Mid-Century Modern

Most of us have walked into a church and wondered if we stumbled into a non-Catholic church somehow. Today's modern trend of minimalism appeals to no one that I have ever met. It is modernism for modernism's sake, and in the process we lose the Sacred and souls of many.

So when I saw the following picture over at The Badger Catholic, I realized that most of us would take a "modern" church from the 1950's.

Blessed Sacrament Church - Madison, WI - 1947

Yes, that was MODERN back then. Not that it is the most ornate or beautiful thing you have ever seen, but I'm sure many would opt for that over... well, whatever they have.

LTDBTD.

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Beautiful Churches as a Catalyst for Vocations

St. Agnes Church, St. Paul, MN

Father Longenecker has posted a very interesting article on his blog Standing on My Head about whether beautiful churches produce vocations. As someone very much in favor of instilling beauty in all areas of our faith, I am in agreement with much of what he says. He puts the questions as thus:

Can a beautiful church produce vocations to the priesthood? Perhaps we should reverse the question and say, "Does an ugly church discourage priestly vocations?" To answer the question we must think through, and come up with a theory of aesthetics and think through the reasons for both ugly churches and beautiful churches. Once we understand the mentality behind both we will be able to answer the question of whether a beautiful church can help produce new vocations to the priesthood.

Now, I as I said I agree with most of what he says here, but with a caveat. Churches exist beyond the boundaries of time in which they are built and the members of a parish sometimes fluctuate to a point where the church and its parishioners no longer match. So I do understand that there can be cases where Fr. L's arguments don't ring true, I get that. This is an argument though towards what we see in modern places, in newer parishes where new buildings and new renovations have occurred.

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the correlation of internal to external

St. Josapht's, Detroit, MI

What we do have to consider though is how this link between external expression and internal belief actually correlate to one another. Fr. L talks about the how the way we build, decorate, and arrange our churches are in direct correlation to our internal belief, and I would agree. There is a saying in coaching that says, "You play like you practice." The meaning is of course that the effort we give in practice is the same amount we can ultimately give come game time, similarly when we build and decorate our churches what we are doing is physically and externally displaying our beliefs, theology, and internal concept of the Faith.

Fr. L. explains:

We then have to ask what these churches say about the faith, for the church building is a sacramental. It states what we believe. A building, whether we like it or not, is a statement of our values, our faith and our world view. A cheap building with no inner integrity of beauty--a cheap building that is 'dressed up' to look Catholic or 'pretty' with decorations is superficial and shallow and only skin deep....just like our faith too often I'm afraid! In our superficial, face lift world we build churches that are superficial where the 'beauty' is really on 'pretty' and skin deep.

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the utilitarian aesthetic

St. Joseph's, Capitol Hill, D.C.

I have seen this time and time again. As new churches go up in suburban America and growing population areas, we see an increase in auditorium style buildings that are cheaply built on the outside and fit what can only be described as an utilitarian aesthetic. The function is supreme to form, and form is often sacrificed for function, money, space, utility, and just about every other consideration. This has an affect not only on our interiorly but it also affects the Mass and Sacred functions that happen within. It is part of the cycle of belief matching form and form expressing belief, they are in essence a life cycle – a theological eco-system if you will but one that doesn't evolve to a higher ability, but one that dives towards entropy and where survival goes to the least fit, or most generic.

What about the liturgy that goes on in such buildings? Too often it also is superficial, sweet and comfortable and skin deep. Does such liturgy and do such buildings inspire vocations? Do they say to our young people, "Look what sacrifices we have made to worship God?" Do they say, "We have given all to build something beautiful for God"? or do they actually say, "It's okay to give God second best. It's okay to give him what's left over."? Do they come out of the building yawning and wondering what next for Sunday or do they come out full of awe and thankfulness for the beautiful worship of God?

Mariahilferkirche, Vienna Austria

Of course a beautiful church is not a panacea. It isn't a magic bean that creates a beanstalk to vocation-Heaven. It also isn't a prescription for the ills of modernity that plague our disbelief in the Faith, but it sure is a start.

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inspiration 'to' the Faith

There will be those that argue the external and institutional aspects of our Faith don't matter because we need to start at belief, without it nothing else matters. What I am arguing isn't that that isn't 90% right, but that we are creatures of holistic thought. We don't compartmentalize different things. The second we take our children to church they are being subconsciously affected whether we believe they are are or not. We are sensory creatures, we learn, believe, and internalize thing through all of our senses and so to deny certain ones over others is not only foolish, but arrogant.

