Winter Vantages

Winter Vantages

Various Pictures

1/2 Full and 1/2 Empty

In the time that I have not been online is some sort of wholeness that I have been ensembling during this time. Aside of work there are so many things that I have been thinking about.

I have thought about love in my life, I have thought about my goals, I have thought about the past, and I have thought about the future.

Where does this lead me? I am not sure what the future brings, but I am assured of what good things do happen and CAN take place. Life is a complicated mess at times however sometimes for myself I look at it in a manner that is with regard to emptiness. I am not empty but I have the time in life to have much more water to fill within the glass. We often look at a glass as half emply or half full, to me if you look at it from several directions and vantages there is something more that you see within in the glass.

Everyone has a different priority, I spoke to a lady from Jamaica. If only I could tap into her thoughts as she never stops taking but when she is determined she has some of the most profound and valid thoughts.

WE are what we are - we can't be anymore than whom we are. Regardless of color, creed - when it all comes down to it we all are human beings on this planet.

Thank you very much to one person off here that sent a Christmas Card. For she is a good friend and to have opened the mail tonight and seen this card was one word "TRUST" and the meaning of what this is all about to myself. I have a few new people on my  blog, thanks I am finding that I have come to a halt with my writings as I am busy....however I certainly thank you for visitng my site or being reffered to it.

As we go into the last weekend of this year - peace and good will to each and everyone.

Jack

 

Not a long story but a short version one...

I have tended to my family for the past few years. It never really was within me to do that type of thing. but I did.  Sometimes there are things in life that do happen and you hold on tight and hope. And you plan.

I have rebounded with old friends and after having as situation whereby you were more of a "butler" during the time of christmas this year I am alone - but not alone.

To be honest, I am much happier with being able to be my own self and to take on my own independant tasks.  But for me this years I am not spending it in a hospital watching my father nearing his death - he is alive and well. So for me - I am not leaving back home from christmas, but I am celebrating it here.

This has taken more work, and has been an effort (mentioning in brief) and to move on with my own life, in my own way without an obligation for family - is normalcy within life. 

And most of all within my trail - I am able to not pick up from where I left off but go forward. I can and will come back to this as there is a story to this but time does not permit.  However, within a short period of time I took on the challenge of what was best for myself, and I set out goals and ironically here it is at this time of year and I don't have the worries as I did with my family. Nor do I have any worries. I am in movement with life. Althought this is wrote in a very short manner - I can tell you one thing. When you have that second chance to do life and live it out in your own manner and obtain some of the dreams that you have set out. For myself that is my celebration of this year. And it's a much different one in comparision to the ones that I experienced in the past three years.

Not many of you know me. Most knew me only by way of my old blog and without a messenger. And maybe just maybe in a small amount of time I will have the enjoyment getting off this laptop and being able to have this work in a manner that is easier to "blog" to.

So it's like I am a kid all over again, I have the choices of what I wish to do for christmas. And the ones thereafter. For me in a general manner that is my christmas and in the background on the radio I hear the song " New York, New York". For me - this is what life and the season is. And I can certainly say that it's a rebirth of my own self not in a religious manner just in a very human manner.

Jack

• Merry Christmas - and to those that have sent me thier address the card is coming late, but nevertheless a belated card will come - Promise.
• I truly wish I could get to all the blogs and I can't - as I recall three months ago when I mentioned that I was heading off line I did not expect to be on till the new year. And now I dont know how people get around to writing that much but again I wish you a merry one.
• Since most have often referred to me as "padre juanito" while in all honesty I have accomplished much in my life (along with the above) - am I jaded - no, have I made a choice and taken on challengs - yes. Have I done decent things for others - yes.
• Maybe now it's time for me to life life and find friends - and a companion - as I missed much - but I have not missed a thing as I have just started my own life again. A quick right - but for all that write books. I am not a writer. When I retire I could tell you what I wish to do - you would think it's way out there but you know what?  There isnt a thing one can't do when they have the opportunity to entirely DO IT.

