As senior living center St. Therese of Corcoran is completed over the next 18 months in Corcoran, a chapel for its residents and visitors will begin to take shape.
Officials at St. Therese sought guidance recently on the chapel from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, in the person of Director of Worship Father Tom Margevicius, as well as Benedictine Sister Marie Fujan of St. Paul’s Monastery in St. Paul.
Father Margevicius helped St. Therese staff and an architectural team from St. Paul-based Pope Design Group in December as they discussed chapel details such as the location of the tabernacle, statues, artwork and Stations of the Cross.
Father Margevicius said that as director of worship he has been assigned by Archbishop Bernard Hebda to guide all Catholic parishes, schools, institutions, clergy and laity in celebration of the liturgy. That broad task can include offering advice on building and remodeling new chapels and churches and suggesting options for music.
“The archbishop relies on me to represent his desires for how the liturgy should be best celebrated in our archdiocese,” Father Margevicius said. “Consequently, when I met with St. Therese of Corcoran, I acted in a consultative manner so they could proceed with confidence that the design of their chapel was in accord with the directions of the Church and wishes of the archbishop.”
Father Margevicius said he enjoyed the meeting and is confident that the chapel will be “worthy of the sacred liturgy and suitable for the needs, spiritual and bodily, of its constituents.”
In November, Sister Marie showed the team around the monastery chapel in St. Paul and spoke with them about the Corcoran chapel’s sacristy spaces and artist renderings. Sister Marie was part of the groundbreaking at St. Therese’s first community in New Hope, has served on the nonprofit senior care organization’s board of directors and helped start its pastoral care program at Oxbow Lake.
St. Therese also runs senior living facilities in Woodbury, Brooklyn Park and Shoreview.
