Alex Abad 
John and Holly Ostermeier’s 6 kids used Legos to generate a scene from Mass at St. Pius X Church in Appleton, Wis., observed in this undated photograph. It consists of a Lego variation of Father Patrick Costello, parochial vicar, celebrating Mass and holding a thurible for burning the incense. (CNS picture/Sam Lucero, The Compass)
APPLETON, Wis. (CNS) — A small creative imagination with Lego items by John and Holly Ostermeier’s six children has yielded a re-creation of the family’s parish church, St. Pius X in Appleton, correct down to the altar, candle lender, piano and priest celebrating Mass.
There is even a thurible for incense and a candle snuffer.
The children, all of whom have been portion of the “Catechesis of the Excellent Shepherd” religion development application at their parish, were being influenced to establish the reproduction of the church vestry though learning about the Mass and the many phrases associated with it.
Their 3 oldest children — Isabel, 13, Ben, 12, and Amelia, 10 — are altar servers at the parish. Their youthful youngsters — twins Simon and Linus, 8, and Jonah, 5 — approach to be altar servers when they are previous sufficient.
Holly mentioned the undertaking started two decades in the past when Linus constructed a really tiny church with an altar, chalice, paten, some bread and a tabernacle. With some encouragement, the siblings reworked the generic church into a miniature of the St. Pius X Church’s nave.
“The ‘Catechesis of the Fantastic Shepherd’ truly gave them a large amount of the track record and the inspiration to do this simply because they know what every thing is on the altar and in the sacristy,” John explained. “And altar serving,” Holly additional.
All 6 children are household-schooled.
John and Holly Ostermeier’s six youngsters are pictured March 20, 2022. They use their Lego collection to develop parts of St. Pius X Church in Appleton, Wis., such as the nave and sanctuary. Pictured from still left are twins Linus and Simon, 8, Ben, 12, Isabel, 13, Amelia, 10, and Jonah, 5. (CNS image/Sam Lucero, The Compass)
“This is our 1st 12 months,” Holly reported, explaining the decision on residence education was designed subsequent a yr in which the young children attended general public university lessons online since of the COVID-19 pandemic. The house education has labored out for the relatives.
Hanging guiding the altar in the St. Pius miniature is its most eye-catching element: a large crucifix. A few aisles are lined by pews crammed with parishioners, including a spouse and children with a infant, an aged woman in a wheelchair, a man with a crutch and a human being attending Mass with their support canine.
Techniques lead to the sanctuary. A Lego edition of Father Patrick Costello, St. Pius X’s parochial vicar, stands at the altar celebrating Mass. The Lego blocks in the wall driving him match the colours of the stones in the church.
“We extra a glow-in-the-dark statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with candles in entrance of it. There’s a baptismal font. Next to that is the Easter candle. Because it is Lent, we have Lenten decorations on the actions to the altar — two pots with sticks in them,” Isabel explained to The Compass, newspaper of the Diocese of Eco-friendly Bay, Wisconsin.
“On the altar is a crucifix, two candles, the Roman Missal, wine and the ciborium where the consecrated hosts are retained,” she extra. “Father is holding a consecrated host in his right hand. The again altar has two candles, the tabernacle where by the ciborium is stored and the sanctuary lamp subsequent to it which is lit all the time. On the table in the back are the cruets. Just one has wine and the other has drinking water. Then there’s the lavabo dish for the washing of the fingers.”
Quite a few months ago, the children designed a convent and high university modeled following the Discalced Carmelites’ Monastery of the Holy Name of Jesus in Denmark, Wisconsin, about 15 miles south of Green Bay.
“We call it ‘Our Girl of the Miraculous Medal.’ Because they’re Sisters of the Miraculous Medal, we called the college Labouré High University, since St. Catherine Labouré made the Miraculous Medal,” Isabel defined.
The kids’ most current job was duplicating St. Pius X’s sacristy and narthex.
“Because we’re altar servers, we get to see a close-up watch of all this. Ours has all the identical stuff that is in the sacristy at St. Pius,” Isabel reported. “Behind the sacristy is a confessional with the human being kneeling. Father Jim (Jugenheimer, pastor of St. Pius Parish) is in the confessional.”
Father Kyle Sladek, previous parochial vicar of St. Pius X, is depicted vesting in the sacristy by a mirror. The priest now serves two other Wisconsin parishes as administrator — St. Mark in Redgranite and Sacred Heart of Jesus in Poy Sippi.
The narthex completes the church assets.
“There’s a statue of St. Pius X. Our church has chairs and tables in that space, a bulletin board, a table up coming to the sacristy that has the ‘Two Hearts Devotion’ (Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary), prayer intention books and copies of The Compass newspaper,” Isabel explained. “The headline on this a single is, ‘There’s a Lego church campus.’”
The undertaking — which is each for present and for enjoy — is not only a testament to the religion of the Ostermeier children, but to their creativity as perfectly. “To acquire all these very little Lego parts and come across these imaginative works by using for them, I can not comprehend that,” John said.
“It’s just evolving,” Holly mentioned. “Every week, they convey to us to occur downstairs due to the fact they imagine of one thing new.”
Lauer writes for The Compass, newspaper of the Diocese of Green Bay.
