“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.”
I stopped by Immaculate Conception this evening for its open house. They recently completed renovations on the 103-year-old church. A parishioner told me the roof was replaced, the carpet was torn up, the plaster was redone, the pews were sent out to be refinished, and the lighting and sound system was overhauled.
It looked really good; a lot like I remembered it. Only it is now a lot brighter. The stained glass windows and the paintings on the walls looked like they had been redone, too, but maybe just retouched.
A brochure handed out by the volunteers told the story of how the church was built and designed in 1914, after moving from its original location on 3rd Avenue and 7th Street SE. (It is now located on the corner of 3rd Avenue and 10th Street SE in Cedar Rapids.)
Emmanuel L. Masqueray, a French Architect from St. Paul, Minnesota, designed the building, while Angelo Gherardi designed the interior.
“The Stations of the Cross, positioned all around the nave, are original designs made by Gherardi. The designs were executed on canvas in colors blending with the walls; the Stations portray the Passion and the death of Christ.
“The mural on the ceiling of the sanctuary is a depiction of God the Father against a blue deep background, filled with sparkling stars of all sizes.
“The stain-glass windows, secured by Monsignor John Toomey, adorn the church on every side, representing stories from the Bible, Mysteries of the Rosary, various Saints, and of course, the Immaculate Conception.”
Dad loved that church and as we have read, many memories surrounding it. It’s a blessing that so many people call it home, even by those who haven’t visited in a while.
I think it was a bad judgement call to beg Mom to let me begin Kindergarten when I was only 4 1/2. But I was sincerely anxious to get on with it. Unfortunately, my thinking exposed an embarrassing gap when it failed to counter with:
“Get on with what?”
So, I tell people I flunked First Grade and it was all downhill from there. Not true. A full year of review can’t help but bring everything into focus. I realized a magnificent lift of self-confidence, that no mail-order quick fix could ever guarantee!
But I’m sincere when I say, somewhere along the line between the Input -the lectures and the reading assignments-and the Memory mechanism-the storing and the retrieving-I had some crossed wiring in my learning process.
It was embarrassing. And it was discouraging. Because those earlier years everything seemed so logical and clear as I listened; only to receive back my grades and to find out I wasn’t hearing it right. Or storing it correctly. Or possibly, not understanding the question …
I often justified those poor performances with excuses like, “I think my teachers are trying to trick me.”
Later on, of course, I gave the impression of being a lazy student, who only wanted to entertain the class. My confidence waned all the way to the wind-down; I just wanted to get it over with.
I also tried to compensate by being nice.
But the reference to being nice, is in the position of being a whisper away from sarcasm. I don’t mean to suggest a person be themselves and be rude to everyone who doesn’t take their coffee black.
What I mean is to treat others as you would like to be treated, and if they still want to be asses, just chalk it up to experience. What’s that saying? An eye for an eye makes everyone blind ….
People won’t always be nice, but you can’t let it make you cynical. I learned that as a kid; another throwback from the store days. I was taught to be kind and courteous to the customers, no matter how nasty they were. And believe me, some of the customers were not nice. Some were downright mean. I think they came in to the store just to torment me.
It became a challenge. How nice can I be to them before I drive them crazy?
Jesus taught us about kindness. And maybe it didn’t hurt that Mom and Dad had good hearts, which they passed along to their kids and their kids and so on. ‘Course you’re gonna have one or two bad apples, but it doesn’t mean you abandon ’em. You just love them and hope they follow your example.
Leaving a Legacy 