A Deo et Rege

After praying at the altar with the Statue of Our Lady of Consolation, I moved to the high altar and prayed before the Blessed Sacrament. As most Catholics know, praying before the Blessed Sacrament is a great privilege and a wonderful devotion. When I first wanted to become Catholic, I went to my current parish and asked them to pray before the Blessed Sacrament and I know the Lord heard me. Praying before him at the shrine was no different.

After the high altar, I moved to the Our Lady of Sorrows altar. The beauty of the altar served as a sublime reminder of our Lord’s death and the grief his Mother bore in her heart. It was a perfect place to pray during Lent. The prayer before this altar in the pilgrim’s manual starts: "Dearest Mother, before you could become Consoler of the Afflicted you had to know true sorrow." We attempt during Lent (and all year) to try to meditate on and share in Jesus’ suffering and there is no better example than his Mother.

After the altar of Sorrows, I went to pray before an image of Christ’s divine mercy. After that I moved to pray before the statue of the Infant of Prague. The statues and images really did remind me of the Incarnation and how God became truly flesh and redeemed our world in our world. I’m not surprised that those denominations that have rejected images have moved towards Gnosticism, whether liberal or conservative forms.

Next, I moved downstairs to the lower shrine and prayed before the altar of Christ in the tomb. Just like our Lady of Sorrows, the images in this altar were powerful reminders of the suffering and death of Jesus. One thing I’ve learned from Catholicism is the importance of Jesus’ suffering and Cross. Fortunately, we have not capitulated to the spirit of the age which rejects Christ’s suffering and cross and replaces them with feel good theology.

More to come…

Photo 1 is of the Sorrows altar and photo 2 is of the altar of Christ in the tomb. Photos taken by David.