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The Church: Unlocking the Secrets to the Places Catholics Call Home
From the bestselling authors of The Mass, an insightful and practical guide that explores the architectural and spiritual components of the Catholic Church.
Your local church is not only a physical place, but a spiritual home. In this thought-provoking book, Wuerl and Aquilina illuminate the importance of the Church in its many guises and examine the theological ideas behind the physical structure of churches, cathedrals, and basilicas. How is a church designed? What is the function of the altar? What does the nave represent? What is the significance of the choir loft? With eloquent prose and elegant black-and-white photography, these questions and many more will lead to answers that illuminate the history and practicality of Catholic life.
Your local church is not only a physical place, but a spiritual home. In this thought-provoking book, Wuerl and Aquilina illuminate the importance of the Church in its many guises and examine the theological ideas behind the physical structure of churches, cathedrals, and basilicas. How is a church designed? What is the function of the altar? What does the nave represent? What is the significance of the choir loft? With eloquent prose and elegant black-and-white photography, these questions and many more will lead to answers that illuminate the history and practicality of Catholic life.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2013
10 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
About the author
Donald Wuerl
43 books11 followersDonald William Wuerl (born November 12, 1940) is an American cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is the sixth Archbishop of Washington, serving since 2006. He previously served as Auxiliary Bishop of Seattle (1986–87) and Bishop of Pittsburgh (1988–2006). He was elevated to the cardinalate by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 3, 2013
As a non-Christian who is more familiar than most with Catholic churches, I still found this an interesting read. Very succint and informative without getting bogged down into minutiae. I expected the book to be more about architecture, but it describes normal components of Catholic churches and explains why they're there. What is the scriptural source? Why is it build this way and not another way? What is the symbolism? I don't think someone unfamiliar with Catholicism would "get" this book.
My only dislike: none of the pictures have a caption saying which church it comes from. I'd have liked to look up more pictures of some of the churches included.
My only dislike: none of the pictures have a caption saying which church it comes from. I'd have liked to look up more pictures of some of the churches included.
October 28, 2013
The sacramental principle tells us that, since the Word became flesh, God has begun to heal and restore his creation. Spiritual light can now shine through the material world. On one level, bread and wine; on another, oil, candles, fabrics and paint, bricks, blocks, and filigree--all these can mediate God's presence in the world.
I honestly thought I already reviewed this book. When I saw it on my "to review" stack, I thought it was misstacked (I'm pretty sure that's a word ... or, like Shakespeare, I just invented it). Anyway, my apologies for not telling you about this one sooner. Now, let's get down to why I feel that way.
In every church, invisible realities shine through the visible ornaments. Something spiritual shines through all the material elements, inside and out. The ritual book for blessing a church offers a basic explanation of this symbolism: "The church is a visible building that stands as a special sign of the pilgrim Church on earth and reflects the Church dwelling in heaven."
One of the things I love most about the Catholic Church is her insistence that the material matters just as much as the spiritual. Like a pair of folded hands, you can't fully see reality as God intended it without both body and soul. The Catholic attitude to church buildings reflects that same reality. Symbolism is key to all of this because it helps us unlock all the places we can find God shining through into our lives.
God created our bodily senses to lead us to spiritual truth. Thus, Catholic churches engage the human body as God created it. Eyes delight in seeing the play of light through stained glass. When Christians gather for worship, the church is full of the sound of music and sometimes the aroma of incense. Fingers touch stone and wood and dip into holy water. A church well built is a feast for the senses, a festival of praise for the God who fashioned the human body.Sometimes the symbolism is obvious but often the meaning has been lost over time or not passed on due to poor instruction in the faith. That's why we need this book.
Grace builds on nature, heals it, and elevates it. This is one of the fundamental notions in Catholic theology, and is also a key to understanding what one sees and hears and senses in a church.
The Church: Unlocking the Secrets to the Places Catholics Call Home does exactly what it says in the subtitle. It gives you a key to why there are all those statues, what's up with the kneelers, and why a crucifix holds place of pride at the front of the church. In short, Cardinal Wuerl and Mike Aquilina aim to demystify things so that the next time you go into a Catholic church you can recognize the reminders of God's grace that surround you.
