Solemnity of Christ The King

We celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, on the fourth sunday of November, every year. On this day, the Scripture readings remind us about what sort of Kingdom Jesus came to establish.

The Feast of Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as an antidote to secularism, a way of life which leaves God out of man’s thinking and living and organizes his life as if God did not exist. The feast is intended to proclaim in a striking and effective manner Christ’s royalty over individuals, families, society, governments, and nations.

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Today’s Mass establishes the titles for Christ’s royalty over men:

1) Christ is God, the Creator of the universe and hence wields a supreme power over all things; “All things were created by Him”;

2) Christ is our Redeemer, He purchased us by His precious Blood, and made us His property and possession;

3) Christ is Head of the Church, “holding in all things the primacy”;

4) God bestowed upon Christ the nations of the world as His special possession and dominion.

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Today’s Mass also describes the qualities of Christ’s kingdom.

This kingdom is:

1) supreme, extending not only to all people but also to their princes and kings;

2) universal, extending to all nations and to all places;

3) eternal, for “The Lord shall sit a King forever”;

4) spiritual, Christ’s “kingdom is not of this world”.

Lets hail our king and praise Him in every way we can. Amen.

Do Catholics worship statues?

No. In fact, the Church has come out repeatedly against the worship of statues, in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the new Catechism, and so on.

As far as bowing to God while in the presence of statues of the saints, that’s no more worship than it is to kneel near another praying Christian, or a priest facing you. Nor are you worshipping the pages of your Bible if you kneel with it in your hand. I have knelt with statues of saints as I have asked the saints in heaven to pray for me, and the main thing on my mind is how together, humans that we are, we might glorify God. I also imagine the saint in heaven, and try to open myself to contact with his or her soul, in the way you might open yourself to a teacher who knows more than you.

Obviously there is nothing wrong with having teachers about Christ. “Why not go directly to Christ?” a well-meaning person might ask. I’d say for the same reason you listen to a preacher, or read an interesting book about the Bible (why not only read the Bible all the time?). As Christians, part of the way we learn from God is by learning from one another.

You see, unfortunately, there is an idea sometimes that goes like this: “If I will throw out all the art in my room, all the details, and just sit in the barest space possible so that I don’t have the slightest distraction, I will be better able to focus on God.” The truth of the matter, though, is that God gives various members of the Church different gifts, and some folks get the gift of creating art.

One man can sculpt like you wouldn’t believe, another lady has such a perfect sense of architecture that she can design a Church so that one room flows into another as it all flows upward like the soul aspiring toward God, another man has studied the stained glass windows of medieval Europe and had a religious experience, and he has brought that experience back to America to try to convey it to others as well as he can.

Once we see this reality, the Catholic says, “Let’s dive right in. Let’s make the church beautiful to all the senses. When you enter, you will feel the cold on the tip of your finger, as you touch the holy water. Later, you will smell the incense. You will hear people singing a psalm. You will see the stained glass windows of the church. You will taste the bread and wine of the Eucharist.”

When we turn to the dogma of the Communion of the Saints, we have the same visual fulfillment.

Some of the sculptures to aid in this meditation are astonishing. In the Renaissance, the sculptor Donatello produced a work in which the Virgin Mary gets visited by the Angel Gabriel, who announces that she will be the mother of the messiah. In the sculpture, Gabriel looks right at her, simply conveying the message, but her own posture conveys more. You see, her body is slightly turned away, but also turning back toward the angel. Somehow Donatello conveyed her reservations about this giant role put before her, the weighty responsibility, at the same time she is turning back toward the angel and leaning toward him as if to say that she really does want the responsibility after all. (The art historian Kenneth Clark pointed this out.)

Christ established a Church that would encourage the kindest, noblest aspects of the human being, and people gifted in the arts have contributed to the body of Christ.

- – - written by Christopher M. Butler

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Many Evangelicals sing with their hands in the air. Sometimes they kneel while singing the music. If I would say “you are worshipping the music” they would quickly correct me and tell me that they are worshipping through music. The music is a  vehicle of expression to bring out an inner feeling – to honour and glorify God. I would agree with them because I love singing praise music like Vineyard, Hosanna, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redmond, and Integrity music. And yup, my hands are sometimes in the air.

I think beautiful art such as a statue or a painting in a Catholic Church is used in the same way Evangelicals use beautiful music (which is also a form of art). We do not worship the art itself as is described in Psalms 97:7.

The art is a vehicle of expression to bring out an inner feeling – to honour and glorify God. Catholics worship Jesus through art just as faithful Evangelicals worship through music. This is not exalting foreign gods (Psm 97:7). It is reverencing the One True God. We don’t think we should hold disdain for visual art while having such respect of audio art (music).

The statue simply reminds us of the beauty of God and the magnitude of his suffering for us.

The condemnation of art in the Bible speaks about something quite distinct from what we find in Catholic Churches. Catholics emphatically agree that it is an abomination to create and worship pieces of art that are intended to represent false gods, or that the art is a god itself. Catholics believe neither of these are true in the case of statues and art which simply remind us of the One True God. The statue is just a reminder – like a good “honk if you love Jesus” bumper sticker.

- – - (Read the Full Article Here)

Check out the 10 most unique churches in the world. They are really beautiful.

