One of my favorite experiences is the sense of awe that washes over me when I walk into a beautiful church. I love being called to prayer through seeing the beauty of stained-glass windows, stone arches, painted statues, and lifelike images of biblical scenes. All these things work together to communicate to me that I am not in an ordinary place, but rather in the “temple of God” (Matt. 21:12). As a Catholic, I am proud to say that my Church has a long history of truly beautiful churches. There is a reason that some of the most famous of these, such as Notre Dame in Paris, St. Peters in Rome, and the Duomo in Florence are attractions not only to Catholics but to anyone who loves beautiful things. All three churches, while very different in style, are undeniably beautiful and when properly viewed inspire a sense of awe and reverence for Beauty Himself. Their beauty, after all, not only gives us an appreciation for the skill of their builders, or even awe for their grandeur, but also a taste of the beauty of God. Unfortunately, many have lost the appreciation that is due to a beautiful church. Many churches today have been built simply to be functional meeting places, and some look more like gyms or community centers rather than sacred places where God truly touches earth. While these buildings do create places for communities to gather, I would like to argue that their builders have lost sight of a church’s true purpose, which is not to be a community space, but a “house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). The beauty of our churches must be properly prioritized to give God the honor that He deserves and to help us be properly disposed to prayer and the worship of God.

We do not go into a church to continue with everyday life, but to step out of it and partake in a heavenly mystery while on earth.

While it is fitting for a church to be beautiful simply because beautiful things are good, there are more compelling reasons for them to be beautiful than just aesthetics. Think about what a church is. It is the place where man goes to fulfill his duty to worship God. We do not go into a church to continue with everyday life, but to step out of it and partake in a heavenly mystery while on earth. God has commanded us to worship Him, so that means that first and foremost, a church is not for us, but for God. It enables us to fulfill His command. If God is truly our Creator and the Lord of the whole universe, doesn’t He deserve the best that we can possibly give Him? Doesn’t He deserve a beautiful house? When we prepare for an important guest to come into our home, we offer him the best that we have, not what is merely adequate. We want to honor the people we respect and show this care through our actions. If we do this for a fellow man, we ought to put even more effort into creating a place in which Christ visits earth. While of course, no human effort is worthy enough for God Himself, I don’t think that this excuses us from giving Him the best that we have. Are not marble floors, ornate ceilings, and intricate mosaics at least somewhat more fitting for the King of the universe than carpet, cinderblock, and folding chairs? A few years ago, a close friend of mine got married in Old St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, a small yet beautiful neo-Gothic style church. It has a high ceiling with a pointed arch, stained-glass windows, and beautiful high and side altars. When one of the flower girls first entered the church for the wedding rehearsal, her immediate reaction was, “Wow, it looks like a castle!” While we can laugh at her childish response, shouldn’t God’s house look more like a castle to us than a meeting hall? If we truly want to make Him the king of our hearts, shouldn’t we start by treating Him as our King? 

If God is truly our Creator and the Lord of the whole universe, doesn’t He deserve the best that we can possibly give Him? Doesn’t He deserve a beautiful house?

While we certainly ought to give God the best we have, we also need to remember that the Church is for us as well as for Him. We build churches so that we can fulfill God’s command to worship Him. Shouldn’t we build our churches in a way that will incline us toward worship? We are physical beings, and our surroundings have an effect on us. I don’t think that it is a coincidence that most students would prefer to study in the Heritage Room, surrounded by beautiful books full of great ideas, rather than in the basement of the library surrounded by bleak walls and moveable shelving units. Walking into a beautiful church makes us more disposed to proper worship; the wonder that we feel at the sight of a beautiful church awakens humility in us as we gaze upon something that truly reflects the beauty of God. It should inspire reverence toward the sacredness of worship and move us to praise God for the gift of His visible beauty made manifest in the work of the artist. 

The wonder that we feel at the sight of a beautiful church awakens humility in us as we gaze upon something that truly reflects the beauty of God.

In high school, I had the blessing of attending daily Mass twice a week with my entire school community. As much as I was grateful for the chance to worship God with the rest of my school, I noticed that most of my classmates did not behave in a way consistent with the solemn character of worshiping God. Many students would hold conversations before Mass began and honestly didn’t behave any differently than if we were just about to begin another class. I think that the lack of beauty in our chapel was a big contributing factor to this lack of reverence. Admittedly, our chapel did not feel like a sacred space. The front had a strange green carpet, moveable wooden chairs, and plain cinder blocks that framed the sanctuary. While the front half was permanently a chapel, moveable wall dividers opened up to combine the adjacent classrooms with the chapel to allow for more seating during all school Mass. This extra space was filled with folding chairs, and the back wall had windows facing the parking lot. It certainly did not look like a chapel by any stretch of the imagination and was built as a multi-purpose room, not to be a place set apart for worship. And while it is true that one can still be irreverent in a beautiful cathedral, at least upon entering a beautiful church those paying any attention will realize that they are entering a place different from where they came from. We should create places for us to worship God that inspire reverence within us and feel like Churches. They ought to make us exclaim, like Jacob, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen 28:17). 

We should create places for us to worship God that inspire reverence within us and feel like Churches. They ought to make us exclaim, like Jacob, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

If you go to downtown Detroit, or any old, big city, on the horizon you will see church steeples alerting you of the presence of God in the midst of the city. One of my favorite churches in Detroit, for example, Sweetest Heart of Mary, was built by Polish immigrants with stones that they dug out of their own fields. These people put all their money towards making their church as beautiful as possible. The world would call them unwise to invest in something that wouldn’t give them any real earthly benefit. Yet, they had the wisdom to give all that they had to build a church that would aid them in disposing their hearts to prayer and to the worship of God. 

Clare Horvath is a sophomore studying English.