Chapel of the Holy Cross, Sedona Arizona

Today I visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona.

It is a beautiful chapel, but there was something about the place that felt deeply spiritual to me.
A very kind man took me up to the chapel door, and on the way he explained to me how the chapel came to be.

In 1932, sculptor and rancher Marguerite Brunswig Staude looked up at the steel beams of the newly built Empire State Building and pictured them bent into a giant cross. She first tried to build the church in Budapest with Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright’s son, but World War II killed that plan.

So she turned to her home state of Arizona instead. With help from Senator Barry Goldwater, she got a special-use permit on Coconino National Forest land. After scouting the Sedona area on foot, by car, and by air, she saw a rock formation where she said she could see a “Madonna and Child” carved into the stone, with two nearby rocks that looked like praying hands, or two nuns in prayer. Then she knew this was where the chapel would be built.

Architects August K. Strotz and Richard Hein of Anshen & Allen designed the chapel, and builder Fred Coukos finished it in just 18 months for about $300,000.

The chapel itself is very small, very quiet, and peaceful. It’s hard to believe that over 2 million visitors a year come to this place. When I went inside, I found a place in the front pew, sat down, and prayed. I ended up sitting there quietly in contemplation for nearly an hour.

You could tell it was a very special place, and I felt something I can’t quite put into words.

As I sat there, I started thinking about my own journey of faith. I have never regretted taking the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults classes. It was eight months of study, and I had never worked so hard for something before. Even though there were issues that postponed my confirmation, I’m happy to say I was confirmed in May. Something I’m proud of.

Looking back, I realize that my journey into the Catholic faith wasn’t something that happened all at once. It took time, study, questions, waiting, and finally, confirmation. Sitting there in that chapel, I found myself thinking about all of that.

Maybe that’s why the quiet affected me the way it did. There was nothing I needed to do. I could simply sit there, pray, and spend time in contemplation. For once, I wasn’t searching for an answer or trying to understand something. I could just be quiet before God and let myself be in that moment.

For nearly an hour, I sat quietly before the cross. I thought about where I had been, where I am now, and how much this journey has come to mean to me. I left feeling grateful and humbled by the experience.

Click to enlarge photo.