After the Storm

+JMJ+

Last night, we had tornado warnings in the South Bend area! Unfortunately, a large part of the seminary building is made of glass, so in an attempt at safety in such circumstances, our household community has to seek refuge in the first floor workout facilities. Luckily, most of us were already down there playing basketball! No need to fear. Nothing came of the turbulent weather. Still, it made for some beautiful scenes on campus today. In some down time that I had this afternoon (in between buying my last books at the campus bookstore and Evening Prayer), I took the liberty of taking some pictures of the view from the seminary. I'll try sharing a couple of those with you here.

Here are the dome and the basilica as seen from the front lawn of the seminary. We sit across the lake from the large part of campus, and on clear afternoons like this one, you can go out to the lakefront in order to watch people go sailing on it.

This, then, is the front of our chapel, as seen from the outside. If you were to turn around, you'd see what I just showed you above. The chapel was built in 1958, and a Holy Cross priest created all of the stained glass that you can see in it. From this outside vantage point, you can't see it so well, but the windows display five angels: an eighteen foot St. Michael stands front and center directly above the tabernacle as guardian of the Blessed Sacrament, St. Gabriel stands to his left and sings from an open book, St. Raphael stands to his right with a glowing ember in his hands, and two angels of the Apocalypse stand on the flanks. I'll show you a picture from the inside sometime soon. It's gorgeous.

Here you get a more true-to-scale view of our surroundings. There are a couple of benches that students will come out here to louge on and escape from the bustle of campus life. I anticipate that, while the weather remains warm, I'll also make some significant use of them. How could you not? Just look at that view!

Alright, time to take care of some more business before heading out for a movie tonight. Some of the seminarians are going to see District 9 at the local theater. Talk to you soon!

~SCP