My Dear Friends,
This past weekend I was able to visit, along with some of your fellow parishioners, our newly completed pipe organ in Gloucester, Massachusetts. It was a beautiful pilgrimage that included a brief organ crawl through Boston with stops in the Harvard University chapel to hear their pipe organ (made by the same organ builder as ours) and Mass celebrated for all of you in Holy Cross Cathedral.
When we arrived in the workshop of CB Fisk in Gloucester last Saturday, our pilgrims did not know what to expect, and to be honest with all of you, neither did I. When this entire project started, I was a novice when it came to pipe organs. As I have often said, the only thing I knew about pipe organs is that they inspired me, but over the last three years, I have gotten a whirlwind education into the intricacies of mechanical action pipe organs. When I arrived last week, I thought I was going to see our completed organ, hear some exceptional organists play it, and share it with our traveling parishioners. What I received was even more of an education of what is about to be installed in the balcony of our church. Seeing the inner mechanics of our organ and how hard these skilled workers labored to make this a reality, and then getting an even deeper education from a world-renowned organist explaining how our organ actually works, left us captivated and awed.
If I may, I would like to share with you some words written by one of the pilgrims, Steven Befera, who serves as the head of our Parish Council and who is also a member of our Schola, about his experience last weekend and to offer a parishioner’s point of view:
As we all know, our church has been recently renovated. Through this work, there has been a carefully planned acoustical transformation of the space in anticipation of the arrival of a new pipe organ which we hope to begin installing next month. The construction of the organ (named Opus 166) was recently completed in Massachusetts. I had the honor of accompanying Father Manny, our Pastor, Luis J. Cuza, our Director of Music Ministries, and several other parishioners to an open house sponsored by the organ manufacturer. Please accept the following as a summary of what I saw and learned.
The new pipe organ for the Church of the Little Flower is a work of art. It is a 3 keyboard, mechanical, true symphonic pipe organ of 46 voices (pipe “ranks”) and 55 stops (control knobs) with 3,035 pipes, the smallest of which is the size of a pencil and the largest of which is the size of a utility pole.
It is both massive and intricate, composed of thousands of individually hand-hewn metal and wood pieces and specifically manufactured integrally related and meticulously aligned moving parts. The organ has been custom designed and built for our sanctuary by CB Fisk, Inc. of Gloucester, Massachusetts (see cbfisk.com). It has taken approximately 35,000 manual labor hours to complete, with transport, onsite installation, and tuning by CB Fisk in our church still pending. CB Fisk is a world-renowned organ builder, having been developed by Charles B. Fisk, a Harvard-trained Physicist who previous to his work designing and building organs, served in the Manhattan Project in a siloed development program that ultimately (unknown to him) helped create the detonator mechanism for the “Fat Man” atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, ending World War II.
The organ is now being disassembled and will be packed into 2 fifty-three-foot semi-trailers for transport to Coral Gables. Additionally, some of the larger pipes will arrive directly from The Netherlands. Fisk will send its team of artisans to work on the installation which is anticipated to take approximately 6 weeks.
This magnificent pipe organ is truly something to behold. At the open house in Gloucester, more than 800 people from the area, some parking a half mile down the road, came to see and hear the first “public notes” played on the massive device. The complexity of the instrument is mind-boggling and how all the parts work seamlessly in harmony creating heavenly sounds is magical. We are truly blessed. Thanks to Father Manny, Luis Cuza, and all those who have contributed their time and treasure to make this happen! Praise the Lord! —Steven P. Befera
One hundred years ago, our founders set out to boldly build this beautiful church which we now worship in every day. It was always our intention when we began our centennial campaign to be equally as bold in building on that legacy by bringing the crown jewel of our centennial campaign home with Opus 166. We cannot wait for you to see and hear this incredible and heavenly gift that will enhance our worship for generations to come.
God bless you all,
