Protestant Tours STUNNING Catholic Church (Cantius Part 1)

well hey everyone welcome or welcome back to gospel simplicity today i am joined by father joshua caswell and this is going to be really fun many of you might have seen my video in which i came here and had no idea what i was doing well today we are back for a tour of this incredible church and you are going to get some great insight from father joshua so thank you so much for doing this yeah i'm father joshua caswell and i'm the pastor of saint john kansas church and i'm very happy to take austin and all the viewers of gospel simplicity on a tour of saint john cancer's church arguably one of the most sacred spaces in the city of chicago so this will be fun uh hopefully there'll be some great questions and insights as we head in and see a look into a beautifully appointed catholic church here we are in the vestibule of the church most catholic churches are actually built on the planet of the jewish temple so whether you have the outer court you have the inner court you have the sanctuary of the holy of holies there's all these levels and so we're in the outer level we've just come up the steps and about to enter through these front doors of the of the church into the actual space itself the three doors here uh in our church do represent the three mystical doors to heaven in the book of revelation there's so much symbolism everything in this church contains symbolism it would take hours but today we're just going to taste some of that and see some of the beautiful symbols and how they speak to us teach us the faith and bring us closer to god so let's go ahead and step on in one of the first things you see besides the beauty behind you is the beautiful medallion on the floor this medallion is important as we walk across the threshold into the sacred space it's actually taken from the bridge of the angels in rome so when you would cross in rome at a time of pilgrimage from profane rome to sacred rome across the bridge of the angels you would see the same inscription and it's in latin it says from this point is a welcome for the humble from this point is retribution for the proud and so showing the kind of attitude we need when entering a sacred space let's go ahead and go in and see the inside of the church and i have to say the first time i ever came in here the first reaction is just wow and i mean it silences you seeing it all it's incredible this space should overwhelm us i've seen the reaction so many times i've been here for 17 years i've seen people's various reactions to the church and it's usually the breath in or wow or omg which is actually appropriate in this in this case but the space should overwhelm us because churches are built to look like heaven or at least what we think heaven would look like and so seeing the space as heaven staying august and told us that we make churches beautiful because they should remind us of heaven and so that's what we we see here before us is some sort of resemblance of heaven i think you guys nailed it i've never been to heaven but you go guys it's beautiful one of the first things people comment on is this beautiful hardwood floor there are 17 various hardwoods from around the world and these beautiful medallions we're going to walk down the floor and we're going to see step by step these beautiful medallions and the symbols they contain we'll say a bit more about the architecture and tell the story of the church going forward so come on in as we walk down the floor one of the first things you're going to see is these symbols which are symbols of the life of christ the floor is new instead of just replacing it with regular tile we thought why not make the floor also teachable so it teaches people about the whole story of christ and so the very first medallion you see here you can see ebony purple heart bird's eye maple there's 17 different woods that are harder than oak on this floor no stain whatsoever but of course you see very familiar the star of david it's the jewish star but in the center there are two greek letters and in any catholic church or in catholic symbology you're going to see the what's called the cairo chi for this letter the x and rho for the letter rom greek so the cairo are the first two letters of christos okay and so it's christ and so that's a symbol of christ who is born from the promise born from the star of david born into that heritage so that's the symbol for for christ so let's go ahead and walk down to the next one as we're walking down the floor again getting more into this beautiful sacred space you can see these three symbols of the crowns there are three crowns now of course most would take that while of course the three magi came and presented gifts to jesus but the three crowns are really about our mission in the world as christians through our baptism that we are priest prophet and king and christ was all of course all three of those par excellence he was priest he was prophet he was king by these three crowns it's our mission to both sanctify to teach and to govern in our own way those are the three gifts of the church so basically christ promised him as a messiah bringing these three gifts wow just the theology that's embedded into the floor is incredible yes absolutely i've heard of non-denominational churches having committee meetings about the color of carpet but i don't think it had to do with theology i think you're absolutely right now it's um one of our one of the parishioners actually many years ago had the design for the floor and worked it out with with a pastor and was just seen as a way to teach people and i'm not sure if you noticed this but we're actually heading downhill did you notice that no i didn't um it was one of the first churches in chicago to be built on a slight incline and it just goes slightly down that everyone can see the altar so as we head down we're actually going downhill this beautiful medallion here you can see what's called the instruments of the passion so you're going to see the crown of thorns the nails the spear the sponge the hammer it's basically a symbol of the passion of christ's passion wow so not only are these medallions a symbol for christ but for every christian every christian must go through this floor every christian must walk through this destiny we are first of course born as a promise baptized we're