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1. Harajuku :  Japanese Futuristic Church

This futuristic protestant church ‘Harajuku’ - (click on any image to view in full size) - is located in Tokyo and it was first unveiled by the design firm of Ciel Rouge Creation in 2005. The ceiling is specially made to reverberate natural sound for 2 seconds to provide a unique listening experience for worshipers and tourists.

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2. Saint Basil’s Cathedral : The Red Square ’s Colorful Church

The St. Basil’s Cathedral is located on the Red Square in Moscow , Russia . A Russian Orthodox church, the Cathedral sports a series of colorful bulbous domes that taper to a point, aptly named onion domes, that are part of Moscow’s Kremlin skyline.

The cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the capture of the Khanate of Kazan. In 1588 Tsar Fedor Ivanovich had a chapel added on the eastern side above the grave of Basil Fool for Christ, a Russian Orthodox saint after whom the cathedral was popularly named.

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3. Hallgrímskirkja : Iceland ’s Most Amazing Church

The Hallgrímskirkja (literally, the church of Hallgrímur ) is a Lutheran parish church located in Reykjavík , Iceland . At 74.5 metres (244 ft), it is the fourth tallest architectural structure in Iceland . The church is named after the Icelandic poet and clergyman Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614 to 1674), author of the Passion Hymns. State Architect Guðjón Samúelsson’s design of the church was commissioned in 1937; it took 38 years to build it.

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4. Temppeliaukio Kirkko : The Rock Church

The Temppeliaukio Kirkko ( Rock Church ) is a thrilling work of modern architecture in Helsinki . Completed in 1952, it is built entirely underground and has a ceiling made of copper wire. It was designed by architect brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen and completed in 1969. They chose a rocky outcrop rising about 40 feet above street level, and blasted out the walls from the inside. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Helsinki and frequently full of visitors.

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5. Cathedral of Brasília : The Modern Church of architect Oscar Niemeyer

The Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida in the capital of Brazil is an expression of the architect Oscar Niemeyer… This concrete-framed hyperboloid structure, seems with its glass roof to be reaching up, open, to heaven. On 31 May 1970, the Cathedral’s structure was finished, and only the 70 m diameter of the circular area were visible. Niemeyer’s project of Cathedral of Brasília is based in the hyperboloid of revolution which sections are asymmetric. The hyperboloid structure itself is a result of 16 identical assembled concrete columns. These columns, having hyperbolic section and weighing 90 t, represent two hands moving upwards to heaven. The Cathedral was dedicated on 31 May 1970.

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6. Borgund  Church : Best Preserved Stave Church

The Borgund Stave Church in LÃrdal is the best preserved of Norway ’s 28 extant stave churches. This wooden church, probably built in the end of the 12th century, has not changed structure or had a major reconstruction since the date it was built. The church is also featured as a Wonder for the Viking civilization in the video game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.

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7. Las Lajas Cathedral : A Gothic Church Worthy of a Fairy Tale

The Las Lajas Cathedral is located in southern Colombia and built in 1916 inside the canyon of the Guaitara River . According to the legend, this was the place where an indian woman named María Mueses de Quiñones was carrying her deaf-mute daughter Rosa on her back near Las Lajas (“The Rocks”). Weary of the climb, the María sat down on a rock when Rosa spoke (for the first time) about an apparition in a cave.

Later on, a mysterious painting of the Virgin Mary carrying a baby was discovered on the wall of the cave. Supposedly, studies of the painting showed no proof of paint or pigments on the rock – instead, when a core sample was taken, it was found that the colors were impregnated in the rock itself to a depth of several feet. Whether true or not, the legend spurred the building of this amazing church.

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8. St. Joseph Church : Known for its Thirteen Gold Domed Roof

The St. Joseph The Betrothed is an Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Chicago . Built in 1956, it is most known for its ultra-modern thirteen gold domed roof symbolizing the twelve apostles and Jesus Christ as the largest center dome. The interior of the church is completely adorned with byzantine style icons (frescoes). Unfortunately the iconographer was deported back to his homeland before he was able to write the names of all the saints as prescribed by iconographic traditions.

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9. Ružica  Church : Where Chandeliers are made of Bullet Shells

Located over the Kalemegdan Fortress in Belgrade, Serbia, the Ružica Church is a small chapel decorated with… with trench art! Its chandeliers are entirely made of spent bullet casing, swords, and cannon parts.

The space the church now occupies was used by the Turks as gunpowder storage for over 100 years and it had to be largely rebuilt in 1920 after WWI. Though damaged by bombings there was an upshot to the terrible carnage of The Great War. While fighting alongside England and the US , Serbian soldiers on the Thessaloniki front took the time to put together these amazing chandeliers. It is one of the world’s finest examples of trench art.

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10. Chapel of St-Gildas : Built into the base of a bare rocky cliff

The Chapel of St-Gildas sits upon the bank of the Canal du Blavet in Brittany, France . Built like a stone barn into the base of a bare rocky cliff, this was once a holy place of the Druids. Gildas appears to have travelled widely throughout the Celtic world of Corwall, Wales , Ireland and Scotland . He arrived in Brittany in about AD 540 and is said to have preached Christianity to the people from a rough pulpit, now contained within the chapel.