THE BEACHSIDE CHURCH IN ST. MAARTEN

Supplied with a reasonable stash of Belgian chocolate (which lasted post-cruise for a week or so), we walked over to the Boardwalk which fronts one of the prettiest stretches of beach on St. Maarten.

Strolling down towards the water taxi pier we came across the St. Martin of Tours church. If you follow my blog, you know I stop for churches, no matter their size or location. When I saw this pretty church located right on the beach, I had to go inside.

 






The church is named after St. Martin of Tours, who lived in 4th-century France and became one of the most famous of the Christian saints. One story told is he once cut his cloak in half to give to a beggar. A statue of the bishop was dedicated in 2012 and stands at the entrance to the church. A plaque to the right of the entrance gives a brief biography of the saint.

What a beautiful, colorful interior befitting a church located on a Caribbean island. It is not a small church; there is also a section of pews on both sides of the main nave. Statues of saints line both sides of the nave.

The beautiful altar with the large crucifix behind it.

The back of the church...

As you enter the church you see a set of colorful tiles on the wall which tell stories of the life of St. Martin including the middle one which shows the saint giving part of his cloak to a beggar.

There is a shrine to the Lady of La Salette (the Virgin Mary) just outside the entrance to the church. In the French town of La Salette in the mid-19th century, two French children, Melanie and Maximin, came upon "a beautiful lady" wearing a white robe weeping by the side of the road, her elbows on her knees and her hands covering her face. When Mary saw the children, she asked them to come to her. Mary told the children to warn people to stop taking the Name of her Son in vain and respect the Sabbath as a day of rest. If not, their harvests will be spoiled. One side of the shrine has two statues of Mary, one standing and one weeping.

The other side of the shrine again shows a statue of Mary between statues of the two children.

We spent a few minutes in this peaceful sanctuary before walking along the beach. We discovered on our last visit that this beach is great for hunting for shells. Afterwards we took the water taxi back to the ship. Our cruise was coming to an end...we would dock back in San Juan the following morning.

Thank you for visiting,

A Great Europe Trip Planner 

All photos were taken by my husband and me during our visit to St. Maarten.

THE STAINED GLASS OF WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL

It was clear and sunny the day we visited the Washington National Cathedral, so the sun shining through the stained glass windows created a kaleidoscope of colors on the massive pillars.

The cathedral is built in the shape of a cross and as you reach the point where the nave meets the two transept arms you normally have a great view of the cathedral's three beautiful rose windows. However during our visit two of the windows were covered with scaffolding so the only rose window visible was the Church Triumphant window in the south transept.

The Space Window commemorates the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and holds a piece of moon rock brought back by its crew. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins delivered the seven-gram sample from the lunar Sea of Tranquility.

The clerestory or upper-level stained glass windows were designed by Rowan LeCompte. He was first commissioned for a stained glass window in the cathedral at the amazing age of sixteen! Check out the video interview with Mr. LeCompte here as he tells the story and shows how he and his partner made their final window for the cathedral.

War and Peace is the title of this brilliant stained glass window located in the Woodrow Wilson Bay. There are many images symbolizing events in the life of the president who is buried in the cathedral.

On December 8, 1891, in the Washington DC home of Charles C. Glover, a group of men met and decided to build the Washington Cathedral. This event is commemorated in these Glover Bay windows.

Scenes depicting the lush lands explored in the 1803 Lewis and Clark expedition make up these two windows. The sun shining through the colorful glass made the stone of the window bays brilliant with color.

These windows, located in the National Cathedral Association Bay, portray some of the roles of Christian women as "life-givers, healers, purifiers, and teachers".

Above the Abraham Lincoln Bay is this beautiful abstract-designed window titled The Agony of Civil War.

The last window is a brilliantly-colored clerestory window above the Bettelheim Bay...

For more information visit www.nationalcathedral.org.

All photos in this blog post were taken by my husband and me during our visit in September, 2013.

INSIDE THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL

Once inside the Washington National Cathedral it is hard not to immediately look up and be impressed by the sheer height of the cathedral.  Even through the protective netting which was installed after the August, 2011 earthquake to prevent debris falling on visitors, the enormous limestone pillars and colorful flags lead your eyes up to the beautiful stained glass windows and the vaulted ceiling.

As you walk up the nave you come to the beautiful Canterbury Pulpit. Stones for the pulpit came from Canterbury Cathedral in England.

 A close-up showing the detailed carvings on the pulpit.

As you walk around to the right of the pulpit, you come to several beautiful chapels.

The War Memorial Chapel honors those who have served in the United States military. 

The Suffering Christ artwork above the altar is made of torn sheets of brass in the halo to simulate brass cannon shells, the spikes inside the halo are cast aluminum colored to remind the viewer of barbed wire and the copper rays of light in the halo look like bayonets.

A statue of the Christ Child welcomes you into the Children's Chapel, built to the scale of a six-year-old child. Note how the chairs are child-size.

Two of the detailed carvings in the reredos in the Children's Chapel...

Around the corner is St. John's Chapel.

