In the meantime, I was learning to use our little camera.... All these images get large if you click on them. We went to downtown LA and saw the Disney Music Hall --couldn't go inside because it was closed for the holiday... but the outside was mindblowing.... I decided it is a fascinating structure, but probably won't make real good ruins.... just a heap.
Then we went to the Roman cathedral, which is just a few blocks away. It was stunning. There are two shrines to Our Lady of Guadalupe, one is outside and the other is inside and contains a remnant of the Guadalupe shroud. There was a lot of crying and praying going on at both Guadalupe sites, so I didn't take pictures. I have a little shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in our kitchen--as all native Californians should.... but these were magnificent. That is Our Lady over the main entrance.
This is where the reserve Sacrament rests.... stunning --enter through the doors, walk up a small incline, and there is a hidden chapel which welcomes you in prayerful dignity. The large bronze pillars (they are hinged and can open) to the left of the cross is where the bread and wine are reserved.
This is the main nave of the cathedral --the baptismal font is very deep and has stairs in the form of a cross which descend and ascend. Each corner of black marble has a basin which has water flowing into the main part of the font. Baptismal oil lives in a glass case nearby. For perspective, the Paschal candle is about 12 inches wide. The cross, which stands behind the altar way way down in front is nearly life size. The altar is about 8x8 feet and is two feet thick --red marble. All the signs are there. Available. Neutral. It seems to me this place would really come alive when it is full of people. Otherwise it is very contemplative and restful.
Then we went to Olivera Street --an open air market in an old part of town. People were singing and dancing. It was fun. And Colorful.
Family drank Mexican chocolate--with cinnamon and chile spices. I ate mole and flan.
This place was too active in prayer to take pictures.... it would have been an Anglo invasion if we had done so. Most amazing dead Jesus statue I have ever seen. Laid out as a corpse in a coffin like structure with his privates covered with a sequin clothe.... whole thing surrounded and drenched in fresh flowers.
If you look carefully, you can see the plantains in the tree (like bananas). Growing in the median in the parking lot. It sure isn't Richmond!
7 comments:
Thanks for sharing these photos. They link me to a part of the world where I once lived. I have only seen the Disney Hall and the Cathedral from outside and they are both much newer than when I lived in the southland (left in 1981 for the Bay Area). I won't say these fill me with yearning - it was long ago in a transitional part of my life - but I enjoy them immensely. Blessings on your time there!
It's nostalgic and energizing for me too Paul. We lived out in the desert more recently, but we avoided downtown LA with a passion. So, now I'm being homesick and a tourist, all at once!
Oh the Cathedral... How I love that place. The first time I stood in it, fully expecting to loathe such a new building, I wept.
My professor for my fall course, which was Sacraments and Liturgy (who is a priest of the diocese I live in and also a well known ecclesiastical architect) was the art director for that project. He oversaw the creation of the doors and of those taptestries. Also that baptismal font has his name written all over it.
The tapestries always make me weepy, such human faces to the saints, all headed to the altar. And that downward slope that draws you lower. Ahhhh....
The Guadelupe Shrine outdoors is newer and an evolving work in progress. I have had the good fortune to celebrate OLG mass there one Sunday a few years back when the day fell on Sunday.
Say what you will about Roger Mahony, I must say that the first time I was at Eucharist there he made sure to tell everyone (the Cathedral was brand new then) to come up to the altar and to look, to touch... that it was our church, alive, not a museum and not for clergy only.
Once I got to bring up the gifts, that was another beautiful moment in that wonderful place that means so much to me.
Sorry for the long comment.
I also LOVE Olvera Street. When I lived in LA I lived not too far from downtown, I was there all the time. When I go back I always end up down there.
Fran! --how wonderful! I felt the same beauty and mystery, and regretted not being able to see it with its gathered community. I loved that altar, and was astounded that it was not roped off, but so accessible--as were all the signs (water, oil, bread) which point to the sacraments.
I am VERY glad I went.
Oh my, Richard Vosko (my professor that I mentioned)would love to hear what you had to say about the sacraments. I must send this to him.
A Roman cathedral? How on earth did they ship it all that way?
Why not just say "catholic" and be done with it? Why this ridiculous pre-Raphaelite affectation? Haven't you got over Apostolicae Curae yet?
My guess is that you don't refer to the orthodox as "the greeks" or "the russians".
Pitiful, stupid, irrelevant, all wrapt around resentments and fantasy.
Welcome to the world of religion.
Margaret, I envy you your visits to the Getty and to the cathedral. I'm green with envy, but I'm still glad YOU got to visit them.
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