Merry Christmas To YOU

As we are approaching a very significant time I just arrived home and I wished on this afternoon to make a comment to each and everyone that is on my blog. I wish you a great christmas. I wanted to make mention that so often I wish I could talk to you and know so many treat this like yahoo and having the messenger open at the same time. For me I love to write and do something. I am not good a doing a vocal audio to people that I don't really know but there are some on here that I do know. Regardless of all there is an attachment in audio and from here where I live, and as a man, I wish to say to each and everyone - regardless of the gender, and regardless of the race - A merry one. We all blog in our own way and in a decent manner by way of voice - I say

THE BEST OF THE OCCASIONS TO YOU.

Attachment: Merry Christmas.mp3

Mixture of Different Vantages

All kinds of photos I have taken in the past while. There is always something that is captivating within photography.

Time

Can you believe how time has gone so fast recently?

 

 

 

It just seemed like two weeks ago I had left and went on a bit of a journey. Time - there are many concept to time. Just a thought. Peace, Jack

Imagination Combined with Free Will

There is no disputing the existence of a free will. 

We all have a manner of making choices.  Indeed, we all are in a continual state of deliberating and choice making within our lives.  I don’t think this is about free will versus predetermined destine, but look carefully at how you have chosen to rely on your ability to will your self toward whatever is the desire.  Having and strong will and being filled with the resolve to accomplished goals is seeking within the ego to be the guiding force within your life.

I know my willpower is so much less effective than my imagination. But with that being said imagination is the movement.   I find that the imagination and creativity within my life is linked in with the will regardless of how strong it is. The two are intertwined in a manner that allows me to have that inner picture – when then allows me to participate in the act of know where to direct my will.

I see it this way. My will is that ego portion of myself – that understands that I am different and not entirely separate from everyone, but yet unique. As we all are. My ego will believe that acquisitions, achievements. It’s works in that manner. On the other hand my imagination works within concepts.  If I go back to willing myself to do something when my imagination indicates otherwise – I come to a conclusion of no.  However if I take my imagination I have a well-routed mix of how I shape my life, and lifestyle.

There are so many times in my life that I took the time to imagine where I would be, and then I mixed my ego into it.  I blended the two. What did I do and where has that lead me. It’s leaded me to several levels of wealth. Not in a monetary manner – in a manner of doing things in which others would think I was going out on a limb.  I never existed, I thrive on success in a manner that I mentioned above and I am not sure if this comes across correctly – but when it comes down to it – it’s about the will to work in a harmony that brings about in all times of life.

All that said – Season Greetings to everyone that observes the time of Christmas.

Christmas at the Legislation Building (4).avi

Last one and I have no idea if there is audio. But it does work for they eyes.

Christmas at the Legislation Building.avi

I have a couple of these left - So I thought I would place them on - Why not.

Life brings lessons

If we learn the lessons we move on. Within our own free will we decide to connect within that inner most self. There is a recognition of many things. As with the image of the door - the door never will completely close.

We all have doors in our lives. Doors never completely close. With a regard to that we have that choice how how many doors we have. For within each door there is an opening. Some doors we can manage on when to close it or when to open it. Then when you think of all the doors that are within your life right now - there are many. Each one has an entrance. And there are the doors that we leave behind and we come back to. But each door has a choice. A choice of intent. We all have that human quality of knowing what each door opens up towards.

Imagine that there were no doors whatsoever. If you could - there would not be life. Or maybe there would. As life is about the doors that lead us back as that is apart of whom we are, and as well there are the doors that lead us towards the challenges. We manage our doors as we realize the lessons that one gives us. I can open one door and recall things that were most pleasant, and then I can look at the doors that have steps to walk upwards towards.

Understanding the doors of life is something we all manage within our innerself. I It's a human thing and yesterday I was played out. Not to the blogging but with the time of season and all my efforts - I went back in time. 

