As I mentioned in last week's church review, I intended to visit Sagrado Corazón again to see if they used the organ at the 4:00 Saturday Mass, and I am disappointed to announce that they don't. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, since this Mass was quite possibly the most sparsely-attended religious service I've ever witnessed - even worse than Europe. Of course, there are probably a couple of reasons for this: there are only two English-language Masses here, which suggests that there isn't much demand for English, and it's 4:00 on Saturday afternoon - prime time for the doing of other things. Hell, the only reason I'm here now, besides my curiosity, is the fact that I intend to spend tomorrow morning packing for my business trip to Indianapolis. So I went to Mass, with about 40 other people (I kid you not) and listened to quasi-modern music on piano. But at least I got some photographs out of it - forgive the grainy quality of some of them, as I neglected to bring my camera and had to make do with my phone instead.
Just about every Catholic church has something dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, but certain traditions revere her more than others. The Hispanic tradition is one of those which hold Mary highest - think of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, for example. At Sagrado Corazón, the Virgin gets her own chaplet to the right of the altar (the left if you're standing on the altar, but I wasn't). If you ignore that light in the background (through the arch is the brightly-lit main altar), you might be at some soaring church in Europe, or even back in the Byzantine Empire, if the Orthodox did statues (they generally don't).
This photo actually came from my trip last week, but I didn't want that post to be overly-long, so I didn't post all my shots. But look at the details, and all the different colors:
One of the things that intrigues me most about how this church looks is the quasi-Islamic decorative style. I've never been inside a mosque, but I've come across plenty of pictures of them in the course of my various studies (Art History, Cultural Studies, and so on). Because ultra-orthodox Islam forbids the portrayal of the human image, many mosques and palaces (think the Alhambra) are decorated primarily with geometric patterns. The round arch is a common feature of Islamic architecture too. I hadn't thought about it before, but inside this church feels both Islamic (above) and Byzantine (below).
Doesn't this dome make you think of the Hagia Sophia?
Pretty cool, huh?
One more, this one from my phone as well:
Those lights to very interesting things to pictures taken by phone. I'm not sure I dislike it - it's just an interesting addition to the photo. For art and architecture I will definitely come back to Sagrado Corazón; good sermons too (if last week wasn't an anomaly). I'll have to keep looking elsewhere for music, but nothing's perfect. And besides, I wouldn't want to declare my church-hunting adventures over just yet!
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