Catholic Church Projects

Our Lady of the Ridge
	Chicago Ridge, IL
				interior during construction

"There was another man here but he's not here now. I don't know where he went."

I thanked her and started wandering about looking for him anyway. As I circled back towards the women, I introduced myself in the hopes that a name would allay their suspicions of me. One woman took me aside in the tight vestibule and intensely addressed me:

"I hope the new church will be at least as warm as this church. It's so warm that people come from parishes all around here for prayer. It's not like the new churches. They're cold. I pray that our new church will be warm."

Her church was built when the Archdiocese was rapidly growing and creating future buildings - temporary churches shaped as future gyms, future halls, future basement storage rooms, or future classrooms. Our Lady of the Ridge's church is the future classroom type - four in the future. Its small size - it seats a sensible 300 people, has a low ceiling of only 11 ft. and a dim interior - creates the sense of sanctuary from the aggressive, traffic-laden world beyond its brick walls.

I answered that the new church will be warm, but different from the church where we were standing. Although it would seat more than twice the people and its ceilings would be much higher, its warmth would radiate from the central lantern whose light would gently illuminate the people below. There would be special places dedicated for private prayer and group devotions that would engage the natural cycles of our planet and change from dark to light as day turned into night.

She nodded and then added confidently:

"I'm a charismatic. Five years ago I had a vision of our new church. It would be a beacon to our neighborhood like a lighthouse."

She seemed to be asking if my design for her new church fulfilled her vision.

"My name's Jean. I'm Italian but I married a Bohemian."

She added as proof of her visionary powers.

I took her to the table on which Mike had placed the blueprints for our meeting. I unrolled the drawings and found the elevations and sections which technically illustrated the face of the new church.

"It's exactly what I saw five years ago!"

Although separated by four years, each of our visions is the mirror of the other - on the same wavelength.