Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Upstairs

Continuing our visit to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception from yesterpost, here is an exterior picture showing the dome and the outer walls of the main level.

One side of the Basilica

The nave of the church is about 400 feet long and 100 feet high, giving it a breathtaking amount of space. The domes are even higher!

Nave

The main altar is on a raised platform called the chancel leading back into the sanctuary. 

Stairs to the main altar

Main altar viewed from the back right side

The free-standing canopy over the sanctuary altar is called a Baldachin.

Baldachin and altar

View of the nave from the back of the basilica

By the Baldachin is a papal umbrella though there is no sign identifying which pope (of the many who visited here) it is from.

Papal umbrella

Surrounding the Baldachin by the main altar are three apses dedicated to St. Joseph, Jesus, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Joseph mosaic depicts the foster father of the Lord and many different workers of whom Joseph is the universal patron.

St. Joseph Aspe

Yeah, that guy has a trash can

The main apse has Christ in Majesty, showing the apocalyptic vision of the Savior towering over the church. The visual is quite striking and dominates an already huge church.

Christ in Majesty

The third apse has Mary, the Mother of God, also in an apocalyptic scene. She is the woman of the Apocalypse, pursued by the dragon as her child is carried off to safety.

Marian apse

The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary are depicted below Mary. My favorite is the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple. The one scholar looks so scholarly to me.

Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the Temple

Yeah, who hasn't seen this guy before?

In memory of the recently deceased Benedict XVI, there's a small display of his visit to Washington. He made a special visit to this replica of the statue of Our Lady of Altotting, a gift from the people of Bavaria. Benedict grew up there as the young Josef Ratzinger.

Benedict XVI was here

The church has several domes, the main one is the Trinity Dome, featuring the Blessed Virgin Mary, eighteen saints, four evangelists, two archangels, and the Three Persons of God.

Trinity Dome

The side aisles have many chapels. The chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary was donated by the Dominicans and has a relief of Mary with the Child Jesus surrounded by fifteen flames. The flames represent the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary (this was constructed before John Paul II added five more mysteries in 2002--not sure they can add another five!). 

Our Lady of the Rosary chapel

A favorite side chapel of mine is the Mother of Sorrows Chapel. This Slovak chapel depicts the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, six on the walls and the seventh being the Pieta in the center on the altar.

A good place to pray your confession prayers

Another favorite chapel for me is the Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel. People from all over the Americas stream in on the side walls to the central mosaic of the miraculous image from Juan Diego's tilma.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

I tried to take a picture of the organ in the back but all that came out was the huge bas relief called The Universal Call to Holiness. It shows various people drawn to the Holy Spirit.

Universal Call to Holiness

Not far from the Basilica is the Welcome Plaza to The Catholic University of America with a new sculpture called Angels Unawares. It is a second casting of by artist Timothy Schmalz, the first is displayed in the Vatican. 

The front of Angels Unawares

The back of Angels Unawares

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Downstairs

The construction of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D. C.,  began in the 1920s. The main construction was not completed until 1959, though chapels are continually being added. These chapels represent the various ethnicities of the United States of America and various groups within the church (like the Knights of Columbus or the Franciscans). It's an impressive structure.

Front entrance of the Basilica

We visited to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Confessional Chapel is the Czech National Chapel and is dedicated to Our Lady of Holy Hostyn. A bronze statue of St. John Neumann (Czech national who served the church in the United States) leads into the chapel.

Our Lady of Hostyn Chapel

St. John Neumann

Just outside the Confessional Chapel is Our Lady of Hope Chapel. The chapel was a gift of Bob and Dolores Hope. Yes, that's the comedian Bob Hope!

Our Lady of Hope

The Crypt Chapel was the first one completed during construction. The first public Mass held inside was on Easter Sunday 1924. 

Crypt Chapel

The chapel is surrounded by many different altars dedicated to various saints.

The crypt's tabernacle

St. Cecelia altar

St. Margaret, more fun in Latin as St. Margarita

The statue of Our Lady of Good Health is a copy from the Basilica in Vailankanni, India.

