Abbey-Roads2

The private chapel of St. Rita.

Craig Hamilton’s work has not gotten much airing on the internet, or even in American classical circles; yet, this handsome private chapel (Georgian Award, 2006) in northern Britain shows a remarkable freeness and ease within the architectural language chosen, quietly mingling aspects of Sir John Soane’s work with Michelangelesque pediments and a convincing surety of form. I can only hope to see more documentation on this unjustifiably-neglected architect in the future. - New Liturgical Movement

NLM is one of the very best blogs online, and Matthew Alderman is working on a series of posts focused upon contemporary ecclesial art and architecture by traditional artists and architects.  Mr. Alderman writes:

One thing I would like our readers to consider over the next few days as I post other new architectural and sculptural work by outstanding traditional artists, I think many of our readers–and many Catholics of a traditional bent–are too quick to reject the work of most of the few talented artists out there because of issues of style. This is unfortunate, as often the only other option is to resort to inferior, mechanically-produced copies, a solution seized upon entirely too quickly as a viable option. This is not to say style is immaterial, but the issue of Gothic versus Classic versus Romanesque at this point in time serves to cloud the larger issue of artistic quality. Not all Gothic, or Romanesque, or Baroque, is created equal, and a partisan enthusiasm for one particular traditional style over another, whatever its legitimate merits, should not excuse faulty workmanship. -NLM 

St. Rita; a bronze for a marvelously inventive private chapel done by British architect Craig Hamilton. - NLM

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Novy Dvur

The Cistercian (O.C.S.O.) monastery of Novy Dvur, constructed outside Prague is a magnificintly austere abbey in the early tradition of Cistercian asceticism.  Designed by architect John Pawson, who gained fame for his minimal designs for the Calvin Klein boutiques, the monastery beautifully expresses the nada  of contemplative life.

The abbey Church is pure and unadorned space, majestically simple, wherein liturgical prayer is the entire focus, as is evidenced by the sanctuary with the centrality of the tabernacle and the altar of sacrifice.  Nothing created impedes the lifting up the heart to God.  The other traditional spaces of the complex are likewise as simple and austere with elements of classic monastic architecture. 

On monastic prayer.

“Do not let anyone occupy your heart, but God alone.” - Saint Theophane of Tambov

“It is above all a question of faith, a firm adhesion, without any support, where great things are at stake. In order to remain attentive to the Lord who is present, there is a manner of doing things that one would hardly call a method, unless one retains the etymology of this word: a way or path, a set of reference points from which each person must forge his own experience according to his personal grace, guided by an elder.

Each person, in effect, can turn himself to God, even without knowing it. But the practice of prayer – attentive personal and quiet presence before the Holy Sacrament – orients our life. We learn to remain in an attitude of prayer for a long time, occupied simply by a vocal prayer, invocations or a reading. We have grasped the fact that the desire to turn ourselves towards God, even when this is mixed with other desires, can happen with the help of divine grace.

And let us not distinguish between prayer from God and prayer from the man: there is only one side, everything comes from God, and yet the man really prays… Prayer in fact is a volontary commitment, consented in the action of the Christ Savior. If only we would care to lift the veil which blocks our vision, so overaccustomed to these realities, we would understand how much prayer is serious and simple in its accomplishment but ambitious in its result.

Outside of God, of the Faith, monks have no meaning and serve no useful end. the monk, himself, knows – since he shares the faith of the Church – that his vocation is mysteriously useful, mysteriously efficient for his brothers and sisters of mankind: he knows that it his participation, imperfect and unfaithful, in the life, the Passion and the sorrowful and solitary death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who in this way saved humanity.

It is also for this reason that the monk prays. Burying his prayer in the prayer of Jesus, he prays for all men, living and dead, believers and non-believers, those dear to him and those he knows not. Not so that, from bad they might become good… but so that all may have access to goodness and truth. This is the prayer of substitution or of intercession. - Novy Dvur website

Reading these thoughts on monastic prayer may help one understand the austerity of the architecture at Novy Dvur.

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Photo:  Sacred Heart Cathedral, Rochester NY before renovation. 

Trying to be positive. 

As much as I try to be Pollyanna about things - or should I say, forever optimistic about the state of the Church in the United States, sometimes this attitude simply falls apart.  I hear things, I read things, and wonder how the Church got so protestant.

Touring various blogs that continually ’piss and moan’ about all the liturgical abuses, bad catechises, progressivist liturgists, joined by modernist bishops and priests, so on and so forth, I must admit, many of the writers have their points, and the complaints are valid.  I mean, I’ve known all of that - I’ve lived with this novelty crap  for 40 years.  I could be likened to a kid growing up in an abusive household, I’ve just been trying to cope, struggling to keep my faith.  I get so tired of hearing/reading all the constant bickering. 

Since the Council, the modernist reformers in the Catholic Church, sanctioned by Roman Catholic Hierarchy, have acheived - in a stunningly short time - what the original reformers of the so-called Protestant Reformation  started out to do in the 16th century.

Blogs of distinction.

Photo: Sacred Heart Cathedral after renovation.  Tell me it hasn’t been Protestant-ised.

Salve Regina has a rather objective, albeit revealing post on the wreck-ovations of Fr. Richard Vasko, which clearly demonstrate the influence of Protestant iconoclasm omnipresent in contemporary ecclesial design.  It is nothing short of heart breaking.

