St Ignatius Loyola Church (Thursday Doors)

Doctrine

I summon the sun  I summon the moon
God the Father  Mother Mary
worship His light  circle the seasons
above all  intermingled
powerful  nurturing
sovereign  beneficent
the beginning and the end  always returning

St Ignatius Loyola Church, “designed in the Baroque manner by Ditmars and Schickel”, is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Park Avenue. It was dedicated in 1898 and landmarked in 1969. The front doors are large, angular, and imposing.

It houses several schools in the surrounding buildings.

The side doors are all different, but have half-moons above them to form arched entrances.

I really liked all the details of this one.

The parish, administered by the Jesuits, was founded in 1851 by Irish Catholics who fled the Potato Famine for a better life in America. This building was designed, according to the website, following the Jesuit philosophy of “honoring god through beauty and permanence.” The church has a well-known music program and contains a 30-ton pipe organ almost as large as a subway car. You can see interior photos here.

My poem is for the W3 challenge where Punam asked us to respond to her poem “Slavery” by writing about the moon from the sun’s perspective or vice versa. I’ve written a cleave poem, which doesn’t exactly answer the prompt, but gives both points of view. Many of the world’s major religions seem to take the patriarchal view of the sun, but they would do well, in my opinion, to pay more attention to the circular wisdom of the moon.

Find more doors here with host Dan Antion.