Not Just Another Building

By Fr. Alex Kramer

In the month of November, we liturgically celebrate the dedication of three churches, the pope's cathedral, St. John in the Lateran, along with the churches built over the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. These churches are stunning and are meant to teach us about the faith along with lifting our hearts and minds to celestial things.

While our parish church is not built in the baroque style of the great Roman basilicas we celebrate this month, it is jammed packed with symbols which teach us about our faith. For example, look at the blocks/stones which make up the walls. Have you ever noticed that there are three lines of split face block, then a row of smooth faced block, and so on around the whole church? This is a reminder of the great mystery of our faith which we call the Trinity. That the three divine persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are one God.

The Trinity is also recalled in the steps which lead up to the altar, for it is in only and through this great mystery that we have access to the Eucharist.

I could write pages upon pages about all the small details of our church building which remind us of what we believe, but I do not have time to do this in a short bulletin article. So, I simply invite you to pause and look around our church, searching for those seemingly small, but symbolically significant details of our church.