So then, if we can inspire people in the Faith, then it would follow that we can inspire people to the Faith, in terms of vocations. It would make sense that a person inspired by the house of God, in the form of a Church, would be inspired to devote their life – a gift from God, back to God in the form of Ordination or obedience of a religious order. There is great sacrifice in both, a care and concern for what occurs in the present and in the future. In the past churches were constructed with generation upon generation in mind. While many modernists attempt to forge a legacy out of themselves instead, out of their own cult of personality, there is little hope of anything lasting into the future in that.

A church and a religious vocation are a legacy for sure, but built of something much studier – not that of a person but built out of the Grace of God.

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There is an old saying, Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi – We pray what we believe. Well, I would say the same  goes for building and decorating churches - We build, what we believe.

Sweetest Heart of Mary, Detroit, MI

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Housing Theme

by Mike Kaechele

In my 8th grade applied technology class we do a unit where we build balsa towers. We start off talking about the history of building and architecture while investigating the strongest shapes that make up buildings. Students then research different design ideas on the web. We talk about the science concepts behind the project daily with opening discussions about force, mass, center of mass, loads, and buckling. Students draw their towers to scale measuring the angles and lengths to calculate whether or not they will have enough sticks to complete their design. After we break the towers students calculate whose tower was the most efficient. At the end I have had students write letters to our local mayor designing a tower for tourism or blog about their experience on our class blog. So we integrate math, science, history, and language arts into one project where students research, design, build, destroy, and evaluate.

But this project lacks a few things that I would ideally (see my ideals listed here) like to see: not enough student choice, the projects all tend to look the same, and too much of the structure of the unit is pre-designed by me. So I would like to expand this idea to a larger theme that could be taught by a single teacher, perhaps in an elementary setting, or by a team of teachers at any level. I like the idea of "theme" better than "unit" because I envision the teachers having some idea of what will happen but the students influencing the process so that where it goes and ends up is open-ended.

For starters it would be a theme on housing. The unit would look at what kinds of dwellings humans choose to live in. It would emphasize the political, social, economical, cultural, and environmental factors that influence these choices. I was originally going to separate these suggestions by subject area but they are too intertwined so I will just list some possibilities. This theme is designed to fit an "all day" integrated project not just a one hour class.

• Housing could be looked at in terms of the history of architecture from different countries, climates, and/or cultures around the world. 
• Students could watch films like Garbage Warrior to learn about modern, environmentally friendly building methods. This film also brings up the problem of strict building codes limiting innovation.
• Students could analyze the role of government in establishing building standards and codes and influencing building policy through laws and incentives. They could look at the advantages of quality control vs. the disadvantage of limiting innovation.
• Students could study how the environment effects the shelter needs of humans in different climates. For example they could learn how and why Inuits chose to make igloos and Mongolians make yurts. 
• Students could learn about recycled homes or innovative urban designs like this Chinese egg.
• Students could learn about differences in impact between single family homes and multi family complexes and even communes.
• Students could look at children's bedrooms around the world to compare differences in living standards.
• Students could learn about the millions of people who have no "home" but live in shelters, shanty towns, refugee camps, or even in garbage dumps.
• Students could learn how toxic or carcinogenic materials have been used in construction.
• Students could go on local field trips to view historic and/or modern architecture. Students could visit "green" buildings.
• Students could watch this TED talk about how the differences in engineering in Haiti and Chile led to contrasting results from the recent earthquakes. 
• Students could interview architects, construction workers, and engineers in person or through Skype. 
• Students could learn about differences between LEED, Green Built, zero energy, and passive home designs. They could analyze how much of these programs are political and how much of them are actually environmentally responsible.
• Students could analyze statistics about how humans live across the globe. Then they could create an infograph about how the choice of materials effects human health and the environment.
• Students could research the dwellings of indigenous people and compare them. Students could have debates whether modern or indigenous dwellings are better for human life and the environment. 
• Students could perform energy audits of their own homes figuring out the volume and square footage of their homes and finding cost/ square foot to heat and cool their homes.
• Students might study an important architect such as Frank Lloyd Wright or a branch of design such as feng shuai.

Every group of students would not do all of these things but different groups would choose the topics that are most interesting to them and even suggest other ideas. Some students might choose to branch off into related topics such as environmentalism, capitalism, architecture, interior decorating, sustainable native plants, etc. The directions this project could go are almost endless. Hopefully it is obvious that intertwined in all of these ideas is math, science, social studies, language arts along with art and technology.

The cumulative project would be for teams to use what they learn to design, draw blueprints, and make a scale model of an ideal ecological dwelling (like this example). It may or may not look like a conventional house with conventional materials. It could be influenced from any of these activities from cultures around the world. Students would also have to provide a budget for the estimated cost of the materials of the home. They would have to show the energy consumed. Students would also present their homes to their peers (and broader audiences through social media) and describe the benefits of their models.