However - this leads another aspect of not logic - but emotion. Everyone has emotion.  (not just one style of emotion but several - if we didnt there would be a problematic situation - the one that bares no emotion if faceless without a soul).

While you live life you filter the lessons that have taken place. And as well there may be some that are still there. Is it a process of understanding. It's a process of allowance.  It's a practice of free emotional will. What I find very relaxing is writing on it. In a continum of a journey one understands the placement of all the doors and within the synchronicity of how all the doors of life interplay within a persons own soul and spirit.

All that I know is that is blog is my inner thoughts which is only part and parcel of whom I am. But it's a format from which to write. Do I have a free will? Do you have a free will? The truth in how I see it is that we never create anything alone.  Some will try to but only in a rare circumstance can that happen. So the question I often will ask myself is am I in sychn with what I am doing. Meaning am I regarding everthing in a manner of cadence that allows worth to shine in through that doorway.  And regardless of whom we all are - we all do have areas that bring about the joys of what is unvieled with certain doors -  and we do have doors that we tend to regard with another emotional value.

Value comes within the value of what we allow rather than deny. There is a term in Aikido that relates to this.  And that is  道 which does not translate well in english but the meaning basically is within the way.

Time for Cadence

I have been working in so many areas right now - getting settled in and then at the same time trying to get it all done all at once. For myself, I know where to find that synchonicity.

So I find that tomorrow I am going to look at things from another perspective. Christmas is a difficult time for me. I left my family (parents) to go on with my life. For reasons that are personal. There is no hate it's about creating a life that you can move in a manner that is without somethings that come along with parents getting older and one especially sick with Cancer.

I know as of the last week - I try to do so many things at the same time and I am not going to cover everything that needs to be done in one day. Knowing this I have to think in a manner that works for me. As that is the best that one can do for "self".

Tomorrow is a new day and a new way....but in life - things never automatically change - the progress. But not overnight.

Life brings lessons. If we learn the lessons we move on.

Freedom of Thoughts

With no need to do anything more nor anything less...I would rather progress than regress.

 

In a world with such a wonderful variety of different beliefs and/or cultures all of a sudden I find that the life I have lived has now been ruled politically incorrect by people unknown to us. It illustrates suppression of  majority by a minority.  Rather silly if you ask me. Whom is that proud and that needy? Maybe I am off on this one, but I don't place much weight in it.  Although it does illustrate something to only those that are mature enough to understand it.

 

The process of the the thought of the "thinker" is one that shows and illustrates it's self withing the writings. What is the worth? Minor reigns by major only when there is insecurity.  Have a friend that wrote on this and I had to amend it and write as I see it.

 

I have traveled and in each home that I entered everyone was on multiply.  The one that postures are insistent to have a consortium in which manipulate others to have everything to their own accord is redundant. To blemish other people is something that only the small-minded realize.  I truly believe in multiply we are writing in our own manner. For those that render others to create an infrastructure base only according to their own points of view. Kudos to you. As that is not what freedom of speech is about.

 

Freedom is about the individualistic power to write on ones own terms. Is merely nothing more than what this platform does allow – but should have a thread within it where by each and everyone within talk.

 

Christmas at the Legislation Building (3).avi

Christmas at the Legislation Building (1).avi

Christmas at the Legislation Building

Roll of Honour to those that offered service in World War II. These were people from Alberta that were not in the miltary but offered their professions to aid and support the WWII effort.
I think the date says something to any historians.

