A Visit to EWTN

We had the opportunity to visit EWTN yesterday.

EWTN has two main sites in Alabama: Hanceville which contains the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament and is where the nuns live, and Irondale which is where the studio is.  We started in Cullman, AL, near Hanceville.

The drive south into Alabama on I-65 is beautiful with rolling hills and densely wooded forests on each side of the highway. Cullman itself is a small town in a pretty area.  This is the lower stretch of the Appalachian Mountains and the hills are varied enough to be attractive but gentle enough that you don't need to hire a sherpa to get around.  I decided to stay in Cullman the night before we visited EWTN for the simple reason that it's a bigger city than Hanceville and I could find a hotel next to a restaurant that had a bar, but the choice was fortuitous.  Cullman is also the site of the Ave Maria Grotto.

The Ave Maria Grotto is the work of a Benedictine Monk at St Bernard Abbey.  The detail of the miniatures is amazing. Brother Zoettl created these miniatures with whatever materials he had on hand: the raw rock of the grotto, bottles and old votive candles, etc. The settings are mostly religious: there are miniatures of Rome and Jerusalem and various shrines and basilicas.

 

The Agony in the Garden

Golgatha and the Empty Tomb. Note the three crosses at the top, presumably the middle cross is Jesus with the two thieves yet to be crucified.  In the scene below, the tomb is empty.  He is Risen!

The Ave Maria Grotto is definitely worth a visit, but it more "interesting" than "inspirational".  But if you're going to the Hanceville Shrine, it makes no sense to leave this off your itinerary.

The Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, is the highlight of the trip.  The road leading to the shrine is beautiful, framing the shrine in front of distant mountains.  The shrine is composed of a number of sites, but the ones that most people would think of are the Upper and Lower Church.  For some reason, EWTN doesn't allow photography in the Churches so I'll have to link to the pictures off EWTN's webpage (which are better than I could take anyway)

Mother Angelica has a strong devotion to the Divine Child and that is reflected over and over again at the Shrine.  The upper Church is called the Temple of the Divine Child.  When we got there, workers were tearing down a recently completed festival of the Nino Divino and even the gift shop is called the Gift Shop of El Nino.  At the center of the shrine is a statue of the Divine Child.

The upper church, the Temple of the Divine Child is almost indescribably beautiful.  The Blessed Sacrament is permanently exposed. The nuns can adore the Blessed Sacrament from behind the reredos while the public prays from the front.  Reverence is enforced through a strict dress code: no shorts or miniskirts allowed (when the rules were written, it was miniskirts on women, but today you never know).

Outside the lower crypt is an exhibit of the Shroud of Turin.

I honestly wasn't quite sure what to make of this. I assume the images are life-sized. There image above is the famous "front view" and across from it is what I assumed to be the "back view" (the shroud is believed to be a long strip folded over the head, so it shows the front and back of Jesus with the images head-to-head).  It was interesting, but with no description next to the images I was left a little confused at the various things I was looking at.

The crypt church itself was nice. It's much more humble than the upper church and is used for daily mass. The most moving aspect of the crypt church is the crypt: the final resting place of the nuns, including Mother Angelica's mother.

And unfortunately, that's about all we saw.  We walked the colonnade on the way to the John Paul II Eucharistic Center and took the tour.  The tour itself was nice, but frankly I wish we skipped it since we only had a few hours to visit.  I didn't get to see the Lourdes Grotto or the Eucharistic Stations of the Cross (which I'd never heard of).

Then we drove down to Irondale and visited the studio and prayed at that chapel, the one you see on televised masses.

The studio tour was interesting and contained the most interesting nugget of information about EWTN.  EWTN has many sites around the country: studios, warehouses, broadcasting stations and so on.  All of them have a chapel with the Blessed Sacrament exposed.  Our guide said that their shortwave antenna nearby has seven employees, all of whom are Protestant, but there's still a chapel there with the Blessed Sacrament and the "EWTN priests" (Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word) take care of the chapel because Mother Angelica wanted the Eucharist to be the center of everything EWTN does.   The Eucharist is there so that It's grace can be spread through EWTN's efforts.  That was really something.

In total we were at the two EWTN sites for about 4 or 5 hours, with another hour-long drive between them.  That's not nearly enough and I'd like to go back.  There are a number of retreat houses outside the shrine in Hanceville and it'd be nice to do a two or three day retreat including prayer time at both places and catching a live show in Irondale.  For larger groups, EWTN offers catechesis sessions in Irondale and that would be nice as well.  Other than the tour and live shows in Irondale, there's not much to see down there unless you organize a larger group (if you are pressed for time, you can skip the tour altogether).  The drive between Hanceville and Irondale might undermine some of the peace and comfort you derive from either place (which is about as diplomatic as I can be) so it'd be nice to spend time in Hanceville, then finish off in Irondale or vice versa rather than running back and forth each day.

But in total, EWTN is a blessing to the Church and the world and it was an amazing trip. I recommend it to anyone, given the proper amount of time to fully appreciate it.  Mother Angelica was truly a force of nature and seeing the physical evidence of it is somewhat humbling when I consider what I've done with my talents (or failed to do as is usually the case).  Mother Angelica has suffered several strokes which robbed her of her vitality these days.  She sleeps most of the day and can't speak very much during the few hours she's awake.  Yet our tour guide at the studio said that Mother Angelica is doing more for the Church now in her much diminished state through her prayers and by offering up her sufferings.  That's even more humbling considering how much I kvetch and complain.