Bishop Trautman (Erie Diocese), who seems to have his finger upon the pulse of the average Catholic lay person, is in the news with his views on liturgical language.  Gerald has done a fine job of presenting the Bishop’s insightful views into the mind of the Catholic faithful, thinking out loud, as he does, for the person in the pew; so check Cafeteria is Closed for his take on things.  He of course links to Fr. Z as well as Diogenes for their expositions on the debate. (Most of you probably have already read their stuff,which sometimes is a bit too sarcastic for me to read on a regular basis, though I understand the need for someone to expose this crap.)

The dismantling of the Catholic faith was foreseen before the Council.

Rorate Caeli has a post on Bishop Trautman’s recent statements concerning the Bishop’s opinion regarding new liturgical translations.  Rorate Caeli counters these with Dom Prosper Gueranges’  warning regarding liturgical reform, written in the mid to late 19th century.  The decimation of liturgical cult, worship, devotion and Church design, begun by the Protestant Reform has finally found pride of place in the Roman Catholic Church - in Europe as well as the U.S. and elsewhere.  This is part of what Dom Prosper Gueranger wrote:

“We must admit it is a master blow of Protestantism to have declared war on the sacred language. If it should ever succeed in ever destroying it, it would be well on the way to victory. Exposed to profane gaze, like a virgin who has been violated, from that moment on the Liturgy has lost much of its sacred character, and very soon people find that it is not worthwhile putting aside one’s work or pleasure in order to go and listen to what is being spoken in the way one speaks on the town square.…”- Dom Prosper Gueranger, taken from, Rorate Caeli 

On another blog, one commenter challenged another, asking what made her think that Protestantism has crept into the Catholic Church.  What kind of a dumb-ass question was that?

That’s all.

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Photo: St. John’s Abbey Church, Marcel Breuer, completed 1961.  (I happen to admire the architecture and consider it conducive to monastic liturgy.) 

It is not new. 

Many of us have lamented the banality and sterility in the architecture style of contemporary churches.  On various blogs and websites, there seems to be a blanket condemnation of modernist church design as a product of the so-called “spirit of Vatican II”.  It is an easy assumption to make, especially for younger Catholics and those unfamiliar with the history of architecture in general.

However, as I noted in my comments on the post at Salve Regina, this architectural trend predates Vatican Council II by several decades.  It emanates from post WWI 1920’s German Bauhaus School of architecture, re-named in post WWII United States as the Intenational Style, by the American architect, the late Philip Johnson due to an exhibition  on the subject at the Museum of Modern Art with the same title.

Not a few ‘modern’ churches in Minnesota reflect this style of architecture, in fact the abbey Church of St. John’s in St. Cloud, Minnesota is a good example of the architectural style of Marcel Breuer.  (The Abbey Church also has Stations of the Cross which are set into the floor.)  This Church certainly predates Vatican II, albeit the monks may have anticipated the changes on the horizon.  In addition, the local parish church I now attend was built in 1961, and is mostly devoid of all ornament, as are many churches dating from the 1950’s to the 1960’s.  All of these structures are derivative of the International Style. 

Photo credit: Salve Regina Blog.   

Purity of form and function remain the hallmarks of this particular school of modern architecture; devoid of ornament, in reaction to the “elitist” styles of architecture of the past.  The intent of the architect was to make good design available to the masses, demonstrating it could be manufactured from simple materials, and appropriated anywhere.  In this environment, on some level, the people became the focus, as opposed to the grandiose ornamental architecture of the elite.

The style gained sway in Germany, Holland and France, and may be understood as a revolt against the elitist monarchial systems that had been in place throughout Europe, which of course was evident in the prevailing triumphalist architecture.  Thus it is easy to see, how the style accorded with modernist trends emergent within the Catholic Church, with its emphasis upon the laity and active participation, not excluding the growing disrespect for hierarchal authority.

Though Nazi Germany, and later the Soviet Union expelled the International Style architects, I still believe within this school of thought are elements of Marxist socialism and the utopian dream.  Thus, some critics may be correct in referring to the style, especially in Churches, as “communist”.  Of course, I’m neither a historian nor is my scholarship of architecture well informed enough to back up this assertion, it is simply my impression.

People must remember that the desire for inovation and change, both liturgically and architecturally, indeed predates Vatican II.  Already when I was in grade school, forms of the dialogue Mass were being experimented with.  Churches were being constructed, greatly influenced by the International Stle, and religious art was becoming increasingly more modern, if not abstract.  Hence, the iconolclasm that occurred after the Council had been well underway, preceding the call by John XXIII to throw open the windows of the Church.

Indeed, the windows were opened, causing many things to ”come out” or at least surface, as well as occasioning many things to get in.  The seeds of rebellion and revolution were well embedded in the Church before the 1960’s; consider that previous Popes, including Pius XII, repeatedly warned about those who would dismantle the churches and the liturgy as well.  In my uneducated opinion, it is not that the Council either willed or permitted these things to happen, rather it seems to me the Council Fathers did little to condemn, much less stop the progression of the modernist movement within the Church.

Paul VI once lamented, “Through some crack the smoke of Satan has infiltrated the Church.”  With all due respect to His Holiness, I don’t think it was a crack, someone opened a window, while neglecting to put a screen on it. 

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