Aglow, At a Church Near You

How to Ponder Your Next Pilgrimage

Summary: Many Catholic churches that we drive or walk by are architectural and “art-laden” gems inside; 2024 is a good time for the reader to stop, enter, and have a look-feel. Three churches in downtown Saint Paul (MN) are featured by way of the author’s “urban sketch-art,” most being drawn on-location. Conclusion, as proffered by two authors who’ve “been there, done that:” do a pilgrimage this year.

Background

Many first-time visitors to a lovely Catholic church in Saint Paul (Minnesota/USA) take photos, in part to capture its mood as well as to have a visual souvenir of the visit. I do a little of that but mostly I put pencil-to-paper (by way of my sketch-journal) and draw what I see right then and there. This type of art is often described as “plein-air” or “on-location,” part of a decade-old trend under the moniker “urban sketching.” We are sketchers doing our thing, often posting results online, with this mission: “To raise the artistic, storytelling and educational value of on-location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel.” (Endnote 1) Each sketch I do puts me “in the zone,” bypassing the ubiquity of distraction. When I sketch, I see, learn, and remember more.

“I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen.” (Frederick Franck, Dutch-American artist)

I started my urban sketching nearly a quarter century ago, with my first church being the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, Figure 1.

Figure 1. Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, 2000, sketched on-location and quickly, by the author.

Churches of course are intrinsically quiet and mood-filled. At the time I was quiet as well — actually, speechless — given the utter beauty before me. I was thus very glad that I had my trusty 4 x 6-inch sketch-journal on hand. I did this sketch quickly, with a black felt marker.

At churches near me

I started sketching churches, inside and out, in the city of Saint Paul in 2017. To date I have visited over 20 churches. My first was the Cathedral of Saint Paul, a dramatic exemplar of an early 20th century U.S. cathedral. I closed 2023 by sketching the highly acclaimed Christmas Choir, Strings, and Brass Concert at the Church of the Assumption.

Technically speaking, I draw primarily on toned paper, either “kraft-brown” or gray (dark or light). One reason that I do that because of “the need for speed,” since my on-location status, with pencil and paper in hand, sometimes evokes puzzlement amidst parishioners and occasionally suggests to me I pause, i.e., “cease to be a distraction.” To that end I can often forego rendering the complex backgrounds using toned paper, instead I simply and quickly capture highlights and shadows with gesture strokes. Occasionally I complete them back in the studio. Another reason for toned paper is that it seems to add mood and affect.

As I have lived in downtown Saint Paul now for five years, I quip that I am quite “drawn to” Saint Paul churches, especially the three that are easy for me to walk to. As referred to earlier two are the Cathedral of Saint Paul and the Church of the Assumption, along with St. Louis King of France Church. Given that I have sketched them so frequently I have been scanning some pages then digitally aggregating a few into what designers and artists create for clients known as mood boards, mine seeking to “glow with emotion.” Three are hereafter, each includes a caption:

Figure 2. One-block walk to–with four moods of–the Church of the Assumption, created by the author as a mood board: clockwise from left, the “First Franciscan,” sited in the courtyard, statuesque yet numinous; “the heavens” painted dramatically and resplendently; the Christmas choir, string, and brass aglow with copious charisma; paired towers that upwell grandly (but, also with practicality, its clockface telling us — “it’s time for Mass”).

Figure 3. Three-block walk to–with five moods of–St. Louis King of France, created by the author as a mood board: clockwise from left, art, edifices, effigies, and an active, inspiriting priest; Mary’s altarpiece made festive by holiday decorations; a regal saint (or saintly king?); remarkable bas-relief altar frontals full of effigies of synergic power; a courageous and sanctified Joan of Arc.

