Saint Cecilia Cathedral

The Cathedral of St. Cecilia in Omaha is a large mighty limestone castle nestled in mid-town Omaha.  It is the biggest thing around and further yet sits on a hill.  Stepping up to it sheer flat facade give you a felling of impressiveness.  This feeling extends as you step inside its large bronze doors.  I can feel a early 20th century connection with the artwork and very ornate walls.  It is accented by a dark wood that makes up much of the artwork and furniture including the impressive cathedra.  This wood style extends to several of the statues including a inspired life size Jesus in the rear of the church and several more statues integrated into the backdrop of the altar. The stations hang on the walls like large copper coins, but end up accenting the stone walls well.  Once item that I really enjoyed seeing was the crests toward the top of the church that gave dates to the reign of bishops and other important events in the Archdiocese.  I also enjoyed several of the paintings including one of St. Cecilia that I had not seen before at the entrance of the side chapel.

Christ the King - Omaha

Christ the King Church in Omaha is a very unique church painted by 9,000 square foot of stained glass that seem to hold the room on top of the church.  As this ring of stained glass surrounds the church it tells the story of Jesus mostly in blue tones with red and yellow accents.  The glass sticks to a very square pattern that gives off a 60's motif   The other items that sets this church apart are the gold etchings in the stone walls above the entrances and used in the stations.  I live the fact that these stations are integrated into the building instead of being something just hung on the wall.  The other items that struck me as beautiful is the large arrangement of candles that flanks the sanctuary on the left.  I envision it as a burning bush with no less that 1,000 yellow candles creating the top of the brick structure.  You can also visit the perpetual adoration chapel as you pass by this interesting piece of artwork.

Phoenix cathedral

I visited this cathedral on May 1st just as all of the snowbirds were leaving to go back home. This was the first cathedral that had people in it. I would say there were about 15 praying there that afternoon. This was a 50-60's style cathedral that was out of date, but it seemed well kept up. Obviously they were going for the southwestern theme. It seemed to be a medium sized cathedral and it looked like they had a big school attached. Strangely it was not in the downtown area as I would have thought. It was probably 5-10 miles away. They had awesome circular stations that were well lit. I also took to there huge stained glass windows. They are red and yellow and massive. I don't know what they mean, but they added a beauty to this place. They also had a nice portico over the altar. Simple, but significant.

Rockford Cathedral

I visited this cathedral on April 23, 2012. This is a smaller diocese, but I really liked their cathedral. It wasn't crazy huge, but it probably didn't need to be. The outside had some cool artwork in gold and stone. The inside was bathed in light from many colorful and unique stained glass windows. The greatest element I took away was the church history displays featured all around the cathedral. Each one covered one century of history and then had a picture and a couple paragraphs of what happened. It made me rediscover how many trying times the Church has been through and how we have always made it. I was also introduced to the rector and he explained a few items about the cathedral.

Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist - Milwaukee, Wisconsin

I visited this cathedral on April 22 so I am running a little behind in keeping my entries up to date. This cathedral was pretty huge and in a bit of a distressed neighborhood. I got there around 5 or so, but it was already locked up tight. It seems to be very old and very heavy, but it was made with a white brick which was a little different. It didn't seem very elegant as there was much rust and many stains