The Legislature Building

On March 15, 1906, Alberta’s First Legislature opened its First Session. There was no Legislature Building for members to meet in, so the opening ceremonies were held at Edmonton’s Thistle Roller and Ice Rink just north of Jasper Avenue, after which the Assembly moved to nearby McKay Avenue school.
In these modest surroundings, the members dealt with the first item of business for the new province: deciding on a capital city. Because Edmonton was the centre of Alberta’s newly booming agricultural sector and a Liberal stronghold, it won the honour.
Choosing a site for the building was easy. The high-cliffed bank of the North Saskatchewan River was both physically commanding and historically significant. Here was the site of Fort Edmonton, a major fur trading post of the Hudson’s Bay Company, around which the settlement of Edmonton had developed. ~ Beaux Arts Style ~

Alberta’s Legislature Building was designed by provincial architect Allan Merrick Jeffers, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States. He was probably influenced by the state capitol building there, which was in the popular Beaux Arts style. This style is evident in the design of our Legislature Building: the T-shaped floor plan; the building’s entrance, or portico, supported by massive columns; the dome rising above a spacious rotunda.

Materials suitable for the building’s lofty design were shipped to Edmonton: granite from Vancouver Island for the exterior of the first storey, Paskapoo sandstone from the Glenbow quarry near Calgary and sandstone from Ohio for the remaining four storeys, and marble for the interior.
Construction began in 1907, and in September 1912 the Duke of Connaught, Canada’s Governor General, declared the Legislature Building officially open. The interior’s grandeur was obvious from the moment the front doors first opened. The main entrance leads directly into the rotunda, which is encircled by marble columns. Its walls rise from the main floor to the vaulted dome, a distance of 55 metres (180 feet). The rotunda connects the east and west wings of the main floor to the great marble staircase that leads to the Assembly Chamber. The Chamber has its own dome and is lit by stained-glass skylights and about 600 light bulbs.

The Legislature Building has undergone many changes since its 1912 opening. Richard Blakey, provincial architect until 1923, added the dome-within-a-dome you see when you look up from the rotunda. In 1932 palm seeds, a gift from the state of California, were planted in pots in the gallery ringing the interior dome; these are now five large trees peering down at the rotunda's fountain. The fountain itself has come and gone more than once. The first fountain was constructed in 1939 and removed shortly thereafter, while the present one was built in 1959 to commemorate the first official visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The mahogany panels that grace the walls of the Chamber were added in 1987, as was an elegant pale green carpet and new gallery seating.

The building also houses images of our history and political traditions. Inside the rotunda are two bronze statues, one of Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, after whom the province is named, and one of Chief Crowfoot, a Blackfoot Indian leader whose policy of co-operation led to the peaceful settlement of Alberta. Portraits of Premiers and Lieutenant Governors adorn the walls of the third floor, and you can view portraits of Alberta’s Speakers one floor above. Decorative hardwood carvings include coats of arms above the main entrance to the Chamber, above the Speaker’s Chair in the Chamber, and in the Carillon Room on the fifth floor. The building also contains the offices of the Premier, the cabinet and other government members, the Speaker, and the Lieutenant Governor.
Aside of this there are things that have been imported from Virginia from back in history as well the palm trees that are in the very top of the "dome" of the building come from Latin America.

Busy time of the Year

I have been very busy. Most of you know me from my other blog, and it's been very busy. Perhaps I will get into it and have more time to do so, but to each and everyone of you, I sincerely wish you the best. I miss Y360, as I had a closed blog and I enjoyed the meaning of writing in a collaborative area. And I did write on some areas that were more with regards to several different things but they homed in on a few things in which I came to find that we all share things that sometimes we do find the answer amongst each and everyone of us.  Recently I was asked by two good friends why do I blog? I can't put a finger on it. But there is some reason. I am not much for explaining everything within my life. I am rather reserve with that. Never the less, we all write in a manner (some) that we answer each others questions. Regardless of if we respond or not - we all walk away after reading a few blogs (if one has a few hours to go through and read them) - and we find something.  Maybe it's our inner most self.

The one thing I do enjoy most about Multiply - is the manner that one can place on pictures. I have not had that time for it. But will find the time.  So don't drop me - I will be over to see ya on your blog as soon as time permits.

