"Catholic Americana at its very best"

A BOOK REVIEW of Catholic St. Louis: A Pictorial History, over at Tradition For Tomorrow, a website of Saint Francis de Sales Oratory:

In this collection of photographs, there emerges an additional element which is not easily captured on paper. Through these beautifully composed photographs of sacred space, Mr. Abeln is able to show a dignity which beckons - an irresistible invitation to go visit the actual place, to be near the real altar, thus giving a new meaning to the American evangelical protestant term “altar call.” In contemplating these images, the reader gets the sense that, indeed, the Altar calls.

Click here for the full review.

Whatever the merits of these photos, most of the credit ought to go to the bishops, pastors, congregations, artists, and architects who made these churches possible and who maintained them until the present, and to the Word who inspired all to build these “sermons in stone”.