Our Lady of Good Health

The Our Lady of Antipolo Oratory has a copy of the statue of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage from the Philippines. 

Our Lady of Antipolo

Better image of the statue's face

The Our Lady of Mariazell Chapel features an exact replica of the statue in Mariazell, Austria. The statue is relatively small and has a nice bit of stained glass behind it. 

Our Lady of Mariazell

Outside of the crypt is a long hall featuring statues of American saints. I was especially impressed with St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint from the United States.

Kateri Tekakwitha

A statue of St. Peter reminds me of the one in the Vatican where the foot is worn down from all the visitors touching or kissing it. This Peter still has his whole foot.

St. Peter with a full set of toes

In imitation of a small Lebanese church, the Our Lady of Lebanon Chapel represents the Maronite Rite Eastern Church. It's tiny but striking.

Reminds me of ancient churches in Ireland

The Byzantine Ruthenian Chapel represents an Eastern Church Rite that is in full communion with Rome.  

Byzantine Ruthenian Chapel

In the Memorial Hall we found a cardboard cut out of the current pope, so the kids took a picture with him (our oldest was out camping with scouts, so he missed out).

Papal photo op!

The hall includes two chairs that were especially made for Papal visits. John Paul II visited Denver, Colorado, in 1993 for the eighth World Youth Day; the chair is from the papal Mass. Benedict XVI visited America in 2008; his chair was used at the National Shrine.

Pope John Paul II chair

Pope Benedict XVI chair

In one of the halls is an impressive sculpture of the Holy Family at Rest, depicting a moment during the Flight into Egypt.

Holy Family taking a rest

The crypt level has a cafeteria that hasn't served food since the pandemic lockdown started. The fake stained glass shows foody scenes from the gospels.

Last Supper and Emmaus Disciple Dinner

More from the shrine in the next post!

Cool Kid Pix January 2020

More pictures that didn't make their own blog post...

On the way home from Christmas in Florida, we looked for a Mass along the way in Virginia for January 1, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. We thought we had a sure thing in Richmond, but the church had their 10 a.m. Mass at one of the satellite locations. We were on Church Hill and saw the church where Patrick Henry gave his famous "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech.

Saint John's Episcopal Church as seen from behind the gates

That church was closed so we didn't get to look around (and thus, no blog post). Nearby was the Church Hill Bank which does look like a church.

A bank!

We wound up at the noon Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. It was still decorated for the Christmas season!

The front of the basilica

Inside the basilica

Someday I'll go and do a proper photo shoot of the basilica. And we will go to Richmond and see a bunch of stuff there.

My youngest son had his first Pinewood Derby with the Cub Scouts. His car came in third for the den, which meant he went on to the final round. He came in twenty-first there (out of twenty-one entrants). He had a good time.



I went to what turned out to be the final game of the Baltimore Ravens' season. They were the number one seed in the playoffs, so they had a bye-week. Then they played against the Tennessee Titans, who had beaten the heavily-favored New England Patriots.

Ravens Stadium at night

My church was selected to help hand out programs and flags to everyone coming in. I was stationed at Gate B. We had a few minutes before the gates opened so we went into the empty stadium to see what was going on.

Pre-game stadium

The gates open just over two hours before kick-off

The volunteer coordinator came and selected two of us to go work at the Media Gate. The gate is relatively small and is used by media to get in before the game starts. Most of the media were already in, so we handed out items to the regular patrons savvy enough to use the gate. The lines were pretty short.

The flags we handed out

Since it was a playoff game, it was sold out so volunteers didn't get free seats. I hung out till half-time when the score was 14-6 favoring the Titans.

A fuller stadium

The game wound up at 28-12, a Ravens loss and the end of their Superbowl hopes. There's always next year.

We visited mom's workplace and had a little break in the cafeteria. We brought some stuff to entertain us during a meeting.

Backgammon and 3DS!

My eldest had a several performances at his school's coffeehouse fundraiser. Here's the video!