Figure 4. Seven-block walk to–with six moods of–the Cathedral of Saint Paul, created by the author as a mood board: clockwise from left, uplifting apostolic effigies, Paul (above), the four Gospel Evangelists (below); a skilled organist who “resounded” to the hundreds of listeners present (and autographed my sketch of him); a full-scale stone copy of Michelangelo’s Pieta, the ultimate in Mother’s love; a contrasting (“Janus”-faced) session, whereby I felt compelled to “multi-task,” i.e., I sketched a scowling (and persistently “in my face”) panhandler while I also was trying to draw the Cathedral’s facades (whew); three immersive and lyrical moments at a pre-COVID “Christmas Together“ concert.

Visual contemplatio

Church architecture, its music, and its religious art including altarpieces, sculptural effigies, murals, paintings, stained-glass windows, etc. have been essential in the history of the Catholic church. As Pope (and Saint) John Paul II once remarked, “In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ the Church needs art.” (2) As I mentioned previously Notre Dame’s interior artistry left me speechless, but not without thoughts. So, of late, once I arrive to visit and draw a church, I do “a slow 360,” trying to absorb its look, feel, and spiritual affect. In bits and pieces and over several visits I commit to “contemplatio” when I am sketching in a lovely church.

I use this Italian word for contemplation because of its deeper meaning. The word is found in the famed Lectio Divina, a lengthy letter written a millennium ago by a Carthusian monk named (Dom) Guigo de Castro, Figure 5.

Figure 5. Sketch of J. Restout’s painting titled “Portrait of a Cartusian Monk,” (perhaps Dom Guigo, perhaps not) done by the author on-location at the Mpls. Inst. of Art (MN), 2015.

His legacy as a mystic, writer, and spiritual leader was his proposing a four-step process akin to climbing a ladder: reading (Lectio), meditation (Meditatio), prayer (Oratio), and contemplation (Contemplatio). He envisioned monks in cloisters being the “firemen on his ladder.” One of Guigo’s biographers felt that the Dom’s “pitch” was probably more inclusive, i.e., with devout parishioners as his possible readership:

“…Others in the world who are God’s Lovers [have means by which] they can climb from earth to heaven. It is a marvelously tall ladder, but with just four rungs, the one end standing on the ground, the other thrilling into the clouds and showing the climber heavenly secrets… Reading seeks, meditation finds, prayer asks, contemplation feels.” (3)

After my arrival at a church the best I can do in pursuit of such affect is something of which Dom Guigo might approve, though my stages need simplification: worship with words (jotting down adjectives as mood-words that my “church-du-jour” evokes in me); upon seating myself, do what I describe as a hybrid-phrase — visual contemplatio (by way of recording line, shape, value, and hue with the act of drawing); and lastly, when I leave the church I take something special with me (sketch pages aplenty, with “mood-notes” in their margins). At any time later I can look at them and remember how, where, and when they were drawn in a peaceful, lovely, and faith-filled house of worship.

What’s next, pilgrim?

Pilgrimage and pilgrim are loaded words. As a reader you may have heard of some Catholic pilgrimages that ooze both history and fame, for example, abroad, to Lourdes, to the Tomb of St. James (aka “Camino de Santiago”), etc., and domestically, to Chimayó (New Mexico), Holy Hill (Wisconsin), etc. Then of course there’s pop-culture’s take on pilgrims: I recall seeing the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, wherein John Wayne plays a rancher who goads Jimmy Stewart, an attorney, with the moniker, hey, pilgrim!, 25 times.

Next for me? — In a sense my walks to neighborhood churches heretofore described may comprise a kind of personal pilgrimage. As I’m just now halfway through sketching Saint Paul’s 42 Catholic churches I do feel as if I am a pilgrim with a tangible and personal goal that’s both Catholic (as in “Roman Catholic Church”) and catholic (as in “all-embracing”): visit (and sketch) them all.