given the call as pre-priest prophet and king and then finally we of course have to go through our own death like paul says right i no longer live but christ lives in me yeah but of course that's not the end of the story so we head to the next symbol the next symbol on the on the floor here is in latin it's called the vexilar regis it's a fantastic way of saying the king's banner okay this banner is a symbol of the resurrection a symbol of the victory over death and sin it's not only here if you look up way in the apps now if you've seen the gold apps do you see the image of christ yeah and he's carrying the same banner and so his his death brought victory and so he carries the standard as the victory over death and sin this incidentally is also the image of the symbol of the religious order that staffed this church for 100 years the resurrectionists they were devoted to the resurrection oh wow okay and then finally the last medallion which we will see in a bit is the eight pointed star eight point symbolizing eternity whether it was the baptistery of constantine whether the early baptistery is always eight sides symbolizing eternal life right because seven is completion eight is that eternal and so these this eight-pointed star one of the most beautiful things for me to see as a pastor is when there is a funeral here and you see the coffin being brought down the floor of the church and so the body of the person who died goes through all of these medallions and finally rests here on this eight-pointed star of eternal life wow but in some the rich theology of bringing us into the space so here we are uh now we can take a look around around us at this magnificent space it is overwhelming it's enormous the church seats about 1500 people the church is um you know it does overwhelm us with its space and architecture churches are built to give us a sense of there's something bigger than ourselves in the last 40 years in catholicism there was a tendency to build churches that look more like pizza hut and we've discovered that human nature doesn't want churches like pizza they want churches that are beautiful and real like the cathedral and sharks or not or dumb or they want they really connect that because the human spirit longs for something bigger than itself so here we are in this busy city but people come in and this space helps them to feel their aspirations toward heaven and so whether it's like you're in the grand canyon or you're seeing a sunset it's the same thing as that moment of beauty allows you to experience something greater than yourself and so many people come here on sundays many who are not necessarily catholic or even a christian of any sort maybe they're atheists but they come here because the space allows them to know that they have a deeper aspiration you look around us you see the beautiful stained glass windows you can see this window here which is actually remarkable it's has eight images but it is the window of the seven sacraments in the catholic church at the very base you can see saint peter and peter and christ in that moment you are peter and i give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven and then if you go in clockwise order you can see baptism confirmation uh holy eucharist confession matrimony last rites and finally matrimony sorry it was holy orders and matrimony but yes the seven sacraments there of course with the basis of christ establishing that church so um there's a lot of things we could focus on but one of the things we'll folk you definitely see before you is this magnificent altar so let's go ahead and see this beautiful altar feel free to ask any questions at any time yeah this is it's stunning and thank you so much i feel like we've gotten a whole theology course just in walking down the aisle the whole the whole life of christ the holy of christ and i will say you know you made the comment about people wanting a space like this having been here on a sunday morning i i can vouch that this place is full on a sunday which is beautiful to see and like you said it's in i mean we are right downtown right now so it's really neat to see that we're trying to keep this church open as much as possible that people who are weighed down by the cares of the world can have a space to come and and to pray so i mentioned that all the churches being like on a plan of a jewish temple so we had the outer court we're in the inner court now so we've just arrived at the sanctuary and the sanctuary is a place of tremendous beauty um and of course it's where the holy sacrifice of the mass happens you can see this this rail which is um it looks like a dividing line but of course it's that connecting line which brings us to christ and these these gates which are opened for for divine liturgy the procession walks through the gates okay and now now what's what's going on here with the gates is this so you say it's not a dividing line but they're following the temple imagery not just anyone could go into the holy of holies how does that function here right in some ways the priest and the sacred ministers so the priests and the servers and so it's like you know we know we have someone who goes into the holy of holies on our behalf and so the priest and a procession enters through this gate okay and goes and offers the holy sacrifice of of the mass and it's also the same gate where graces flow back through us whether through the blessings of the church or the priest leaving you know at the end of mass the mass has ended and the blessings go out in some way and so the same thing too on this communion rail people come to receive holy communion that is consecrated on this altar right so um one of the things you might not see uh in this church which you would see at most catholic churches is a table altar at this church we haven't had a table altar in years all of our masses including the english mass and the latin masses are said facing as we mentioned toward the east right is that ad oriental add orient just trying to get a couple bonus points to the show i i read the comments guys odd-orientedness is is being offered and uh the ad-oriented mass of course we are facing toward the east because the sun rises in the east right and so every every morning the sun rising and of course that symbols by the beauty of the resurrection wow um on the altar you're gonna see relics