Photo of the Day: An Upcoming Anniversary for My Parish

This coming November will mark the 150^th anniversary of my parish, St. Cecilia’s of Englewood, NJ. When it was celebrating its centennial, I had just entered the first grade. The intervening past half-century has seen some extraordinary changes in my city, my parish, and the Roman Catholic Church as a whole.

But, no matter what their current experience in life—or even their relationship to their faith—might be, I don’t think that anyone could have passed into this Romanesque structure without being affected by it somehow. As you can see from this photo I've taken, it appears outwardly as a citadel of faith, and inside as a beautiful jewel box of a church, to be sure, but St. Cecilia’s has left its mark primarily as a community. 

Bonds were formed on Sunday in the church but solidified, from Monday through Friday, in two institutions that have since closed: the elementary and high schools. No matter where we go, we know somehow that those we made friends with here will be there for us throughout our lives and along our sometimes torturous faith journeys.

In order words, if you want to understand what we're like as individuals, start with this church.

Quote of the Day (Psalms, on the Glory of God’s House)

“I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of thy house; and the place where thy glory dwelleth.”—Psalms 26:8 (Douay-Rheims version)

(The photograph shows, from a distance, on a slight hill—the way I approach it when walking from home—my longtime church, St. Cecilia’s, of Englewood, N.J.)

Song Lyric of the Day (John Dryden, on St. Cecilia and Music)

“Orpheus could lead the savage race;
And trees uprooted left their place,
Sequacious of the lyre;
But bright Cecilia rais’d the wonder higher:
When to her organ vocal breath was given,
An angel heard, and straight appear’d
Mistaking Earth for Heaven.”—John Dryden, “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day” (1687)

For nearly my entire life, I’ve been a member of St. Cecilia’s Church in Englewood, N.J. The Roman martyr from whom our parishtakes its name is the patron saint of music. Her feast day is today.

British poet John Dryden (and, in the image accompanying this post, Italian painter Ortensio Crespi) celebrated the connection between St. Cecilia and the music that forms such an important part of the Mass.