CATHOLIC LAND

Washington, DC 122 comments

My two old friends Jimmy & Eric joined me for a religious pilgrimage of sorts, especially given the fact that Jimmy and I are raving heretics and Eric is a Catholic who dances to his own beat.

We waited for the morning rush hour into Washington to end before heading down to Northeast D.C. for a journey through a Christian kaleidoscope.

Our first stop was the National Basilica, the largest Catholic Church in America. The place was virtually empty and we roamed the bright light, white marble interior for over an hour, exploring the trippy side chapels and eye-popping, shiny-tile, ceiling murals. I especially liked the multi-colored marble columns. Before leaving, Eric bought a controversial book entitled “Rethinking Mary” in the expansive book shop and then we were off to our next destination, Catholic University, which sits right next to the Basilica.

Catholic University has a few grey stone granite buildings that would be home in jolly old England, but for the most part, it’s just bland brick and lego block buildings. And curiously, there were almost no students to be seen, even on a sunny 60-degree day.

We had lunch in the renovated urban renewal stretch of Monroe Street that was done in that popular modern architectural style I call “fancy facade”. We grabbed some tasty sandwiches at a Potbelly and sat outside in the warm sun.

After lunch, we walked east on Michigan Avenue, over the railroad and Metro tracks, and into the cozy, mixed middle class neighborhood of Brookland.

Our final destination was one of my favorite attractions in our nation’s capital, the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America, where they have recreated some of the most sacred pilgrimage sites in the Middle East. It’s essentially a religious amusement park for those who want to see some of the Bible’s holiest shrines without leaving America. It’s wacky as hell without being cheesy in any way.

The Mount Saint Sepulcher Church was erected by Father Godfrey Schilling in 1898, and is laid out in the shape of a Jerusalem cross, consisting of one large cross in the middle and four smaller crosses at each corner, signifying the five wounds of Christ on the cross.

Inside the Main Church, visitors will find facsimiles of the Tomb of Jesus, the Stone of Anointing, the Altar of Tabor (Transfiguration Alter), the St. Francis Chapel, the Alter of the Holy Spirit, the three dimensional Calvary-Golgotha mural, and the Holy Spirit Chapel, all meant to transport you back to the golden age of Christ.

And there’s a truly surreal garden of delight in a deep wooded ravine just outside the church where we found the larger sacred replicas: the Grotto of Gethsemane, a Jewish tomb, the Tomb of the Virgin Mary fashioned after the one erected by the Crusaders in the 12th century, the Lourdes Grotto, the Stations of the Cross, St. Francis and the Wolf, and the Ascension Chapel on the Mount of Olives where Christ rose into Heaven forty days after his resurrection.

Just give me that old time religion!

122 comments

  1. Hi Steve!!
    Candy nicely forwarded this to me and I am going to share it with some friends….In these Pandemic days with so many sort of staying shut in this will come in handy…. I hope you are doing fine… It looks like to me… I am doing great for an 83 yr. old lady. Ha!! Still full of tons of energy….Some call me the energizer Bunny! I think that’s cute….. I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving looking forward to a lovely Christmas… I keep in touch with some of the folks living in Fredonia and Kanab. It’s good for all of us to keep in touch…. George and Rhea McCormick are still hanging in there… Lots of grandkids.. I have 2 grand daughters and 2 grandsons. 2 great granddaughter…. The youngest is 5 and a little terror… They named her Storm so must have put a hex’s on her.. God help her and of course the ones who have to. deal with her.. My Goodness Steve one has to find humor in everything and so I do… I still remember Dancing with you at Kaibab Lodge at one of those gatherings we had… That was so sweet of you as Cliff wasn’t into dancing and I so enjoy it. Still dance by myself in the house…. Cliff passed away in 2015… Candy and son Cliff are both good to me and Candy’s husband Tim is always there if I need him… Meanwhile I keep busy and don’t plan on letting any grass grow under my feet and it seems you are doing the same…. I did hear where they are having a control burn on the North Rim area…..I pray they are careful as it was pretty bad that fire they had a few years back… It was so scary for Jacob Lake. I better get off this as I could write a manuscript….I am still a chatter box.. Ha!! Love you, Mary
    Keep safe with these viruses coming after us front and back.. I got both my Johnson/Johnson shots and I am keeping my fingers crossed. Bye!!!!

    Reply

    1. I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. I don’t track the comments as I should.

      Inna & I do indeed try and keep moving because rust never sleeps. And there is so much to see.

      You can subscribe to my newsletter at http://www.bysteve.carr.com to see my regular posts. Or you can be my friend on Facebook.

      My kids are in from Denver for the holidaze and then I’m off to west Florida until early May. I hate cold weather and love being a snowbird. I plan to go sailing with my old racing skipper around the Dry Tortugas in March.

      We were up on the North Kaibab a few years back and actually stayed at the Kaibab Lodge, in one of the big cabins on the hill. The forest had been burned so badly that I didn’t recognize a lot of it — especially down near Jacob where aspen have replaced the pine and you could see down into Marble Canyon from Highway 67. Very strange! The Lodge looked quite nice and the new owners were very welcoming. But they didn’t know the history of the old place and the whole vibe weirded me out. Too many memories of you and Cliff and the kids and the crazy folks who worked there over the years. You were like my parents. And I miss you both very much. Cliff Jr. and I are friends on Facebook. But he’s pretty conservative and I am still a liberal hippie. I ran a very successful political consulting business for many years back here in Annapolis when I came home from the Kaibab and was the City Manager for eight years for the first woman Mayor who I got elected. I then become the state trails guy for the Department of Natural Resources — the perfect job for me. And then I retired. And now I travel and write. You should read my second book, “The Canyon Chronicles”. You and Cliff are mentioned several times, as is the Lodge.

      I talk to Tony Judd every year on the phone. He has hair to his ass and sounds very happy. Peggy was the only other person I talked to, but she eventually dropped off the game board. I stopped in at the Buckskin when I was passing through town and we couldn’t connect. I heard that COVID shut the bar down.

      You will always have a special place in my heart and I wish we can dance again one day.

      Reply

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