Touring Grace Cathedral
April 22, 2009
Mission Dolores School Students Are Terrific!
Always, always, this California Collectors Series web site starts out with the premise of creativity. We paint. We photograph. We write. And boy, do we love it when we see kids who care about learning. Recently a group of eighth graders from Mission Dolores School in San Francisco visited Grace Cathedral. What a group! They had done their homework. They were respectful, energetic and full of lively questions!
Their thank you letters took note of the commemorative AIDS “blanket” in the healing chapel, making a pilgrimage through the “really mellow” labyrinth, seeing that the church is open to all faiths, learning the role Bishop James Pike played in completing the structure and the profound sadness they sensed in the “Wounded in America” exhibit deploring gun violence.They left prayers “stored” in candles they lit throughout the church.
The mural of Saint Francis was a big hit, of course. And Saint Clare with her long beautiful hair about to be shorn. The illustration of the Portiuncola chapel in Assisi intrigued them, as well as information about the facsimile built by Angela Alioto at the corner of Columbus and Vallejo.
Added to that was another piece of pertinent information.
What kind of nickname would St. Francis have had? Author Donald Spoto who wrote “Reluctant Saint, The Life of Francis of Assisi,” says the early Italian nickname for Francisco or Francesco was Sco!
To our knowledge, nobody ever called him Frisco!
The California Collectors' Series has note cards featuring Mission Dolores. See "Lord, We Are ABLE" boxed sets on main menu. Proceeds for this series go to The Salvation Army.