by Katie Vasquez
This sacred space hasn’t been touched by a paintbrush since 1998 but now the chapel inside the Immaculate Conception Center in Douglaston, Queens has received a facelift.
The new look only highlights its divine purpose.
Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan celebrated mass at the newly renovated chapel on Wednesday, blessing the space that has housed diocesan celebrations for decades.
While also providing a place of prayer for men studying the priesthood.
During the four months that the chapel was under renovation, senior priests in residence at the Immaculate Conception Center, like Monsignor Edward Doran had to celebrate mass in the Bishop’s chapel below.
Some of the work D’Ambrosio Ecclesiastical Art Studio did that they have been waiting for
includes painting around the stations of the cross to make them pop against the white background and adding symbols that pay homage to the blessed mother.
However the change priests say will make the biggest difference is bringing the tabernacle into the chapel.
Before, there was a separate area that priests had to go to in order to access the blessed sacrament. The move reinforces the main reason people of faith enter the sacred space.
“It’s nice to be home. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve been able to get inside and then to pray. but to have the blessed sacrament and now to have celebrated mass. It’s a great gift. and it reminds us of what a great gift this whole center is, and this chapel in particular,” said Bishop Robert Brennan of the Diocese of Brooklyn.
“Having a prestigious place like this, where priests have history here, formative years, formation, it means a lot to them. So it means a lot to us to be given that responsibility and that trust to really beautify the place,” said Anthony George, the president of D’Ambrosio Ecclesiastical Art Studio.
“It’s obviously always been a place of worship, but now every element of it sings out. Worship the lord, worship Jesus. What a beautiful setting and tremendously uplifting for the senior priests. I pray here every day for the active priests, for the Diocese of Brooklyn, for our many, many parishioners and those who do not know us yet that through our prayers and through our worship, they may come to become one with Jesus,” said retired priest, Monsignor Edward Doran.
During this Jubilee year, Bishop Brennan says as we make all things new again, we celebrate what’s been and look forward with hope and joy to what lies ahead.