our lady of the angels

this afternoon i visited the our lady of the angels cathedral downtown. on the courtyard outside is a diagram of how the stars were aligned the night of the dedication and on the fountain there is scripture written in 37 different languages. and downstairs, down in the basement, is the mausoleum. there lies gregory peck. the walls are long and white, made removable marble that slide out like drawers so you can get to the coffin as easily as a pair of socks. our guide told us about how there was word that gegory peck's funeral was going to be open to the public, but the family didn't want it that way so there were a lot of people just standing around outside. he said, "you needed secret password to get in. the password was atticus finch." then he looked around, wanting us to laugh, but not laughing himself. our guides name was gerald. i would guess he was in his seventies. it was clear he loved the cathedral and that he loved being a catholic. he told us about the baptisms he'd seen and the organ concerts (the biggest organ i'd ever seen, the largest pipe is 41 feet high) he'd been to. and all the inter-faith services the cathedral had had. when a policeman was killed in the line of duty they held the service there and there were nearly 7,000 people in attendence. the bronze doors weigh 25 tons, 12.5 each. the altar weighs 6 tons. the cross is supposed to shine out 6 miles to the east. there is a bronze statue of jesus on the cross that was intentionally made to look dirty as to show how jesus would have look right after his death, dark and bruised and shriveled up. a woman touches his leg then crosses herself. the cathedral cost 189 million dollars to build, including the 10.9 million for the plot of land. it sits on the the 101 freeway, because that is our "river of travel". where is sits could have possibly been and indian burial ground. it used to be a parking lot.