Church of the Assumption in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
My family: parents, and grandparents, and great-grandparents were wed here.
Members of the Sonnen family have been attending Holy Mass in this German parish since the cornerstone was laid in 1871, and even before.
The twin gray towers of Assumption church in downtown Saint Paul on the upper banks of the mighty Mississippi River have speared the downtown skyline since the early 1870s - the church was consecrated on October 15, 1874, and took about three years to build.
It would be nice to see some modern church construction modeled after this fine working example.
Growing up here in the choir loft provided a perfect Catholic ethos for a kid growing up in our ever encroaching non-sectarian world. It was a great way to grow up - a liturgical life flowed into my heart! I can still remember my grandmother praying at the Maria Hilf and Our Lady of Perpetual Help altars and offering her Holy Communion for some special intention.
One day my dad and grandpa came to me and explained it was time I graduate from the choir loft to the altar. It was Advent 1988 when I served my first Mass here as Christ’s page at the altar. The cassocks and surplices I sorted through were the same ones that had been there for generations. Some of the fondest and proudest moments of my life were serving here at the altar. And I will go in unto the altar of God!
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