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Saturday 23 September 2017

Taking a closer look at the Holy Moly Doors of Our Lady of Sorrows Toronto; or, What Does the Door Really Say?

You might remember this story about the Holy Moly Doors at Our Lady of Sorrows parish in Toronto. Some wealthy friends of the parish put up over $400,000.00 for new bronze doors created by the studio of Ernesto Lamagna

http://voxcantor.blogspot.ca/2016/01/the-holy-moly-doors-at-torontos-our.html

http://voxcantor.blogspot.ca/2016/01/part-second-on-40000000-plus-shipping.html

On the exterior of the doors is a relief of St. Michael the Archangel slaying Satan. On the inside is a rather hideous art of a decapitated and dismembered Christ.






There is an inscription on each door below the sculpture, it is the same on each. Can you read it?

Let's look at where it is from. 

It is a phrase from the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah, 1:12, and is used in the Tenebrae Responsories for Good Friday, the whole scriptural phrase being.


"O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow."

One will also hear this in Handel's Messiah from the tenor aria:


"Behold, and see, if there be any sorrow like unto his sorrow."

So, what is the issue? Well, let us look at the Latin of the most sublime motet composed by Tomas Luis do Victoria, O Vox Omnes from Matins of Good Friday which contains the whole phrase from whence the inscription comes.

"O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam: attendite et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus. Attendite, universi populi, et videte dolorem meum. Si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus."
Now, going back to the inscription on those Holy Moly Doors, we ask the question, "What does the door really say?



"VIDITE!"

Really?

For $400,000.00 you would think they would have spelt it correctly.


At least the The Sixteen got it right.





6 comments:

Osusanna said...

No beauty or brains in the Church anymore. This morning I was in a church built in the 1950's. The stained glass is un-inspiring, and today I noticed in one window an actual kite, next to 3 little balloons, with two kids looking up at them. The meaning lost on me. God have mercy.

Peter Lamb said...

If you think those doors are gruesome and ugly, check out what they built for Padre Pio:

http://padrepioandchiesaviva.com/uploads/satanic-temple-to-st-padre-pio-final.pdf

Anonymous said...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/conservative-theologians-accuse-pope-of-spreading-heresy/2017/09/23/300c28d2-a0a8-11e7-b2a7-bc70b6f98089_story.html?utm_term=.3e2d0a42e966

Anonymous said...

http://spiritdaily.org/blog/church/big-document-from-vatican-imminent

Irenaeus said...

*facepalm*

Anonymous said...

Everything is just honky-dory at that parish according to the standards of the local ordinary. There are plenty of lay "Eucharistic ministers" to make the faithful feel like they are involved in the mission of the Church.