Piper 021713

Valentine's Day 2013

Piper In A Basket

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The Century Link Center 020913

The Holy Family Shrine 020213

We first noticed this chapel while driving down I-80 West on our way to see the DaVinci exhibit at the Strategic Air & Space Museum in Ashland. We thought it carved a distinct perch on the hilltop. We didn't give it much thought until the next time we saw it. We were on our way to watch Nebraska beat 6th-ranked Missouri in Lincoln, and on the same highway, looked up to see about a half dozen folks walking around the steel Crucifix. Over the past three years it stayed in our minds enough to make a Sunday trip out of searching it down this past weekend. We were really impressed. The Holy Family Shrine, known as the Chapel On The Highway, is a gateway to Heaven for pilgrims and travelers.

The upper web members of the trusses interlace like waving wheat in a field.

It is made of Western Red Cedar and glass.

         

The arching members of the trusses were cut out of 850 single boards.

                                 

As you pass from the Visitor Center to the Chapel you will see the statue of Mother Mary.

                      

Standing atop a 23-acre site that overlooks the Platte River Valley, it has an elevated view for miles.

Glass windows between the columns serve as chapel walls.

Three members make up each support column, symbolic of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The arches were designed to "bypass" as they rise from the floor until they are spliced together to complete each arch.

Water runs beneath the floor of this entire chapel, starting as a fountain in the visitor center, then continuing to the chapel, where limestone "bridges" the water, allowing us to enter each pew, recalling our baptism. The water culminates at the altar, symbolically joining our spirituality with the Eucharist.

The Cross, made of stainless steel tubing, is approximately 40 feet tall (one foot for each day of Lent), and weighs 2,820 pounds. The figure of Christ is just over 8 feet tall, made of cast bronze, weighing in at 528 pounds.