And next for you, pilgrim? — Given that there’s been a recent uptick in its popularity if you decided to take a pilgrimage — anywhere — there are resources to be found. Of note is Timothy Egan’s book A Pilgrimage to Eternity. “Egan says, 200 million people worldwide take some sort of pilgrimage each year. The reasons, however, are unique to every pilgrim … ‘Early on in my pilgrimage somebody told me, everyone must walk their own camino.’ And I think that’s true. There’s no one reason for everyone.” (5)

More recently a friend of mine published another intriguing book on this topic, James Mills’ Pilgrimage Pathways for the United States. In the book he states, “It became increasingly clear to me that pilgrimage has the power to transform and heal individuals…Because pilgrimage is a nearly universal practice it made sense to me that done well, pilgrimage could blossom and thrive in the United States as it has in virtually every other part of the world.” (6)

Resources are plentiful, everything from process guides to checklists or punchlists for pilgrims. (7) If you, a prospective pilgrim, were to review such a list of to-do’s there is “what to carry” advice. I mentioned how I have a sketch-journal with me; but most pilgrims now use smartphones to take photos and make videos of their trip as keepsakes. Then, more advice: there’s passports (aka credencials, the ones used on Spanish caminos), wherein at each stop a page gets stamped onsite, Figure 6. And the list goes on…

Figure 6. Examples of a pilgrim’s passport (“credencial,” if you are in Spain), courtesy Wikimedia: Lrtwiki, Jane023, aside from cropping no changes were made.

Lastly, I learned 2024 is a good year for those of the Catholic faith to follow one, two, or three domestic “pilgrim’s paths,” the city they all lead to being Indianapolis, for the climax of this, The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, on July 16. (7) It will be all about steps, lots of them. And what’s on your mind as you take each one. Something that captures possible next steps for both you (the reader, and possible pilgrim) and I (the sketch-art pilgrim) that feels “in harmony” with Lectio Divina might be this:

“Prayer is asking God for that next step, that next clarity. Meditation is being still enough to hear the answer.” (Lisa Nichols, author, motivational speaker)

Endnotes

1. Urban Sketchers, as overviews:

Start Urban Sketching: A Practical Beginners Guide

(Last visited January 2024)

Urban Sketchers | A Global Community of Artists - Home

(Last visited January 2024)

2. Stroik, Duncan G. (1999) “Editorial: Vocatio Architecti,” in the Sacred Architecture Journal.

(Last visited January 2024)

Vocatio Architecti | Article Archive

3. Gaultiere, Bill. (undated) “Guigo’s Letter About Contemplative Life,” The School of Mary.
https://schoolofmary.org/guigos-letter-about-contemplative-life/

(Last visited January 2024)

Guigo's Letter About Contemplative Life

4. Egan, Timothy. (2020) A Pilgrimage to Eternity, Viking.

5. (2020) “Journalist Tim Egan on a pilgrimage that reignited his faith,” U.S. Catholic, June 23. https://uscatholic.org/articles/202006/journalist-tim-egan-on-the-pilgrimage-that-reignited-his-faith/

(Last visited January 2024)

6. Mills, James E. (2021) Pilgrimage Pathways for the United States, North Atlantic.

7. National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, overview: https://www.eucharisticpilgrimage.org/about-the-2024-national-eucharistic-pilgrimage,
one-page “process guide” for any pilgrimage you might want to try: https://www.eucharisticpilgrimage.org/plan-your-own-pilgrimage

(Last visited January 2024)

Attribution: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Acknowledgement: Editing assistance courtesy Kathy Heuer. Errors that might remain are mine and mine alone.

Bio: I was a former Fulbright-Hayes Visiting Professor and Google-Earth Fellow and now Emeritus Professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I made, taught, and wrote about graphic and map design in three countries for a half century. I was educated (robustly) by clergy of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Christian Brothers (both Irish and Lasallian), and the Society of Jesus. I was told by my language teacher in high school it would be best if l learned to “think in Latin.” I never quite could, but the alternative — “thinking in images” — was my ideal path. Of late I am “urban sketching” in Saint Paul, where I live, downtown being walkable to many churches, courthouses, museums, music and dance venues, a gorgeous state Capitol, and parks aplenty. I am on Instagram, here is a video of some page-turning of one of my recent sketch-journals: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz7468LSFSy/?hl

Photos courtesy Roger Remington and Alfonso Cevola.

Contact: e: kbyrne@mcad.edu, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-kevin-byrne-ba793a9/