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St Bonaventure's Church
Category: Religious Organizations Churches Churches [Edit]
1300 Leslie StNorth York, ON M3C 2K9
(416) 447-5571
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 9 am - 4:30 pm
Mon-Thu 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Sat 9 am - 6:30 pm
Sun 9 am - 1:30 pm
One review for St Bonaventure's Church
1 review in English
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Review from Jimi S.
ON
1/2/2009
so this review comes from this standpoint: i came here for a funeral for one of my best friends relatives, so either way, i wasnt walking out with glee.
well, the church itself is presently undergoing some construction or renovation on its outer walls and once we sneaked under the scaffolding obscuring the door we virtually found ourselves in the praying sanctuary. to the left was a section where young children might sit either by themselves or with their parents. i assumed this had to do with noise levels. im sure with all our movie-going and restaurant outings we can all understand and even appreciate this, especially if you are an avid pray-er or in this case catholic. at the time, especially any child from a kid, was welcoming. kids at funerals give the day a balance of light because they havent attached negativity to someone dying usually and/or maybe they just havent lost someone whos too important to them.
the hall or sanctuary itself has two angled ceilings that come together in a triangular point, high enough to house a twenty-something foot jesus christ. hoowee. right there on the cross, looking, well, pretty iconic. like any other jesus. he was white like he was made of ivory (though i doubt it) and the cross he was hanging from was made of wood. i wondered about the tenacity of the wire which held it to a centre beam joining the two angular rooftops. inevitably i envisioned it falling from the ceiling and well, doing something bad. such is the imagination.
the ceilings were exposed so to speak with wooden ribs and there was a large brown brick wall at the back giving way to a green astro-turfed-looking stage. on the stage was a long white table with white padded tall-backed chairs.
there were three people dressed in white gowns of sorts helping the priest who wore a white gown over another brown one which looked especially monk-y. i wondered whether he ever wore his hood. ill never know.
behind us, from atop the balcony, was a very large organ high enough to bounce all its music off of all parts of the large jesus that hung across the room from it. organ music is interesting, though i cant say that i enjoyed it here. this might surely have to do with my slight apprehension we had being there, not knowing what the process or rules were.
my wife for example was excited to put her feet up on that green padded footrest that lay attached to the benches before us, until i (for fear of ostracism) told her not to dare because its for leaning on with the knees during some praying (after the eucharist it looked like). thanks be to all those Godfather movies for my knowledge.
despite the sad nature of this experience, it was interesting to see the rituals that this church and religion went through, and they seemed to make their mourners as comfortable as possible, including a little get together with some food and drink afterwards.
like religion or not, it is always times like these and rituals performed in these times which bring people closer, providing more insight into our truer natures and loves.
(g.d. r.i.p.)
