By 1908 our parish saw church goers starting to worship in a building that had been designed as a four-story parochial school. The first floor would serve as a church until a separate building could be erected. It never was!
With high ceilings and comfortably well lit, St. Gregory the Great's break from more traditional ecclesiastical architecture and lighting adds to the relaxed and open atmosphere you find here.
It also helps you appreciate a variety of devotional art.
Colorful murals encircle the sanctuary, with a festival of Christian saints lining the wall in back of the altar. Here is a detail....
Observing Lent and Easter Week at St. Gregory's becomes a rare personal devotion, for the Stations of the Cross are marked by sculptured tableaux, at eye level, to put you on the Path right behind the Savior. The Stations surround the sancturary for a truly moving meditation.
For many parishioners and visitors, however, it is the church's magnificient, turn-of-the-20th-century, stained glass windows, created by Del Prato Studios, that magnetize both as art and channels for Spirit. While a fire destroyed early records, the company--that is still producing--created stained glass art on a par with the renowned Tiffany Studios.
"The Last Supper" on the east wall, and "The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes" on the west catch light through all the seasons, thanks to our large school yard on one side, and unobstructed setting on the other. Smaller stained glass windows with more Gospel scenes adorn the North wall.
Finally, for folk art at St. Gregory's nothing tops our homemade Christmas Creche made of ... brown packing paper!