The Seven Wonders

Do you remember the story that made the rounds about the group of students asked to write down what they thought were the Seven Wonders of the World?  Tallying up the votes, the top 7 were as follows:

1) Egypt's Great Pyramids; 2) the Taj Mahal; 3) the Grand Canyon; 4) the Panama Canal; 5)the Empire State Building; 6) St. Peter's Basilica; and, 7) the Great Wall of China.

While gathering the votes, the teacher noticed that one student hadn't finished her notes yet.  So, she asked her if she was having trouble with her list.  The girls replied, "Yes, a little.  I couldn't quite make up my mind because there were so many."

The teacher then said, "Well, tell us what you have and maybe we can help."

The girl hesitated and then read, "I think the Seven Wonders of the World are:

1) To see

2) To hear

3) To touch

4) To taste

5) To feel

6) To laugh

7) To love

A reminder that the most precious and wondrous things in life cannot be built nor bought but rather are the simple and ordinary things we take for granted.

Have a great Monday...

Mondays are those days that we start back to the routine of the usual five day week. We all have our rituals and things that we have to get done. Regardless of where we are - we all have things that we do and need to get done.

That all beings said - think of Monday as being Tuesday and then fit Monday into Wednesday. Somewhere in all that mesh - sometimes it fits. But sincerely, Have a great week!

How Much do You Need

The pace at which modern culture at times rushes and races leaves us breathless...

 

There is next the menace of consumerism that has become part and parcel of modern culture. Like a raging forest fire, it devours all in its wake, and us as well, so that far from being the masters of what we possess, we are in turn reduced to being its slaves. Instead of possessing, we are possessed by the things we own.

 

We live and thrive in a manner in which we talk about so many things but really when it comes down to it – at what point do we have no beneficial factor of all that we want.   

 

We have divided the world into classes and categories: some belong to the first, others to the second, and still others to a third world.

Possibly, there might be categories and grades lower than these...And what is the prime criterion for this discrimination and classification?

 

Are human beings higher or lower in the social layer mainly because they pertain to different economic levels? Is the stature of a person gauged by the size of his or her pocket?

 

While The City Sleeps

Nearing the time of Christmas within the city these are some of a few vantages of only one part of the city. They say a city sleeps, however some of the most conceptual photography is taken at night.

Various Pictures

Variety of pictures...

Within A World of Being Proud

Pride is the energy level aspired to by many of our kind in our times. In contrast to the various levels of energy levels within that nature of mankind – pride is far enough removed from shame, guilt, or fear.  Pride generally has a good reputation and is socially encouraged.  Yet pride is only distinguished due to its contrast shame, guilt and fear.

The problem, as some may know is that “Pride goeth before a fall.” 

Pride is a defensive and very vulnerable.  Due to the nature of how pride is dependant on being dependent upon external conditions.  The inflated ego is vulnerable to attack.  Pride remains week because it can be knocked off its pedestal back to shame, which is the threat that fires the fear of loss of pride.  The downside of pride is arrogance and denial. These characteristics lock the growth pattern of any culture, person.  I thought I would write this as all to often we all have something to be proud about, yet within the growth of being proud of what we have done. We never wished to become locked into an area where by we find ourselves hindered by our own making.

I met with a person that I knew recently that knew me. He knew me in business from some years ago. And we sat down and were talking and his desire was to get the inside of which I knew with regards to some people that are rather successful in business. And as well, he was inquisitive as to where and what I was planning on doing. As he asked me about these men, I just listened and moved around the questions in a manner that didn’t really tell him anything regarding them.  As for myself – without being arrogant, or coming across this way, I laughed to myself as I understood that this person merely wanted to know more regarding whom I was – what I was now, and where and what I intended on doing within business. 

How I have changed since the times in which he had not really known me but had seen me speak and as well ironically worked with some people that worked along with me.

