Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Mission

New Riegel All Saints parishioner Dr. John Wood has just released a book, "Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Mission," with the theme, Be a Saint!  More info HERE.

St. John, Lima, Renovations

Click HERE to see some photos of the amazing renovation / restoration work at St. John the Evangelist church in Lima.  A fine effort by the parish.

Also, bells from a Toledo church are being added to the belfry at St. Rose in Lima.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Some Christmas posts you might have missed from past years:

A first-hand account of Christmas at Tiffin St. Joseph in 1910.

The story of Fr. Aloysius Horn and his great love of Christmas.

The first Precious Blood priests in America travel up the Mississippi River on Christmas Day, 1843.

The beautiful Christmas window at St. Mary in Norwalk.

Aluminum Christmas trees!  At the old St. Wendelin's church in Fostoria.

Renaissance Missal Exhibit in Cleveland

From Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013 to June 2, 2013, the Cleveland Museum of Art will display "Caporali: A Masterpiece of Renaissance Illumination."

This exhibition revolves around a sumptuous and important Renaissance manuscript—an illuminated missal, the service book for the priest at the altar—made for the Franciscan community in the hillside town of Montone, near Perugia, in 1469. Acquired by the museum in 2006, the missal showcases the work of two artist brothers, Bartolomeo and Giapeco Caporali, who were active in Perugia during the second half of the 15th century. This small focus exhibition celebrates this important acquisition and presents it to the museum's audience for the first time. Liturgical objects such as vestments, a chalice, and a processional cross will place the manuscript in liturgical, cultural, and art historical contexts. Many of these works, lent by museums and churches in Umbria, are displayed in the U.S. for the first time.

More information about the exhibit and lectures can be found HERE.

A Nativity Slide Show

In the Columbus Dispatch, the Columbus Museum of Art's Dominique Vasseur selects some favorite portrayals of the Nativity:  Click HERE for slide show.

Sandusky: A Patrick Keely Design

Over at the Sandusky History blog, we learn that Ss. Peter & Paul church was designed by the noted Irish-American architect Patrick Keely.  See post HERE.

Edward Furey of the Keely Society notes:

We don't know for sure, if Keely visited Sandusky, or simply sent plans requested by the pastor. In some cases, we do know, from letters, that Keely would send plans, and then a local building superintendent would follow and adapt them. In that way costs for construction could be kept down for pastors who wanted an impressive structure. We do know Keely was in Cleveland, while that cathedral (radically altered,) was being constructed.

 

Keely also designed Toledo's St. Francis de Sales chapel.

St. Michael, Findlay

 

Archangel Gabriel, appropriate for Advent.

Rosary Cathedral, Toledo

Some fine photos of Rosary Cathedral at the Wandering Photographer blog -- click HERE.

Little Flower, Toledo

A new look for Little Flower parish in Toledo:  a new entrance and bell tower.  Details HERE.

Frank Sheed at Bowling Green, 1954

From the 1955 Bowling Green State University yearbook, a photo of the renown Catholic author and apologist Frank Sheed.  Sheed spoke at the university's "Religion Week" in 1954; you can read more about his life and works HERE.  (Ignatius Press has recently reprinted several of his books.)