The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Milwaukee

On Saturday, Thomas my eldest younger brother and I went to the vigil Mass together at the Cathedral of St. John. Back when I was an able person I used to go to the Cathedral semi-regularly, but not since I became so disabled because before the renovation it was not accessible. This was Tom's first time there, and my first visit since before the renovation.

We entered from the northeast, through the new fully-accessible atrium entrance. The walks are not lumpy and just the right safe amount of rough texture, and the ramp to the atrium door was shallow enough that I could push myself up it on the way back out.

Entering the Cathedral from the atrium, I was immediately overcome with awe. Immediately in front of you entering, directly across the church, is the Tabernacle in its glory. No minimally conscious Catholic entering from the atrium is going to fail to make reverence.
Those able-bodied people who can enter through the official "front doors" on the west end are confronted by the baptistry in the same way --- a baptistry that also bears some resemblance to a grave; we have been buried with Christ in baptism and have risen up with him to fullness of life.

Once one has entered, there is no mistaking what is central to our life, and in the church. The altar, large and square (as the heavenly Jerusalem is square), erected over the relics of the saints, up the three traditional sanctuary steps, canopied by a great crown-of-thorns corona and crucifix ---- the certer of life, the natural focus of attention and action. Everything focuses on the altar.

Eucharist was standard summer Saturday evening in Milwaukee ---- three hymns, sung Gloria and psalm and Lamb of God, recited Creed and Our Father, no choir. No cringing, either.

After Mass was over, I took Tom on a fast little tour. I showed him the wonderful windows that had been buried for decades behind atrocious hanging electric light fixtures, and the mosaic Stations, once overwhelmed by huge frou-frou frames, now standing forth beautifully and boldly. Also the portraits of the nine archbishops staring down from the clerestory (no forgetting the past here!) and I pointed to the roundel where sometime before spring the face of Timothy Dolan will be joining them, if he keeps to the tradition begun by Archbishop Moses Elias Kiley when he rebuilt the Cathedral after the 1930's fire. We also read the most recent dedicatory inscription, a wonder of understatement --- "not without difficulty," indeed! Asbestos, rotted wiring, architectural surprises, bishop-bashers, church politicians in faraway places....... Tom wondered how the dedicatory inscription of his diocese's new cathedral will read when it's dedicated in September (Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles).

One fast prayer at the shrine of Mary, Mother of the Church, then we had to leave. Tom's gone back to Los Angeles, But I'll definitely be back regularly.
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