Is this photograph quite stunning and, yes, a little bit startling? It features Father Daniel LaCroix of the Diocese of Lansing offering Holy Mass earlier this month within an outdoor chapel made entirely of snow and ice. The sacred structure was lovingly built by the Catholic students of Michigan Technological University, Houghton, in the state’s Upper Peninsula. Father LaCroix, pinctured below, graduated from Michigan Tech in 2018. He was ordained to the priesthood last year and now serves as Parochial Vicar of Saint John Vianney, Flint. Here is his reflection upon his return to his alma mater. He writes:
When a priest is ordained, he will commonly celebrate a Mass in all the churches he has a connection to as a way of giving thanks to God for the gift of his priesthood. It was beautiful to celebrate Mass at my home parish and parishes I had been at as a seminarian shortly after my ordination last June. But last week I finally celebrated the Mass I had really been looking forward to — at Our Lady of the Snows, the chapel built entirely out of snow at Saint Albert the Great in Houghton.
Every year, Michigan Tech holds Winter Carnival, a major winter festival that includes large, intricate snow statues. In my second year as a student at Michigan Tech, we decided at the parish to build a church out of snow. Somewhat to our surprise, 140 people came and it became an annual tradition. Each year, the chapel has gotten larger and more elaborate. This year it included stained ice windows, mosaics, an ice altar carved from a local waterway, an elevated pulpit, confessional, and Marian side chapel.
As I talked about in my homily, the students and members of this parish could have built anything. All the statues around campus are a testament to the creativity, talent, and hard work of the students. But the parish chooses to build a church; all that effort and energy is dedicated to God. They choose to make something beautiful for the one they love. And this love for God is the reason why hundreds of people came to an outdoor Mass when it was 9 degrees and windy; receiving the Eucharist is worth being cold. Moving a nearly thousand-pound slab of ice by hand is not easy, but Our Lord is worth it. The central stained ice windows were designed with a Eucharistic theme, emphasizing the purpose of the chapel.
For some students, helping build the chapel is the first step towards deeper involvement at the parish. For others, it was the first Mass they ever attended before eventually becoming Catholic. For some people in the broader community, it was their first time back to Mass or confession in some time. God is doing great things through this chapel, and so after building it for years as a student, it was truly special to return, not only to help build the chapel again, but to celebrate Holy Mass there.
Our Lady of the Snows, pray for us.
