WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

I doubt not then but innocence shall make false accusation blush, and tyranny tremble at patience.

If it looks like a church... .

A local diocesan parish is planning a move, and along with that move a new church building and parish centre are in the works. The community's timing is excellent. The area in which the existing parish is located, and the area where the new project will be located, is booming; one of Canada's fasting growing regions. They have sufficient funds to facilitate a successful project: https://olorchurch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-19-Presentation-1.pdf

Unfortunately, their new church will have all the warmth of a refrigerator. An interior scoured of theological richness has been chosen over one that draws people through the transcendentals into the mystery of the Incarnation. A safe space has been chosen over a human one. And, if precedent holds, the celebration of Mass will come to resemble the space: flat; boxy; plodding. That said, the appearance of an apse of sorts, an ever so brief nod to historic and integral Catholic design, is a welcome acknowledgement on the part of any parish claiming to be Catholic. Likewise, the organization of pews restores a sense of navis (ship), the nave, a symbol of the Church, the traditional orientation of the congregation to the sanctuary or holy of holies. Perhaps a healthy number of well crafted stained glass windows and Stations of the Cross will further enhance the Catholicity of the interior.

Proposed design | Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Langford

Rather than a feast, fast food.

For contrast, a couple of "Other Modern" designs.

Saint John The Apostle | Leesburg, VA

Our Lady of Walsingham Cathedral | Mother Church of the North American Ordinariate

Modern need not be mundane. Modest need not mean milk-and-water.

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SAINT MATTHEW 27:3-4

When Judas, his betrayer, saw that he was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.”

1 THESSALONIANS 5:2

For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

2 TIMOTHY 1:7

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control.

POPE LEO XIV Magnifica Humanitas

Even in the darkest nights, the Lord raises up men and women who refuse to give up, who persevere in doing good, who protect the vulnerable and open pathways to reconciliation. The memory of the saints, righteous people and the oft-forgotten peacemakers, show us that grace does not magically eliminate conflict, but instead it inspires active resistance to evil and an astonishing creativity in doing good” (paragraph 211).

WORDS TO THE WHYS

Forsooth, when ignorance doth wear so bold a face, and folly struts with such unblushing pride, methinks the time hath come to cast off patience, and with a tongue that brooks no further slight, to bid these dolts depart, and find some other ear to plague with their unlettered prate!

CAEDMON'S COMMENT

Þonne sum man leógan cwyð ymbe þē, on heáge þæs gewealdes, hē āna geseald his āgenes heortan gebreáw.