Rectory Chapel Set
November 2022 - April 2023
This rectory chapel set was designed and built for Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Baton Rouge, LA. This set includes an altar, baldacchino, and two cabinet stands, all featuring carvings thematically significant to the priesthood, specifically the marital and covenantal union between the priest and his church.
The inspiration for the altar comes from Song of Solomon 2:2-3, "A lily, matched with these other maidens, a lily among the brambles, she whom I love! An apple-tree in the wild woodland, shade cool to rest under, fruit sweet to the taste, such is he my heart longs for, matched with his fellows."
The "Our Lady" cabinet stand features a carving of the ram with its horns stuck in a thicket as described in Genesis 22:13, "And Abraham, looking about him, saw behind him a ram caught by the horns in a thicket; this he took, and offered it as a burnt-sacrifice, instead of his son." The Hebrew term "Akedah” - literally "binding" - refers to the binding of Isaac, who was then saved as God Himself provided the sacrifice.
The "St. Joseph" cabinet stand, which is used to support the tabernacle in this chapel, features the three items found inside the Ark of the Covenant - the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the Rod of Aaron, and the manna given by God to the Israelites in the wilderness. "In the ark rested the golden urn with the manna in it, Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets on which the covenant was inscribed" (Hebrews 9:4).
The baldacchino, or canopy, mimics the Dove of the Holy Spirit in St. Peter's basilica, and includes the Greek alpha and omega. "I am Alpha, I am Omega, I am before all, I am at the end of all, the beginning of all things and their end" (Revelation 22:13).