These are my thoughts for a practical theme based on my key beliefs of the best practices of student learning. What are your thoughts? What would you add/subtract? How could this theme or a different one be used for student-centered learning in your classroom?

Midnight Mass - Christmas: St. Joseph's in Detroit, Michigan

Wanted to post a few pics from where my family attended Midnight Mass on Christmas. Unfortunately, I only took a few pics with my phone as I didn't think to bring the better camera.

We went to:

St. Joseph Catholic Church

Midnight Latin Tridentine Mass

Missa Brevis in G by W. A. Mozart
Ave Verum Corpus by William Byrd
sung and performed by the St. Joseph Cappella, Soloists, and Chamber Orchestra
(preludes begin at 11:30)

The Main Altar

Marian Side Altar

St. Joseph's - Detroit, MI

The Mass was beautiful, the Music was awe inspiring and it really was a Mass that sought the Sacred. 

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Renovation & Reinvigoration

The concept of renovating a parish's Sacred Space has been brought up many time here at the blog. The concept is simple: take a bland, boring, space -- your typical modern parish and with simple and inexpensive updates, make a Holy, reverent, and Sacred space. The point is to transform a church building from a church into a parish. It calls to mind the old saying: "When does a house become a home?"

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Over the past few weeks, the New Liturgical Movement, a favorite website of ours, has been posting real life examples of such transformations. The results are stunning. Some obviously are the result of a little more capital then others, but in general we are talking fairly cosmetic changes, and not really structural. In other words, we are talking about adding to the look and not changing an auditorium style building into a cruciform one, for example.

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What this does for a parish is that it reinvigorates it. It takes the "old" and sheds it, while implanting the new into the heart and soul of each parishioner at the parish. [Well, I guess except for those SOV-II hold outs hoping for Pope McBrien.] It gives new vitality to their worship. This isn't because external and symbolic things are somehow crucial or even necessary to the worship of the faithful, but because we are beings of sense and spirituality, and the sensory 'speak' to our inner core, our soul if you will, and enliven it with thought and emotion.

I feel as if I harp on this enough in my posts regarding Sacred Space, so I will not repeat my past missives. What I will say is that many parishes are in need of many things few are are crucial as a renovation and reinvigoration of their Sacred Space. And again, this isn't because it is somehow necessary in a theological sense, but because the people are often in need in a spiritual sense.

Here are some of the sneak-peek examples:


St. John the Baptist -- Tryon, NC

Before...

...After

St. James Cathedral -- Orlando, FL

Before...

...After

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Managed Cloud Services for Enterprise Collaboration

Managed cloud services can accelerate your business by allowing you to transform ideas into marketable products and services with greater speed. Cloud can provide nearly limitless scalability, enabling your business to grow without time and resource intensive IT build-outs.

Cloud can transform the economics of your IT -- from capital-intensive, to pay-as-you-go. Service level agreements guarantee the capabilities you need, when you need them. Costs are tiered and metered to accurately reflect your requirements and usage.

All applications, including legacy, run more efficiently and sustainably with greater utilization of the underlying infrastructure.

Cloud can make new business models possible and unlock revenue potential. Companies can enter new markets, respond more quickly to changing customer needs, collaborate more effectively to drive innovation and business value.

Collaboration Use-Case Scenario

• Global organizations face real collaboration challenges. Employee expertise is distributed across headquarters and regional and branch locations around the world. Technology and travel limit responsiveness to customer needs. Cultural differences hamper internal teamwork and organizational agility.
• Enterprise-wide collaboration is particularly difficult to improve due to the communications silos created by existing infrastructure and disparate technology environments.
• Rich collaboration enables organizations to extend services reach and improve relationships with customers. Poor collaboration can result in customer dissatisfaction and competitive exposure.

Role for Cloud Technologies

• Cloud network-based collaboration strategies enable employees at all levels of the organization to connect and collaborate.
• Collaboration services built in the Cloud can also integrate with and enhance business processes and applications.

Application Considerations

• Proper collaboration architecture design relies on a thorough understanding of technology, people, and processes. The architecture must also be able to integrate with the desired business applications and processes.
• High-quality collaboration experiences require end-to-end solutions.

However, Cloud is neither an instantaneous nor simple transformation, but can be adopted in a controlled and pragmatic way. Cloud involves new technologies, new service and deployment models, and new IT skills sets and processes. Migration of legacy applications to Cloud can be a real challenge. That said, legacy platforms can co-exist with Cloud deployments and be migrated only as appropriate.

Moreover, Cloud does not always offer the best business solution. Some Cloud solutions limit the ability to customize functionality or cannot guarantee quality of service. Some workloads may have stringent compliance or technical requirements that demand other approaches.

Organizations will need to determine where Cloud applications are most appropriate, based on workload-specific requirements around cost, risk, and performance.