Patrick Comerford
We are in the last week of Ordinary Time, the week before Advent. Before a busy day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.
Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I have been reflecting in these ways:
1, photographs of a church or place of worship;
2, the day’s Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
My theme on this prayer diary this week is seven more churches in Venice. Earlier in this prayer diary, I illustrated my morning reflections with images from churches in Venice and on Murano and Burano. While I was in Venice this month, I reflected on the synagogues in the Ghetto in Venice (7-13 November)
As part of my reflections and this prayer diary this week, I am looking at seven more churches I visited in Venice earlier this month. This theme continues this morning (26 November 2021) with photographs of the Chiesa di Santa Maria Elisabetta on the Lido of Venice.
Santa Maria Elisabetta is the parish church of the Lido of Venice, and gives its name to the station that is the boat and bus transportation hub of the Lido, an island that is a long, narrow strip of land running south between the Venetian Lagoon and the Adriatic Sea.
The church dates back to an oratory dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint Elizabeth, built in 1565. It was enlarged in 1620 and converted into a church in 1627. The church was consecrated in 1671.
Inside, the church is a simple structure with a single nave and no aisles. Pilasters with Corinthian capitals divide the spaces in front of the two side altars. The church has a barrel vault and the ceiling is decorated with wooden frames.
The High Altar, in a shallow vaulted apse, has an altarpiece depicting the Visitation, with the Virgin Mary and Saint Elizabeth, and is decorated with polychrome marbles.
The church as extensively restored in the early 1970s.
The side altar on the left has a 16th-century Venetian/Cretan icon of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child and a small 15th century sculpture of the Pieta.
The side altar on the right, which as being restored during my visit, has an altarpiece attributed to a student of Salviati and depicting Saint Apollonia, Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Lucy, with Saint Oswald in Glory.
Other works in the church in the church include the Virgin Mary in Glory with Saint Nicholas between Saint Gerardo Sagrado and Saint Benedict by Gerolamo Pilotti, dating from 1609, and an early-17th-century Baptism of Christ.
Nearby, the large green dome of Santa Maria della Vittoria is one of the first landmarks visitors see as they approach the Lido vaporetto stop.
This was designed by Giuseppe Torres and built in 1925-1938 as a memorial to the Italian dead of World War I, of whom 2,700 are buried in the crypt. It is also known as the Venice War memorial and the Tempio Votivo.
Luke 21: 29-33 (NRSVA):
29 Then he [Jesus] told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.’
The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (26 November 2021) invites us to pray:
Today we remember the life of Sojourner Truth, abolitionist and women’s rights activist. May we centre justice in our daily lives.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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