While on retreat at the mother house of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady, Mother of the Church, in Baltic, Connecticut, between Christmas and New Year's, I had the added delight of visiting Baltic's parish church, St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.
These shots that I snapped with my cell phone—the first two during Eucharistic Adoration, the rest after a morning Mass—give a hint of the Romanesque beauty of the church, which was restored a few years ago under the direction of its wonderful pastor, Father Joseph Tito.
During the restoration, Father Tito managed to acquire the altarpiece from a Brooklyn church that was being converted into condominiums. I believe the altar itself, as well as the tabernacle, were likewise acquired during the restoration, which gloriously undid a post-Vatican II wreckovation. Father Tito told me that the parishioners were so happy when the tabernacle was restored to the center after years of exile.
See what looks like a lace covering on the tabernacle? Look closer.
It's a trick of the eye. What appears to be lace is actually a clear gauze curtain over a marbleized lace frontispiece. The frontispiece actually was donated separately from the tabernacle and, providentially, fit it perfectly.
What a beautiful place to visit the Lord. I miss it so much already.
