{"id":221,"date":"2010-09-06T23:29:07","date_gmt":"2010-09-07T06:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/?p=221"},"modified":"2010-09-06T23:31:22","modified_gmt":"2010-09-07T06:31:22","slug":"one-ugly-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/2010\/09\/06\/one-ugly-church\/","title":{"rendered":"One Ugly Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At the risk of sounding shallow or overly critical &#8211; my church is ugly. I am fully aware that the physical architecture of the building has absolutely zero bearing on what takes place inside &#8211; but I have to admit, the number of small things I dislike about this church can be really distracting.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s start with the exterior.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/IMG_8146.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-222\" title=\"Church Exterior\" src=\"http:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/IMG_8146-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Church Exterior\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/IMG_8146-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/IMG_8146-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/IMG_8146.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Is this a Catholic church, or Spacely Space Sprockets? Blech. Can&#8217;t stand it. The interior is no better.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/IMG_8147.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-223\" title=\"Church Interior\" src=\"http:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/IMG_8147-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Church Interior\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/IMG_8147-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/IMG_8147-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/IMG_8147.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wow, where to begin. First and foremost, there is no tabernacle anywhere near the altar. I&#8217;m sure everyone has noticed that most Catholics genuflect (that is, get down on one knee) before entering the pew to sit down &#8211; we do this as a sign of adoration and respect for Christ&#8217;s body, present in the tabernacle. In this church, though, the tabernacle is not up at the front, it is in the rear, in its own little &#8216;chapel&#8217; room. Again, yuck.<\/p>\n<p>The overall style is very southwestern, which is to say &#8211; drab and dreary. It also annoys me to no end that the crucifix isn&#8217;t even centered behind the altar, it&#8217;s stuck off to one side (though I admit &#8211; that may be more of an OCD thing :P). And speaking of the crucifix &#8211; yep, you guessed it, my absolutely least favorite style. I find it difficult to call to mind the sufferings of our Lord when it looks like He&#8217;s flying off to join the rest of the Superfriends (here&#8217;s a closer up shot of the style).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/flying-christ.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-224\" title=\"Crucifix\" src=\"http:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/flying-christ.jpg\" alt=\"Crucifix\" width=\"413\" height=\"550\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/flying-christ.jpg 413w, https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/flying-christ-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 413px) 100vw, 413px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I will say this though &#8211; I&#8217;ve never, ever encountered more comfortable kneelers than the ones at this church! I&#8217;m not an old man just yet, but my knees are in pretty rough shape, and I find it extremely difficult (usually impossible in fact) to remain kneeling as long as the 70- and 80-year olds around me. This place has like Tempurpedic kneelers or something, though, they&#8217;re really great.<\/p>\n<p>So why am I so grouchy about all this? Well, here&#8217;s a picture of the first church I ever attended as an adult.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ICexterior01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-225\" title=\"IC Exterior\" src=\"http:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ICexterior01.jpg\" alt=\"IC Exterior\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ICexterior01.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ICexterior01-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is the interior of my second church (as it happens, about 2-3 miles from the first).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/stjosephsinterior.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-226\" title=\"St. Joe's Interior\" src=\"http:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/stjosephsinterior.jpg\" alt=\"St. Joe's Interior\" width=\"360\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/stjosephsinterior.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/stjosephsinterior-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To me, those look like churches, and more importantly &#8211; they <em>feel<\/em> like churches. Majestic, almost gothic.<\/p>\n<p>*sigh* I really miss New England.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the risk of sounding shallow or overly critical &#8211; my church is ugly. I am fully aware that the physical architecture of the building has absolutely zero bearing on what takes place inside &#8211; but I have to admit, the number of small things I dislike about this church can be really distracting. Let&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229,"href":"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themook.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}