This Lent we will post pictures from inside St. Anthony Church, highlighting places that can lead you to prayer and deeper worship.

The Crucifix & Mosaic

This week's picture is one of the most recognizable images from our church. How often have you looked at our crucifix during Mass? If you were asked to describe the  scene without looking, what might you say? It's green? You might remember splotches of red and some sheep. Or lambs, maybe?

Odds are there's something that sticks with you. But this piece isn't just meant to be a decoration for the sanctuary. This entire scene – the crucifix, the mosaic, every image, every tile – is there to help you contemplate the central mystery of our faith and help form your prayer as you worship at Mass.
 

What do you really see? 

Remember that dentist office perennial, Highlights Magazine, and how every kid rushes to the "Hidden Pictures" section? Our mosaic is like that. You need to spend time with it in order to really see what's there. And when you do, what you see can inspire and elevate your worship and your prayer.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts

There is so much to explore on this mosaic, but one of the most moving images is the Holy Trinity, formed by the Father's hands, in a loving gesture of both sending and receiving; the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father's hands in a firey descent with golden rays reflecting the love from the Father to the Son and from the Son to the Father; and the Son on the Crucifix, arms open in a gesture of the greatest love, reflecting the gesture of the Father's open hands. All Three Persons of the Trinity are present and active in Jesus's birth, and death, and resurrection. 
 

Loving Sacrifice & Blessed Sacrament

Follow the Father's hands to the Spirit, then to the Son, and down the Cross. Notice how the green edges of the mosaic are angled to move your eyes from top to bottom. Where do they land? The Tabernacle of the Blessed Sacrament. Notice how the angle of the bottom of the mosaic continues in the green marble around the tabernacle.

From the Father's loving hands through the Son's loving sacrifice, this outpouring of Love in the Holy Spirit sanctifies us each time we receive the Eucharist from that very place in our church. 

Pray

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17

Lord, God of peace, make me holy. In your mercy, send your Spirit to sanctify me by the Blessed Sacrament given to us through your beloved Son. Help me to carry your grace within me and offer my life, in waking and sleeping, to you.  Amen.