I received some very encouraging photographs today from a seminarian in Oxford. These show a significant liturgical, theological, ascetical and aesthetical change that has occurred in one of the chapels at St Stephen’s House.
Under a Ciborium/Baldacchino there was an altar that looked more like a coffee table. This led ones eye to a flower arrangement and a crucifix. All this was removed to have a properly dressed altar much more aesthetically pleasing that draws the mind, the eye and the soul towards the tabernacle. How encouraging to see the seminarians properly formed, with Jesus being placed (once again) at the centre of worship and life. Well done St Stephen’s, this is a definite and important step in the right direction.
My prayer is that from that house of priestly formation this development will inspire other houses of prayer up and down the country. Inspire them to enthrone Jesus in that rightful place, the centre of worship and life. Truly, this is a right step towards the re-establishment of the beauty of holiness. A step which contains the remedy for the malaise that holds the good old Church of England: the only way forward is to have Jesus in the centre of all, to submit to his words and teaching, to proclaim to this generation: Thy Kingdom Come! To inspire them with the Truth rather then the fleeting fashions of this passing age.
I am grateful for these images and this work – Laus Deo!
Under a Ciborium/Baldacchino there was an altar that looked more like a coffee table. This led ones eye to a flower arrangement and a crucifix. All this was removed to have a properly dressed altar much more aesthetically pleasing that draws the mind, the eye and the soul towards the tabernacle. How encouraging to see the seminarians properly formed, with Jesus being placed (once again) at the centre of worship and life. Well done St Stephen’s, this is a definite and important step in the right direction.
My prayer is that from that house of priestly formation this development will inspire other houses of prayer up and down the country. Inspire them to enthrone Jesus in that rightful place, the centre of worship and life. Truly, this is a right step towards the re-establishment of the beauty of holiness. A step which contains the remedy for the malaise that holds the good old Church of England: the only way forward is to have Jesus in the centre of all, to submit to his words and teaching, to proclaim to this generation: Thy Kingdom Come! To inspire them with the Truth rather then the fleeting fashions of this passing age.
I am grateful for these images and this work – Laus Deo!
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