Coming back to the area of neutrality…sometimes one reaches a point of maturity, which brings about a change and growth within what they do, and how they do it.  Am I the same person I was – no. Am I the person I am now? Do I enjoy things in a much different manner than I did before? Will I bring about a change that I find to be of satisfaction without the need to be noticed in life?  In my own manner and in my own way I know the answers to my own questions. Why? I flow with areas in a manner that I didn’t earlier in my life.  And I am not in the same "rat pack", I am different in some manner. It’s not about pride - it's about something more.

I think that when we hang up the pride factor, we continue to learn and we move in a manner of “quality surplus”. We collect things that support what we are doing within what ever we are embarking on and we don’t need to tell the entire world. Business is pride based, to a large extent position is everything. How many times I have seen men – aspire for titles and younger men look to aspire for that title. However when they retire, they don’t know what to do with their life. Still to this day there are two older gentlemen that are competing with each other to see who takes the most with them. They are very proud, and as well their son’s have come to be very proud.  I wonder what would take place if their entire empires fell down.  Would they be able to survive?  Would the second generation be able to bounce back up? Some would and some wouldn’t.

Within a world of so much pride – I think that women generally don’t thrive on this pride factor.  Men often thrive to have a worth that is based on many things – but most of all pride.  I am a man but I enjoy life more than I did one year ago. I am not a people pleaser, but I do find the satisfaction in stepping outside of my own realm and mixing with all different people. Of course I have the same basic needs and wants as any person. Everything in life is not based on entirely on titles, or too much pride.  Maybe it’s more about understanding the value of life while continuing with what we all do in life. A high energy level would include love, friendships, aspirations, and understanding.
Yet we all are proud to different extents. It’s the nature of a person, but perhaps all to often we get so caught up in our own selves that we forget who surrounds us – during all times and occasions within our lives.  For we each have our own prerogatives, and we all have the ability to be so into ourselves that we can’t enjoy the areas that are of importance to ourselves.  Thriving on pride seems to be something that would bring about a downside.  Living with a variety of things within life – give way to something more than thriving on pride.  Efficiency is doing the thing right.  Effectiveness is doing the right thing.

~ Living within A Neutral Manner ~

Energy becomes very positive as we get to that level we term as neutral, because it’s epitomized by release of the areas that typically have us function at lower levels.  Our consciousness tends to see dichotomies and takes on rigid positions where things become more complicated in a complicated world that is with many factors, rather than black and white.  We thrive on things being exact. But is there an exact to everything in life. I would say that while I write this in no manner could that be however it’s the level of neutrality that we adhere to which leads to a manner that is simply neutral.

For myself I have come to some neutrality, I have actually carried it out the past month and a few weeks. So often I refer to it as just “going with the flow”.

In the last month and some, I can honestly say I have rendered a neutral manner – a flow. I do believe that people living within a neutral manner render something more. They render something that is contentment. Contentment leads to happiness.  I was content to merely just go and get shopping done in the morning and then to just finish up things as much as time permits. I just flow with it.  I had met with a business person that I didn’t realize that I had know early on in my late 20’s and he knew me from all that I had done within my work. However that all being said, he was trying to get more of the “inside news” on a few people that are half retired now.  And silence is golden.  I find that there are areas that are viable to break, but within it all I maintain that cadence.

The level of awareness comes with age or perhaps it’s with maturity. But I have literally been able to get to an area that took two years of obligatory and now as I know from a distance that my father will be having another CT Scan. I function in a manner that is acceptance.  Acceptance is not something that is about passivity, which would tend to lead towards apathy. To the contrary, acceptance leads to one enabling engagement on one’s own terms.  But is life complicated – yes it is however there is always a manner from which we gain, change, and re-arrange our own cadence within our own flow.  Nothing within our lives stays consistently the same. Tomorrow I have another meeting and what will come from it, I am not sure but I flow with it. 

We determine our own human behavior I suppose.

*This picture was taken while I was driving throughout the city yesterday and I wished to bring along the camera and catch some shorts that have a vantage and angle that represent something, but my focus was not exactly to do it – if I was not able to do it, that was all fine. Ironically there was a small marriage going on and security allowed me to go up into the balcony area to take some pictures.