This book will be just as important to Catholics as it is to non-Catholics. The example often told to show how Catholics don't understand their own faith well is that if you ask one why they cross themselves with holy water when entering the church, you rarely find someone who knows the answer. (It's a reminder of your baptism, just in case you're curious.) The Church has both pictures and words that help anchor those important facts in your heart.
This is a companion piece to an earlier book, The Mass. As with that book, I found The Church not only instructive but inspirational. Just to share one example, we are reminded of the scandalous nature of the cross in this book and it helps us understand a Protestant friend who is horrified by the crucifix in the front of our church. Not only that, we are reminded of just how much humiliation Jesus Christ took on for our sakes and how, as St. Paul said, "The cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Ultimately, for my own part, I was reminded that just as Christ turned that humiliation into glory, so too His grace and redemption can turn my shortcomings and sins into something good, something greater than I could ever achieve on my own.
I can't recommend this book highly enough. It will open your physical eyes so that your soul can also see the glory that is all around you. You may, like me, find yourself seeing your surroundings in an entirely new way. I can't resist sharing this last bit.
Perhaps the earliest precursors of motion picture photographers were the builders of the great medieval cathedrals. They created images that were invisible to the surrounding world, yet spectacularly beautiful to worshippers inside the church. Catching sunlight, the bits of glass seem to coalesce and come alive, revealing the forms of standing saints in heavenly splendor.This never occurred to me and I now look at stained glass windows in an entirely new way. Because, of course, what the building shows our eyes also reflects what is being done in our souls. But I'll let you read more about it for yourselves when you get the book.
The windows provide motion pictures really: the images change slightly as the earth slowly makes its rounds and clouds pass now and then before the sun.
March 19, 2023
A beautiful book not just to read but to take to Mass and meditate on. Each of the chapters representing what one might take for granted of the One Holy Apostolic Church.
May 6, 2013
FTC disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
What is the church like that you attend? Is there a cross up front? Is it a crucifix? A tapestry of The Last Supper? A stained glass dove? I’ve been in churches that had one of these at the front, but in a Catholic Church it will be a crucifix. Do you know why? It is because “The cross with the image of Christ crucified is a reminder of Christ’s paschal mystery. It draws us into our suffering when united with the passion and death of Christ leads to redemption.” (Page 105). I had always wondered about why Catholics display a crucifix instead of an empty cross, and now I know.
While reading Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s latest book “The Church: Unlocking the Secrets to the Places Catholics Call Home”, I felt like I was being guided by a man I consider a mentor of my faith though we have never met. It felt like he was showing me every bit of a Catholic Church, from the artwork to the baptismal font. He explains in detail why things are the way they are. Did you know that baptismal fonts are often eight sided? That’s something you can read about in this book.
As someone who grew up Protestant, I appreciated the time and effort in describing the fixtures of a church. It is just right for someone who has little knowledge of the Catholic Church, but detailed enough I believe someone who has grown up in this tradition will learn quite a bit about why things are the way they are.
What is the purpose of holy water? Why are some churches built in a cruciform? What happens if some of the wine is spilled once it is blessed by the priest? Why are beeswax candles used? (Here’s a hint: it has meaning than just he fact they aren’t as smoky!) Only certain relics can be kept under a church’s altar. Do you know which ones?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, they are all covered in this book. At 237 pages, it was a quick read for me because while the subject matter could be dry, Cardinal Wuerl kept it interesting. I read it in about two days and it was a book I WANTED to read, not felt like I should because I needed to know the information in it.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about why Catholics do the things they do!
FTC disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
What is the church like that you attend? Is there a cross up front? Is it a crucifix? A tapestry of The Last Supper? A stained glass dove? I’ve been in churches that had one of these at the front, but in a Catholic Church it will be a crucifix. Do you know why? It is because “The cross with the image of Christ crucified is a reminder of Christ’s paschal mystery. It draws us into our suffering when united with the passion and death of Christ leads to redemption.” (Page 105). I had always wondered about why Catholics display a crucifix instead of an empty cross, and now I know.
While reading Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s latest book “The Church: Unlocking the Secrets to the Places Catholics Call Home”, I felt like I was being guided by a man I consider a mentor of my faith though we have never met. It felt like he was showing me every bit of a Catholic Church, from the artwork to the baptismal font. He explains in detail why things are the way they are. Did you know that baptismal fonts are often eight sided? That’s something you can read about in this book.
