What happens to Christian worship when sacred architecture is no longer deemed revelant? Introduction: A Most Bemusing Church Tour Not long ago I was offered a personal tour of an Episcopal church by a pastor seeking advice on how to update its interior. The Depression-era structure was attractive in a quasi-high church, Episcopalian sort of […]
Author: Michael E. DeSanctis
Eucharistic Liturgy · September / October 2021
Concerning the Christian Altar
How did Jesus’ table become an altar and how do we understand it today? Introduction I wasn’t entirely surprised by the nature of the encounter I once had with an elderly laywoman in a Catholic parish that had sought my assistance with its church renovation project. Our exchange occurred one morning while I was collecting […]
Eucharistic Liturgy · May / June 2021
The Domestic Table and the Lord’s Table: Rehearsing the Habits of a Eucharistic People
What does the Eucharist teach us about how we share meals and what do our family meals contribute to our understanding of the Eucharist? “[T]the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” Isaiah 25:6 Early Experiences of Eucharist and […]
Eucharist: Living & Evangelizing · March / April 2021
Lenten Reflection on the Cleveland Museum of Art’s ‘Master of Rabenden Vesperbild’
What meaning do we make of images of suffering that portray Christ’s passion and death? Vesperbild (Pietà) c. 1515-20 MASTER OF RABENDEN Lindenwood, polychromed and gilded Overall: 89.1 x 78.7 x 32.4 cm Cleveland Museum of Art I still remember the interior conflict that befell me after seeing Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List for the first […]
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Eucharistic Liturgy · January / February 2021
Preserving the Place and Practice of Eucharistic Prayer: An Ecumenical Survey of Christian Pastors
What values do pastors of differing Christian traditions share when celebrating Eucharist in sacred spaces? Introduction: Current Challenges to Eucharistic Place and Piety For some thirty-five years I have served Roman Catholic parish communities throughout the United States as a liturgical educator, designer and consultant, a tripartite lay ministry, as I see it, inseparable from […]
Eucharistic Liturgy · November / December 2020
Chalkware Catholicism: The Aims and Art of Catholic Statuary Reconsidered
What does a sacramental imagination make of the religiously mundane? Sleeping Among the Saints “Chalkware Catholicism” is a phrase I coined some time ago in my writing on sacred art and architecture to describe an approach to the faith, once widespread among the faithful, that relied heavily on the plaster statuary — or “chalkware” — […]
Eucharistic Liturgy · September / October 2020
Of What Use are Church Buildings in Times of Calamity?
Church Buildings have historically been considered as sanctuaries in difficult times. What meaning do they have when people are barred from entering them? Those Emmanuel readers with a special interest in Italy, even before the tragic turn COVID-19 recently took through that overwhelmingly Catholic country, may have known it as a place where devotion to […]
Eucharistic Liturgy · July / August 2020
Advice to Pastors on Preserving a Legacy of Artistic Expression
How do pastors convey the rich meanings of Catholic sacred art to a congregation naïve of religious visual language? Our Secularized Scene Not long ago, while wending my way through the collection of paintings from medieval Europe at a major metropolitan museum, I came upon a conversation between a boy and his parents that struck […]
Eucharistic Liturgy · May / June 2020
Topiary, Aviary, Bestiary, Breviary: An Organic Reading of Church Architecture
What do our great church buildings tell us about our relationship to creation? Our Mechanized Environment The Swiss-born Modernist architect LeCorbusier (1887-1965) is credited with having inspired several generations of architects throughout the world to regard their art as one aligned with the mechanization of human life, something akin to the business of boilermakers or […]
Eucharistic Liturgy · March / April 2020
The Truth About “Cold,” Modernist Church Architecture
Discussion about Modernist church architecture is often charged with emotion and rooted in personal taste. Why is this the case and how do we move beyond it? There’s a persistent refrain one hears from certain corners of the Church today that goes something like this: The wholesale reconfiguration of the Catholic place of worship presumably […]