing that God who loves us wants to bless us with His goodness. All of this is meant to facilitate a true renovation of our hearts, the true purpose of any church renovation. When we come in contact with the beauty and goodness of God, we are to thank Him for all that He has done for us. True worship is an act of praise and thanks to God for what He has done for us. May God bless this effort abundantly.