A Video of the St. Joseph’s Basilica.avi

While downtown today I thought I would go in and take some pictures of this historical Church....

St. Joseph Basilica Cathedral

The Edmonton Catholics who built what is now called St. Joseph’s Basilica know all about tradition and patience. The grand building was erected some 45 years ago, but the dream actually began nearly 50 years before that when St. Joseph’s parish was founded. Early in the 20th century, English-speaking Catholics worshipped with Francophones at St. Joachim’s, which had been founded in 1854. But as English newcomers poured into the booming city, the need for another church became increasingly evident. And so St. Joseph’s was formed in 1913 by Most Rev. Emile Legal, first archbishop of Edmonton.
The following year, Father Alphonse Lemarchand, (brother of Rene Lemarchand, who was later to build the fantastic mansion apartment building on 100th Avenue and 116th Street), began to plan for a new church building just west of St. Joachim’s. A large basement was excavated and concreted over, but the First World War intervened and the project had to be abandoned.
It wasn’t until after the war, in 1924, that work began anew, but this time at a new location just south of Jasper Avenue and 113th Street. The cornerstone was laid November 4th, 1924.
A year later, the basement of the new cathedral was completed the cost of $140,000 and, services were held beginning March 22, 1925 in what came to be known as “the crypt.” It had room enough to seat 900.
That year, Archbishop Henry Joseph O’Leary chose St. Joseph’s as his cathedral church and it was also to become the cathedral of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical province of Edmonton, which stretches from the 49th parallel to the North Pole. Plans for a $250,000 grand stone cathedral atop the original structure were prepared by Edmonton architect Edward Underwood, who had also designed the Misericordia Hospital just a few blocks away. The building contract was awarded to Edmonton’s Poole Construction.
By November, site preparation was underway for a structure that would have been the largest in western Canada, with seating for 1,000. It was to feature twin towers and steeples 190 feet high and a central tower reaching 220 feet into the air.
But the Depression of the 1930’s and the Second World War again intervened to postpone their best laid plans. It wasn’t until 1957 that the church commissioned Montreal architect Henri S. Labelle create a new vision for the cathedral on the site.

Labelle and associate architect Eugene Olekshy of Edmonton came up with a Gothic-style building.
The intention was to extend the crept upwards but, as it had been built on what had formerly been a slough, cracks had developed, especially on the north side. In early 1961, the superstructure started to rise from the crypt. It measured 265 feet wide and 142 feet long and rose 90 feet in the air. There was room for seating for 1,239. The floors were ceramic tile, laid in patterns reminiscent of the early Roman basilicas. Interior walls and pillars were clad with a synthetic stone called “Haydite” to subdue sound.
The finished architectural masterpiece featured some of the finest materials available, including $300,000 of stained glass windows and $15,000 of gold inlaid stations of the cross, all imported from Germany. The gold ceramic backgrounds of the illustrations of Christ’s walk to Calvary were originally ordered by Hitler as decorations for lampposts for one of his rallies in Nuremberg.
The exterior was clad in Tyndall stone from Manitoba, the oak pews and panelling from Quebec, the marble altar from Barcelona, Spain, the tabernacle candlesticks from Dublin, Ireland and the carved wooden statues from Oberammergou, Germany. The crucifix was made by a German immigrant, living in Edmonton at the time and working out of a converted garage on the south side. The gallery organ was built by Casavant Freres of Quebec.
With furnishings, the final construction cost came in at just over $2 million. The church was officially opened on May 1, 1963, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
A fire, deliberately set in 1980, destroyed the altar and a large sculpted wooden cross, blacking the walls and stained glass windows and causing total damage of $500,000. Four years later, in honour of the visit of Pope John Paul II, the cathedral became the first designated Basilica west of Manitoba.

Among the many noteworthy events at the Basilica was the July 16,1988 wedding of Edmonton Oilers Wayne Gretzky to Janet Jones.