As part of the renovation of our monastic home, we added a chapel link. This link will offer a direct passage, a short-cut if you will, from our living quarters to Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel. In connecting the chapel link to the chapel, a door needed to be reconfigured. As the opening was being lifted up, one of the construction superintendents had the idea to add an arch to the top of the opening to match the other arches that are found throughout the Monastery.
I was surprised and delighted when I first saw this new opening. It was simple in structure, yet profound in meaning. The curved lines of the arch are soft and add depth to the space. It adds a simple elegance to the opening and creates interest. The high arch opening lets you know that you are transitioning into a special place.
Theologically doors at the entrance to a sacred space represent the gates of Jerusalem through which Jesus entered on Palm Sunday. They also represent the entrance to the Heavenly Jerusalem. How beautiful that we have such an entry into our chapel! I can only imagine that each time we pass through this arched door our hearts will sing “O gates, lift high your heads; grow higher ancient doors, that the King of glory may enter!” (Psalm 24:9)