uh we have a lot of relics and i'm not sure if you have time to see them today but they are here but the relics and the altar you've got saint john cantius saint ann saint stanislaw saint dominic so there are patron saints sort of polish pages of the parish one of the beautiful images that i do want to point out because it really shows what goes on at the altar is there is a bird above the tabernacle so if you look above the altar there's a cross but there's actually a gold leaf bird yeah a little okay hard to see but that bird is a pelican no why would you have a pelican there you anticipated my question thank you pelicans are not they're not they're sort of nasty birds in a way but you normally have an eagle or a phoenix right those are symbols of christ or john but a pelican for a long time was seen in catholic symbology as an image of christ because when the mother there was a legend that when the mother pelican was in a time of famine and didn't have food for her chicks or for her young the mother pelican would pierce her own flesh and feed her blood to her young wow in order to keep them alive okay yeah so the the symbol so the symbol of christ what he does for us at this altar is he gives us his own flesh to eat he gives us his own very body and blood that by his sacrifice he gives us the holy eucharist and so the symbol of the pelican even thomas aquinas has said oh pie pale kane yeezu o loving pelican jesus and his great hymn to the sacred eucharist so and so right so below that you've got the cross and then you refer to that as the tabernacle is that correct that's right the most important thing in the catholic church is the tabernacle and it's a steel box often made of precious metals okay and in the tabernacle you have this sacred host and so the sacred host of course is the consecrated bread from the mass okay which catholics believe becomes the body blood soul and divinity of jesus and so it's the most precious thing we have and so yes we're in the sanctuary and the very holy of holies itself where the sacred elements are stored and that's why at a catholic church when you come in you're going to see a lamp in this case we have two angels holding lamps okay uh in most catholic churches it's a red light it's a symbol of the presence of jesus and so the sanctuary lamp shows us that christ dwells therein that's why when catholics walk by churches they make the sign of the cross or they would take off their hat or during the day people will come and visit and our doors are open because they want to visit uh christ in the tabernacle okay in the way he's made himself available to us so and is that the same reason why people would come in and kneel before they go into this exactly okay so yeah i'm sure you've seen this when the catholic church people come in the pew and you're going to see what's called a genuflection okay it's the one knee genuflection and they get up that's a symbol of reverence toward christ in the in the sacrament so when we go to other altars you're not going to see a genuflection people may bow to a sacred image but to christ in the tabernacle it's a genuflection wow yeah and so there's also this painting right above the altar there what what do we have going on there sure so the painting about the altar is actually the patron of our parish saint john cantius for whom the church is named now even even catholics who may be watching gospel simplicity probably don't know who saint john kansas is he's one of the most obscure saints we've heard of saint francis saint dominic saint augustine you know but saint john kansas is more obscure but in poland he was well known he was the professor of the jagalonian university it's an amazing university in europe okay st john kansas was a professor there and he taught nicholas copernicus and um was an amazing professor known for his book smarts but in that painting saint john cancious is seen in what's known as the image of the miracle of the jug and what happened is that young girl is walking across the world's largest public square and in a time of economic disparity she's walking along to sell milk at the marketplace she trips in the cobblestones i've been there myself i've probably tripped on the same stones they're very uneven she chips in the cobblestones and the pieces of the jug go everywhere and the milk spills out and she's having one of these terrible days and father john walks up to her and takes one look at her and basically says don't cry over spilled milk that's not what he says but we know what he does what he does is he picks up the pieces of the jug and he restores it completely and that jug is put back together then he says to the girl go to the river behind that church the river behind that beautiful church which is a real church in europe saint mary's basilica go behind the church the vista of the river and get some water she brings the water back to him father john blesses the water in the jug and the jug of water turns to rich sweet milk wow so that miracle is at the very core of the gospel of what we what we do here it's about restoring what is what is broken not only a church like this church was broken we went from 20 000 parishioners to in 1988 40 people for one mass on sunday and the church was falling apart wow but through just doing the liturgy well through the worship of god people started coming and the place was again filled with the beauty and the grace of sacred music so the jug is an analogy but not only analogy for churches but an analogy for each one of us that we by our baptism are like that vessel holding god's grace we're holding the mere the milk of god's grace but through sin or for whatever reason brokenness who knows what we fall and the jug breaks and the grace leaks out but god's promises that he can put us back together and even more he will fill us and cleanse us with water and of course then put the richness and the sweetness a greater and richer milk than was there before and so actually one of my favorite things in the sacred liturgy happens on easter night in this church okay from this pulpit uh the deacon seeing the what's called the exalted it's a great hymn of praise for easter night and it says o felix cuppa o happy fault o necessary sin of adam which merited for us so great a redeemer wow that there's no there's no thought which can't be repaired can't be restored that's