A Clip of Papa Benny consecrating La Sagrada Familia
Our Archdiocesan website has this clip on it. You may enjoy it. It gives a good view of the interior of the "Minor Basilica" (which is what it is now classed as) of La Sagrada Familia. I thought the Pope's homily had some interesting points too. Especially the bit about Gaudi's confidence that "St Joseph" would complete this church!
5 Comments:
Awesome edifice, and when I say it looks as if it had not been built but rather grown on another planet, I mean it as a compliment. When he said that cultural progress requires moral progress, I remembered this clipping out of Albert Schweizer: Our own age...has arrived at the opinion that civilization consists primarily in scientific, technological, and artistic achievements, and that it can reach its goals without ethics, or with a minimum of them.
Watching this marvellous event on Tv here in Europe was just fascinating. But what an amazing basilica this is by Gaudi. Everywhere you look it is so revealing and stunning. The height, the colour, the stain glass windows, the altar, the baldacino...where do you start? It is just so uplifting and stunning architecturally and the celebration by the pope was truly a liturgical extravaganza if one can say that. It was just superb. But, the music of the day before up north west Spain would have been better there.
An observation: the Queen of Spain received communion from the pope standing up (actually she had to bend down as pope was a step down). But, the King did not receive communion. Now one never makes a judgment on such a matter, but it was highly unusual for the King not to do so along with the Queen (herself a former Greek Orthodox member being the sister of the thrown-out former |King of the Hellenes).
Overall a magnificent church for Barcelona and just 16 years to go before it is completed. This must be unique - a church consecrated 84 years after its architect died and still not yet completed! Gaudi would be impressed as are we all.
In the history of church building, I am sure there are other examples of churches consecrated long after the architect died - the unusual thing here is that they have followed his vision as closely as possible. Interesting about the Queen's reception of communion (I won't speculate on the King's choice not to) - I take it that if she was a step higher than the Pope, they were on a kind of dais, and the Pope went to them with communion, rather than them going to the Pope? Did others receive from the Pope in the customary manner of kneeling at a prayer desk?
Excellent! I would really love to see this church. Maybe one day.
The Queen is well-preserved for 72, but even a well-preserved 72-year old may have a perfectly obvious and very prosaic reason for not kneeling. Let's just say that her ballroom dancing days have been over for a couple of years now.
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