CAPG's Blog 

"I will go peaceably and firmly to the Catholic Church: for if Faith is so important to our salvation, I will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those who received it from God Himself." St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Basilica de la santissima annunziata, Florence (Source: wikipedia)

"Passing through a curtain, my eye was struck with hundreds of persons kneeling; but the gloom of the chapel, which is lighted only by the wax tapers on the altar and a small window at the top darkened with green silk, made every object at first appear very indistinct, while that kind of soft and distant music which lifts the mind to a foretaste of heavenly pleasures called up in an instant every dear and tender idea of my soul; and forgetting Mrs. Fillicchi, companions, and all the surrounding scene, I sank on my knees in the first place I found vacant, and shed a torrent of tears at the recollection of how long I had been a stranger in the house of my God, and the accumulated sorrow that had separated me from it. I need not tell you that I said our dear service with my whole soul, as far as in its agitation I could recollect.

When the organ ceased, and Mass was over, we walked round the chapel. The elegance of ceilings in carved gold, altars loaded with gold, silver, and other precious ornaments, pictures of every sacred subject, and the dome a continued representation of different parts of Scripture - all this can never be conceived by description; nor my delight in seeing old men and women, young women and all sorts of people kneeling promiscuously about the altar, as inattentive to us and other passengers as if we were not there." p 131

"High Altar in the Medici Chapel, Florence which particularly impressed Mrs. Seton."

"A sensation of delight struck me so forcibly that as I approached the great altar, formed all of the most precious stones and marbles that could be produced, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior," came in my mind with a fervor which absorbed every other feeling. It recalled the ideas of the offerings of David and Solomon to the Lord, when the rich and valuable productions of nature and art were devoted to His Holy Temple and sanctified to His Service." p 132