wonderful and so that image of the broken jug is like there is nothing that's broken that can't be repaired or made greater and so the religious community that's founded here which i am the superior is dedicated to restoring the sacred through the beauty of the liturgy through the holy mass through the worship of god because we want to put people back together whether it's through the 700 confessions we hear on sunday and now confession is a whole different thing we'll talk about that 700 confessions each sunday are heard at this church people who are coming in who are broken but able to experience the newness and richness of god's grace through that great sacrament wow that's incredible you know i remember being here and seeing the lines for confession but i had no idea it was that many i'll tell you one day we had a visit here and they said who are all the protesters and i said what do you mean protesters yeah all the people standing up in the church and they were just people in line for confession wow because people want to people want to let go they want to be honest with themselves yeah we'll talk about confession in a bit on our way yeah but this is this is the sanctuary this is the beautiful high altar and it's beautiful it shows to us the an image in some way of nobility majesty and grace that god is great he is grand and that we worship in in a fitting way wow so now what i would love to show you is the other place of the church but let's walk over to our high pulpit okay this is actually pretty amazing it's not only beautiful it's actually practical this is of course beautiful quarter sun oak pulpit but it was made in such a way before there were microphones that a preacher could speak to almost 2 000 people in a church so the shell above you can see the symbol of the holy spirit there's the dove yes that the preacher would preach and that would reflect the sound onto the congregation below and so as a practical thing before there was sound amplification so that's really neat imagine what was church like for the first 1900 years right without uh sound amplification yes sound boards but that so wow now we are heading i'm going to walk in here we're heading to what's called known as our ladies altar or mary's altar okay most churches are going to have not only your main altar but side shrines to various saints and devotions and this side altar is dedicated to marrying okay and it contains a very famous icon of mary an icon is not something that you have on your app or something but an icon is a window okay so we have statues you see we have the statues on either side but an icon is a window through which we look at mary and she looks at us or we look at our lord and they look at us it's a window into heaven in a way this would not be a polish church if we did not have an icon of something known as the black madonna okay or our lady of chance jehovah okay most polish churches have this image of mary because there's a very famous one in poland that even legend says was painted by saint luke on the family of the of the table of the holy family it's a long story a lot of tangents but wow our leave chance to help this is a copy of that now this icon is the spiritual heart of the parish in some ways because after mass on sunday you will see people gathered all around here and they are coming here to bring their joys and sorrows in some way to their mother the mother of of jesus and i will say as somebody who was formerly pentecostal and struggling with marian devotion it was sort of like this would be like the exact opposite you have mary covered in silver and gold with lots of jewels in her crowns but i will tell you my own i have my own experience of of seeing mary was just as simple as seeing the moon the moon is beautiful when you go outside because it reflects the sun and so mary is beautiful because she reflects her son that all the light and mary never takes away from our son jesus that if we're looking for jesus who else better to find her than than mary so my own experience with mary but this particular image was cleaned these crowns beautiful crowns they were made from jewels donated by parishioners and so if you look at the collar on jesus neck a versace bracelet from michigan avenue the very tippy top of mary's crown a wedding ring from somebody married in the parish so these crowns were taken to rome blessed by john paul ii and he in a private mass blessed the crowns and called this image matka bosch chicago meaning our lady of chicago wow and so it's just been a really a center of you know every bride who is married leaves her flowers here every soldier who goes to war leaves their sword of their hat it's sort of like a prayer and you're going to see that most churches you're going to see the the altar but always be a devotional side shrine to mary okay we want to connect with that maternal side mary who represents in some way the beautiful maternal love of of of god for us how you know we can get into mary but there's there's a lot there obviously yeah and so when you say it's an altar would you serve mass there as well yeah that's what makes it okay exactly in fact most old churches hold a lot of altars because priests didn't say mass together they said their own individual masses right and so sometimes like on christmas or all souls day you'll see the priests saying mass at all our various altars in in our church wow so yes i have said mass at this altar in fact my very first mass i said at this altar really wow i'm sure that's a powerful memory oh definitely definitely let's head in now and see this beautiful relic chapel yes one of the things you don't see very often in catholic churches are relics and relics are of course pieces of the saints of their very bones there's different types of relics there's first class relics which are an actual piece of hair or bone of a saint second clasp which is their clothing and third class which are things touched to sacred relics these are as old as as the church now from the very beginning you know in the catacombs the christians would go into the amphitheater or the colosseum and rescue the bones of the martyrs and they would preserve them and they would actually pray in the catacombs where the bones of the saints are buried in fact every altar the altar stone has relics in the altar because the first masses were set upon the tombs of the saints wow but these relics you have everything from a small bit of the blood of saint januarius the glove of padre pio you've got the in a tongue of sinjan nepamuk you have exactly a tongue you have a small finger bones you've got apostles saints this church houses 2 000 relics wow on all saints day these are put all around the altars and in the catholic church we of course believe in the communion of saints that we are not alone that those who have gone before us uh who are in heaven are part of the communion of saints and i was struggling myself to figure out you know why relics are so important or why we should have them but i'll tell you i had a story um after the chicago cubs won the world series okay in 19 it was no no it was 100 years since like 1908 so it was right 2006 16. you had five million people downtown in chicago and um in that moment i remember seeing i was on one of the l stops and i picked up a piece of blue confetti i said this is not going to happen again the cubs won't win the world series for a long time so i wanted a piece of that of that victory that the cubs had won and at that moment an older gentleman took it from me because he wanted it it was snatched out of my hand i said why is this so precious it's a piece of paper but in some ways everyone wants a piece of the victory a piece of the glory relics in some ways are a piece of the glory wow those saints overcame sin and death who were able who were marveled for the name of jesus so many beautiful relics you'll have to do another video all about relics yeah and i'm sure you have lots lots of comments so oh man you've got a jawbone of virgin mario's they've got all kinds of pieces whole relics in fact we even have an entire body of a saint um you have a body here there's an entire body of a saint i'm going to pull out my little flashlight here and show you this is saint simplicious he is a martyr from the second century and he was killed under diocletian of the name of jesus on on his lips so if you look look look down you can actually see through the window the actual uh skull and the place where he was bludgeoned to death for the name of jesus so an actual the entire bones of saint simplicious martyr wow from the second century that's incredible now i have to ask when we just walked through there you just dipped your hand in that thing what what just happened that was a holy water okay so most catholic churches have a holy water font and um it's a habit i have and the habit most most catholics have so i dip my finger into the holy water in fact i'll show you i'll do it here the camera so yes you go like this and you make the sign of the cross with the water blessing yourself why would you do that well in some ways you're reminding yourself of your baptism so when you were baptized water is poured over you and that's a small way of renewing your baptismal promises yes i belong to god but holy water through the centuries has long been known for its effects keep disease away ward off evil spirits it says old one of the oldest sacramentals we have the early christians were blessing water and using it sprinkling things with water it's a way of purifying and so it's just a way of saying like it could be you know forgive me for whatever sins i've committed or renewing your baptismal promises reminding yourself faith being faithful to god wow that's fascinating let's go ahead and walk along this side here one of the things you're going to see in a catholic church are votive candles and these are ways of expressing a prayer so people come and they want to make a prayer you know in the in the early church you admit you'd burn olive oil you'd make an offering or you'd make it's in some ways it's a small sacrifice so people put a little dollar in the candle box and they would say a prayer either to jesus or to mary and then they would light they actually light a candle and it's a way of the prayer being there burning in the presence of jesus so you're not here but the light is there and also a symbol of that christ of course is the light so i've just lit this candle uh for the intention of all the viewers of gospel simplicity and that's a little prayer before our lady's altar here just praying for all of you that you be kept safe and be held truly by christ his mother so thank you art art in the catholic church is uh extraordinarily important um it helps us to you know not just you know the faith is just not meant to be known that the mass shouldn't be a cerebral thing it shouldn't be just like intellectual and so our entire being is caught up into the emotions of of basically of worshiping god and so when christians come by and they're able to see the beauty of christ in form this carved sculpture this is what's known as a pierre you've heard of michelangelo's pieda this is a pieta like that it's just mary holding the dead body of our son jesus so that that beautiful moment and so it's expressed here in beautiful beautiful art like many things in this church yes it really is a full body experience versus just getting a couple ideas in your head at the end of a service it's really communicating with all of your senses one of the greatest things about walking into a catholic church is that all the senses are fully engaged and so it's never just going to be an experience of of words because the truth is not just known but the truth is also loved and so all of the artwork in the church it should really the whole it's like because christ became flesh the word became flesh what does john say the word that we have touched that we have felt there's a certain tangibility to the catholic faith so when you walk in a catholic church especially this church on a sunday you're going to see the architecture you're going to smell the incense you're going to hear the music you're going to um you're going to walk up to the rail and if you're in good standing with the catholic church then you will receive and actually taste the elements the elements of the body and blood of jesus so all the senses are brought into this whole moment and so that's one of the things you're going to see in a catholic church is they take the incarnation seriously yeah that the word became flesh and so that's why you have many beautiful works works of art yes in the church you have so many devotional images and here is one of them so there are different images of christ your ways of expressing who christ is this is an image known as the divine mercy it's actually a new painting and it was painted by somebody who had a conversion and was actually baptized with this baptismal font in the last couple of years this is a baptism this is a baptismal font look at that there's all kinds of things yeah let's take a look let's open that that up oh wow so there's the baptismal font it's got water in it and when a child is brought here this is where their whole christian life begins the water is poured over them and they experience i baptize the name of the father son of holy spirit and from that moment on they that they're the gateway to all the sacraments so it's the beginning of the christian life okay wow whether a child or an adult i can imagine there must be so many questions we could be talking about oh there really are it's yeah there's a beautiful side shrine image that of the divine mercy uh the artwork never stops or statues everywhere in this church but the image of the divine mercy is actually i would say it's a modern devotion in terms of it was revealed to a nun in 1927 okay where jesus revealed these two rays of blood and water flowing from aside and it was about it was about his mercy which wants to envelop the world and so he asked that this image be painted and john paul ii actually approved this this image and the church is celebrating divine mercy the devotion spread all over the catholic church but it's just an image to the mercy of god which is so great that even the greatest sinner has the most right to his mercy okay and so sort of the two streams the red and the white symbolize the blood and water which flowed from the open heart of jesus right so wow and is that connected to the divine mercy chaplet someone was telling me exactly if you don't want to pray the rosary you should try the divine mercy chaplain exactly okay and that's that divine mercy chaplet again is another way of reminding all prayer right daddy remember what your son did did for us the day of mercy chaplet goes like this eternal father i offer you the body blood soul and divinity of your son jesus in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world so you're reminding the father of what his son did it's a way of just repeating that again thinking of what christ did for us reminding reminding god what christ did did for us wow interesting one of the most charming things about this church in particular as i mentioned it was built by polish immigrants yes um if you look up in the apps way up top there around the great you're going to see symbols for the four evangelists and you can actually see their their names there so you see it's the four evangelists matthew mark luke and john the four gospel writers each of the four gospel writers have a symbol okay and so there's the ox there's the lion there's the man and there's the angel and then there's the eagle for for john okay but to show the simple faith the people who built this church when you look up you'll see that they actually did them wrong if you look at saint luke so it's it's in latin st luke and just below him it's not the symbol of the ox as expected it's the symbol of the lion so these uh these people who built the church even what the poor parishioners they had mixed up the symbols and when the church was restored we left it exactly like that leaving the mistake in the art just to show the people who built the church and their simplicity wow there's something beautiful to that to leaving it as a reminder of a certain imperfection in the midst of a building that is so overwhelmingly beautiful yeah absolutely you know and they were just simple people who just loved god and gave everything they had we don't have any of their homes left but they gave everything they had to build this church that we can enjoy it today and see how great god is that's incredible one of the things that you're definitely going to see in a catholic church are stations of the cross okay and so these are 14 images that are usually on the wall of a catholic church so you can see 14 different images and they are all the story of christ's passion on the way to the cross okay these ones have polish inscriptions this one is you know jesus meets his mother or jesus falls on the cross but the stations of the cross were just a way was a devotion that developed for people to relive okay christ's sacrifice for us so whether it's from the from him being condemned by pilate all the way to him being buried in the tomb so it goes around the church they they're following in order wow that's really neat there's no end to catholic devotions and there isn't but the whole building is communicating something and allowing people to understand which is just a fascinating paradigm shift from what i grew up in where it's how do we make people comfortable how do we get them a nice coffee and get them checked in and you know nothing wrong with that per se but there's just such a depth here that is really fascinating i think it actually requires us to be children again yeah and when you're a child and you walk in and everything's new and you're in awe i think the same way to the church is like it's almost like a special atrium which allows people to pray in different ways so when you come in on a sunday somebody may be praying the station of the cross others are lighting candles others are praying in some small corner but there's just a space where people can see the wonders of god's love for them in art in in beauty and song and prayer wow it's beautiful one of my favorite things about this church i have many but are these two stained glass windows at the back of the church if we look at this window here which is the transfiguration you're going to see christ with moses and elijah and at the base are the three apostles peter james and john yes now if we had experienced the transfiguration ourselves we'd be tempted to think that we would never sin again and that we would never ever fall but as we know months later that the the transfiguration was in the full story why did christ was transfigured to give them image of himself so there so that they could endure the cross they had to go down into the valley and so three months later if we look to the other side we find the same three apostles who are just standing on the mountain in awe and there they are asleep when christ is in his agony and that's a good reminder to us that no matter what experiences we have with god that we still need to be held held through yeah and so whether we're in the mountaintop with christ and it's amazing or whether we are in the garden of agony and we are asleep and christ asks us to be awake but those are all part of the story that's beautiful wow and now complete yeah outside so this is where you do confession this is where we do confession okay i remember growing up and when i heard about catholics i heard that they had a box like a magic box and you go in there and they turn on a green light and your sins are gone that's the only thing i know about confessions but they are and that's not it it could be but uh no of course it's it's a beautiful sack but what happens here these are old confessions not all confessions are as old as this one but you do have that the light which is on when the priest is there okay and these are clothes the priest sits inside and when the priest sits there and the penitent of the person confessing goes to the side and they kneel down and they start with bless me father for i have sinned and they just sail they say out loud like james says confess your sins one to another they say aloud their sins the way it keeps them honest the priest may give them some counsel uh he may say okay you know you should probably stay away from this or you should probably do that or whatever or he tells them how much they are loved by god and then the most incredible thing happens just like at the altar the priest in this moment of catholics believe becomes in persona christi and he gives him the words of absolution where he says and i absolve you from your sins he says i absolve you because at those moments christ is borrowing his lips okay and he's making the sound of the cross over them and psychologists many people in history have marveled at the effect of confession that people will come here to these places be honest and they can let it go and they walk away right and of course the great seal of confession we've heard movies there's been movies and stories about this like alfred hitchcock i confess for instance whatever is said to the priest in a confession can never ever be said anywhere the priest is in danger of being excommunicated forever revealing what is heard in the confession not even the pope can ask me to reveal what somebody tells me in confession so it's the most sacred seal over the confession that what is said there uh stays there so i i do have that beautiful it's actually one of my favorite things to do is to sit here and to hear people be honest with themselves because at that moment you get to understand how much god loves them and impart to them how much they are loved in spite of themselves wow and so i do love i do love the sacrament of confession and people at this church use it readily i mentioned we have 700 confessions on sunday that still amazes me so and priests have heard absolutely everything everything there is to hear we've heard it all but you can't tell me i can't tell you exactly wow that has to be a wait though too just hearing all of that it is at times but you would be surprised at how actually beautiful it is because when you see people at their worst you also see them at their best and there are moments where i know you don't feel the weight you feel the weight of christ's love for them it's a strange experience yeah um i often i think after a full day of hearing confessions you are a bit tired but you're just more um you're more just joyful because you know how many people god has forgiven and you get to watch over god's shoulders yeah and that's really really neat that's beautiful one of the beautiful things in this parish is of course the different works of art and through this chapel we actually have an experience of an artwork and i'm sure you've caught a glimpse but let's um let's go on in and let's one of the things you're going to notice is that when we head through these doors we're leaving the baroque and entering the gothic okay and so if you ever wanted to know the difference between baroque and gothic you're going to experience that walking through these doors because we're leaving 18th century krakow and heading into 14th century krakow wow let's walk in all right this is a beautiful private chapel it is a chapel that would have been used for devotional prayers for other things but today it houses this beautiful work of art and this work of art like all art has a purpose the first is of course to glorify god and the second is to teach us about the faith so in the middle ages obviously not everybody read only the clergy read or others knew how to read but how did people learn the scriptures how did they learn the bible stories they learned it through art right and so in this artwork here you're going to see an altarpiece which is teaching us the mysteries whether it's christ on the cross his death for us but it's a whole really a pocket catechesis or a bible this is called the veichtvotial altarpiece and it's one of the largest it's the largest replica of the original altarpiece from saint mary's basilica in krakow okay this church is known as little krakow and this is one of the reasons why this altarpiece exists three times the size in in poland but this is an amazing replica and it does open up so it's not just a triptych but it's a pentatek it has five panels okay and so we're actually gonna see inside now one of the first things i'll show you as we come close the secret to gothic art is that all gothic art moves from the bottom and goes up okay so if we look down we see the tree of jesse now everything's carved very medieval because this is about 1472. so do you see jesse lying there yes in the book of isaiah a shoot shall come from jesse and the all the kings prophets patriarchs david right the whole lineage and so there's the shoot shall come from jesse and so that this is the beginning underneath the altar is the old covenant leading us to the new testament wow and so then we of course we are brought into the mystery now this is an example of being moved by beauty austin i'm going to help you ask you to take a come up yeah so ask you to take that and [Applause] [Music] we'll that's stunning the power of art this is a lot but this is a carved image of the death of our lady the death of mary so the 12 apostles surrounding mary in her death and then you can see her assumption and way up top her coronation into heaven wow and all the other various scenes in the life of jesus christ's resurrection the descent of the the uh pentecost that is uh the ascension all these various scenes so this altarpiece was the last thing our parishioners would have seen before leaving the city of krakow and coming to chicago and so this was done to honor them wow but it does show the power of art that art still moves people to this day i bring thousands of people through this chapel and many of them do not even know god or know anything about but the beauty of the art still moves them and they can live relive the gospel story wow so that's that's incredible now it's interesting just just this is kind of an aside but isn't it a bit of an open question among catholics as to whether mary died or was assumed just like without dying oh wow that's really great so yes the eastern church holds that mary had mary's door mission okay and the but the western church holds that uh she probably died okay the dogma of the assumption uh doesn't say either it says at the end of the course of her earthly life mary was assumed body and soul okay so in poland which is between east and west this might have been known as the dormition of our lady okay that's a very inside question i'm very impressed by your knowledge of marion dogmas and their intricacies in it i try i try i have to keep up with all of you guys you guys are way smarter than me and you keep me on my toes yeah so yeah mary is their mission or mary's death her assumption and her coronation wow these figures are not saints these are the mayor and nobles of the city of krakow the people who paid for the altarpiece they paid one year's budget of the city to have this ultra piece done could you imagine one year's budget of the city of chicago for a work of art that's what happened in krakow in a church yeah i don't think uh mayor lightfoot proving that anytime soon no probably not but when this was first unveiled um it was unveiled by candlelight and people saw they saw the figures and there was imagine by candlelight they thought they had been witnessing something amazing like an apparition because the figures seem to be dancing so it was very very moving but again that's the power of art that we don't just know god we also love god that truth has to take a concrete form right truth becomes flesh the word becomes flesh and that's what you see in in catholic art wow that's beautiful all right so that's really one of the highest points of the tour there's so much to see here the church is it's an amazing treasure box and you can take as much as you need everything you know it's um the church is the house of god it's where people's lives beginning uh they begin to end people are married here they are buried here people are baptized here and so people come in their greatest joys and their greatest sorrows but but the church really is just a place where in concrete form we can encounter god wow and it's true um we are a temple that we can go to our closet we can pray ourselves but the church helps us to be edified and to really encounter in a very real and tangible way the power and majesty of god wow that is beautiful and i feel like someone could do their phd just on everything that's going on here but it has been such a privilege getting to see so much of this so thank you so much oh it's been wonderful and i'm sure i'm sure you'll be back you'll see many other wonders and certainly throughout the liturgical year um the seasons change and there's so much but um but you're always welcome and certainly any of your viewers are always welcome to come see the beauty of this church or any other churches in your cities that i know are very beautiful and i'm sure that kind priest would be able to explain and to give you a tour just like we gave you today yeah just don't be disappointed when it's not as cool as conscious [Laughter] thank you austin it's been a joy thank you so much what a tour is that not like the coolest church building ever i hope you learned a ton i know i did and if you want to see more videos like this please let me know in the comments one last time thank you to father joshua caswell and thank you as well to my patreon subscribers and merch buyers and hey real quick the video's actually not over here well this video is but the fun continues because father joshua castle and i actually sat down for an interview after the tour and that's going to be coming out soon and if you enjoyed this tour and you want to learn more i think you will really enjoy that interview so be on the lookout for that as always this is gospel simplicity and here on this channel we're passionate about the beautiful simplicity and transformative power of the gospel we're out to talk about life jesus the journey of faith in a real honest and open way so if that at all interests you i'd really encourage you to hit subscribe down below to become a part of what we're doing if you want to become a part of what we're doing at an even deeper level if you want to support this channel i would encourage you to consider becoming a patron patrons through their monthly generosity make videos like this possible if you're interested in that click the link in the description down below until next time be sure to be on the lookout for more videos specifically that interview and go out and love god and love others because truly above all else that will change the world peace i love you guys so much and i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Gospel Simplicity

Views: 230,960

Rating: 4.9442053 out of 5

Keywords: St John Cantius, Catholic Church, Cantius Church Tour, Fr. Joshua Caswell, Austin Suggs, Catholic Church Tour, Catholic Theology, Understanding Catholicism, Catholic Convert, Protestant vs. Catholic, Ecumenical Dialogue, Protestant and Catholic Priest, Coolest Catholic Priest, Gospel Simplicity, Love Across the Lines, Evangelical Catholic, Becoming Catholic, Catholicism 101, Catholicism for Converts, Catholic Architecture, Prettiest Churches, Church Architecture

Id: Ic6damkPw88

Length: 50min 24sec (3024 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Lord_of_Atlantis]

Non-denoms always struck me as dweebs. Still, I'm glad the dude was struck by the beauty of the church!