The altar has beautiful carvings showing the Crucifixion and the Last Supper...

Through an intricately-detailed wood doorway you enter into the area of the High Altar. 110 figures of men and women exemplifying the highest ideals of Christianity surround the central figure of Christ. The altar is made from stones quarried at Solomon's Quarry near Jerusalem, reputedly where the stones for Solomon's Temple were quarried.

A 180-degree turn shows you the choir...

Beautiful wood carving in the choir stalls...

 

On the other side of the High Altar is St. Mary's Chapel.

The ornate reredos shows scenes from the life of Jesus' mother.

On either side of the long nave are side bays with memorials to individuals who have be instrumental in the history of our nation either through exploration, military, politics, justice, philanthropy, service or unity. Within and above those bays are some of the 200+ stained glass windows. 

In the next post I will show you some of that gorgeous stained glass. It was clear and sunny the day we visited the cathedral and the colorful effects of the sun shining through the stained glass were stunning.
 
For more information visit www.nationalcathedral.org.

All photos in this blog post were taken by my husband and me during our visit in September, 2013.

WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL

We recently spent five days in our nation's capitol, Washington DC.  Our first stop was the Washington National Cathedral.

Since the cathedral isn't in the main tourist area and some walking distance from the nearest Metro stop, I decided to book Old Town Trolley tours. The hop on/hop off trolley tour offered a relaxing, narrated tour of the city from their Welcome Center up to the cathedral. 

The Cathedral is officially known as the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. The foundation stone was laid in 1907 in the presence of President Theodore Roosevelt, and the Cathedral was completed 83 years later when the final finial was placed in the presence of President George H.W. Bush. The Cathedral is the sixth largest in the world. Built of Indiana limestone, the Cathedral's architectural style is Gothic...

with pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, large windows, flying buttresses...

and characterized by great height and pointed arches. The piers soar nearly 100 feet to the vaulted ceiling. The flags hanging down represent each state in the United States, the District of Columbia and U. S. territories in the order the states entered the union. One state each week is remembered in prayer services..

These Gothic features are not only beautiful but serve a structural purpose. The weight of the roof passes downward along the vaulting and then onto the piers, where it is resisted by the flying buttresses. Because the walls do not support the weight of the roof, they can be thin and tall, permitting large windows decorated with stained glass...

Throughout the cathedral, the architecture, art, wood, stone, wrought iron and stained glass inspire. Over the next several blog posts I will show you more of the beauty of our nation's Cathedral. 

For more information visit www.nationalcathedral.org.

All photos in this blog post were taken by my husband and me during our visit in September, 2013.

OUR VISIT TO ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL INCLUDED A WEDDING...

One of the chances you take when visiting a major church on a Saturday afternoon is that a wedding may be taking place. That is exactly what happened during our visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

Here is the bride walking down the aisle of the church. She must have really wanted to get married in this church because she had several hundred uninvited guests show up at her wedding. However, I can understand why she wanted to have her wedding at St. Patrick's Cathedral. It is a gorgeous church!

Start with the bronze doors...they weigh an astonishing 9,000 pounds each!

Carved into their facades are figures representing both saints as well as certain distinguished “blessed people.” They include New York’s own Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint. 

Built in the traditional Gothic style, the cathedral reminds many of the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe such as Cologne and Reims.

In the photo below, beneath the pointed arches, you can see the beautiful red Archbishop's Throne and on the right, the marble pulpit.

Beautiful stained glass windows throughout. The windows were made by renowned artists in Chartres, France; Birmingham, England and Boston, Massachusetts.

Above you can see the bride and groom during the wedding ceremony.

The Pieta here in St. Patrick's Cathedral is three times larger than the one in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

There are over a dozen beautiful side altars lining both sides of the church:

Altar of Saint Rose of Lima...

Altar of Saint John Baptist de la Salle...

Altar of Saints Brigid and Bernard...

Altar of the Holy Face...

Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa...

Altar of the Sacred Heart...The golden baldachin once stood above the Archbishops chair. Cardinal Cooke felt that it was too lavish to be a decoration for the Archbishop’s seat.

The Baptistery...

End your visit with a look above to see the beautiful Gothic architecture of the ribbed vaulting of the ceiling and more of the exquisite stained glass.

Some other facts about St. Patrick's Cathedral:

• St. Patrick’s Cathedral was opened on May 25, 1879. 
• The Cathedral seats about 2,200 people.
• The exterior length is about 405 feet.
• The width is 274 feet.
• The spires rise 330 feet from street level.
• The architect was James Renwick, an American.
• The Lady Chapel was designed by another American, Charles Mathews.
• The Archbishops of New York are buried in a crypt under the high altar. Their honorary hats, called galeros, hang from the ceiling over their tombs.
• The Cathedral has three organs.
• The baldachin over the main altar is solid bronze.
• Over 3 million people visit each year
• On April 19, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI became the first Pope to celebrate Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. 

For more information about the Cathedral, click here.

 

All photos were taken by me during my trip to New York City in September, 2012.