a conference for pastors, architects, building committees, artists, liturgical consultants and all interested in the beauty of the Catholic artistic heritage

Supported in part by a grant from the Bricks and Mortar Foundation.

Heaven On Earth: The Theology and Design of Catholic Church Buildings

In the great tradition, the Church has understood that a church building is an “earthly heaven.” This sacramental building which makes present the realities described by St. John in the Book of Revelation, where the Angel of the Temple gives a tour of heaven, revealing its golden, jewel-covered walls and angels and saints singing the praises of the Trinity (Rv 21:15). Always more than a meeting house, church buildings use art and architecture to make this hoped-for vision of our heavenly destiny knowable to the senses, filling churches with the “signs and symbols of heavenly realities” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 123). When architects and artists have failed to understand this sacramental vision, the result has been bland and uninspiring, leading people to conclude that a building does not “look like” a church. The Liturgical Institute invites you to connect again with this sacramental understanding of liturgical architecture in a conference which is theoretical, practical and prayerful.