As someone who grew up Protestant, I appreciated the time and effort in describing the fixtures of a church. It is just right for someone who has little knowledge of the Catholic Church, but detailed enough I believe someone who has grown up in this tradition will learn quite a bit about why things are the way they are.
What is the purpose of holy water? Why are some churches built in a cruciform? What happens if some of the wine is spilled once it is blessed by the priest? Why are beeswax candles used? (Here’s a hint: it has meaning than just he fact they aren’t as smoky!) Only certain relics can be kept under a church’s altar. Do you know which ones?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, they are all covered in this book. At 237 pages, it was a quick read for me because while the subject matter could be dry, Cardinal Wuerl kept it interesting. I read it in about two days and it was a book I WANTED to read, not felt like I should because I needed to know the information in it.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about why Catholics do the things they do!
FTC disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
May 13, 2013
The Church begins simply by explaining what a church is and why people are willing to sacrifice so much and live in poverty to construct these lavish and ornate buildings. It then goes on to explain what THE Church is, as in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. He also explains some of the different names for it, including Mother and Ship to name a few. You may think this is all very basic information that most people know, but the book then progresses to my favorite part. It breaks down every aspect and feature of a church and explains the historical, physical, and spiritual significance of each feature.
Some features of a church might be obvious. For example, a lot of churches are cruciform shaped to represent the Body of Christ, which is the Church. Other features of a church though hold more significance than one realizes. The Ambo for example is the place where the Word of God is proclaimed. This is, in fact, a second table. The first table is the altar, where the Bread is broken. The second table is the Ambo, where the Word of God is broken. To put it plainly, this is where the Sacred Scripture is opened, read, and explained to us. The most enlightening passage to me was the part on the Sacristy. Being a convert, I never had the chance to be an altar server, and so I have never experienced this room. It was truly enlightening learning the spiritual dimension of a space that seems to be a mere dressing room to many.
The Church is a 5 star book that is excellent for the convert and cradle Catholic alike. This building that so many take for granted is more than just a building. It is full of both physical and spiritual beauty and reading this book will open your eyes to all that beauty. So take the time to read this book and see how your church and the churches in your area compare to the descriptions in this book and to each other. Then, when you get done with this book, pick up its companion book called The Mass. You won't be disappointed with what you find. I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.
Some features of a church might be obvious. For example, a lot of churches are cruciform shaped to represent the Body of Christ, which is the Church. Other features of a church though hold more significance than one realizes. The Ambo for example is the place where the Word of God is proclaimed. This is, in fact, a second table. The first table is the altar, where the Bread is broken. The second table is the Ambo, where the Word of God is broken. To put it plainly, this is where the Sacred Scripture is opened, read, and explained to us. The most enlightening passage to me was the part on the Sacristy. Being a convert, I never had the chance to be an altar server, and so I have never experienced this room. It was truly enlightening learning the spiritual dimension of a space that seems to be a mere dressing room to many.
The Church is a 5 star book that is excellent for the convert and cradle Catholic alike. This building that so many take for granted is more than just a building. It is full of both physical and spiritual beauty and reading this book will open your eyes to all that beauty. So take the time to read this book and see how your church and the churches in your area compare to the descriptions in this book and to each other. Then, when you get done with this book, pick up its companion book called The Mass. You won't be disappointed with what you find. I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.
April 7, 2013
When I used to teach third grade religious education in my parish, one of my favorite chapters taught about the "stuff" in the church. We'd take a tour of the church and learn about the names and uses of all those things the kids hopefully saw on a regular basis. This book is like my tour, only for grown-ups. Full reviewhttp://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2013...
January 15, 2016
Cardinal Wuerl writes an erudite and pious exploration of the typical Catholic church building, explaining in simple and easily accessible language how the building reflects the reality of the Church as the People of God. For Catholics, it's a wonderful resource to renew and deepen their understanding of the theology behind church buildings. For non-Catholics, a great guidebook to basic Catholic liturgical beliefs. Highly recommended.
September 14, 2015
EXCELLENT!!!!!
Most helpful, insightful, book on the Mass. Vert thorough, leaves no doubt about why things are the way they are, and done the way they are done. A book to read again and again.
Most helpful, insightful, book on the Mass. Vert thorough, leaves no doubt about why things are the way they are, and done the way they are done. A book to read again and again.
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May 1, 2018Love the book.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews