By Lois Rogers |Features Editor
The nave of St. Luke Church, Toms River, with its wide expanse of space, has had a new focal point since Holy Week: a crucifix made of bronze and wood, worthy of prayer and contemplation from any angle.

That is precisely how parish usher Sal Marciano put it on a recent Sunday when asked what he thought of the 10X9-foot cross adorned by a sixfoot long bronze corpus of Jesus cast in the ancient lost wax system.

“Beautiful,” is how parishioner Mary Goss described the crucifix. “A work of art, especially when you first come in. It strikes you how wonderful it is. It makes the community part of Christ’s sacrifice,” Goss said.

Those reactions were exactly what St. Luke pastor, Father Robert S. Grodnicki, was hoping for when he cast his net into the sea of contemporary sacred art some months back hoping to pull up a treasure that would, he said, “bring a sense of awe and reverence into the sanctuary.”

Prior to the arrival of the new crucifix, fabricated in Italy in the manner of the famous Del Tacca or “Pistoia Crucifix,” there was a processional cross bearing a Risen Lord in the sanctuary and that cross will indeed have a pride of place in the new faith formation center soon to begin construction, Father Grodnicki said.

But after much prayer, it seemed that the time was right to bring a cruciform focus to the sanctuary, dedicated in 1997 by Bishop John M. Smith. “It’s a very big space and it needed (finishing touches),” said Father Grodnicki, who added that there are also plans to add a permanent baptistery. It will replace the original one which can be wheeled from place to place.

The question was, how to go about selecting just the right crucifix for the vast church which easily seats 1,100 for Mass.

After researching studios that specialized in liturgical art, the parish decided to commission Renovata Studios, Port Chester, N.Y., with the task, Father Grodnicki said.

Renovata Studios had achieved wide recognition for excellence in liturgical design including 25 national wards in the past 10 years, he noted. The studio had also provided designs for visits of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and completed designs for 400 parish churches, mainly along the Eastern Seaboard.

Lawrence Hoy, a principal designer and one of the founders of the studio with three decades of experience in designing worship space that ranges from contemporary to traditional, worked closely with the parish, searching for just the right crucifix.

Hoy, a graduate of the prestigious Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, searched for a crucifix with a large, life-size corpus on a cross about 10 feet in length with a cross beam of about equal size that would command attention suspended over the altar and between the large video monitors where hymns, Scripture readings and announcements are shown.

During the process, a team from the studio worked with a mockup version to make sure the placement would be just right, Father Grodnicki said.

When it came to selecting the corpus and the cross, Hoy touched base regularly with Father Grodnicki and the parish keeping them up to date on his quest to find the perfect elements. agreed that a contemporary fabrication of a fabled masterpiece, in the early 1600’s by Renaissance master Pietro Tacca, said to a student of Michelangelo, one for St. Luke Church. by artisans in Italy, the sculpture was affixed to the wooden cross, painted red and outlined with gold leaf.

“It is big and probably weighs five or six hundred pounds,” Hoy said. It was quite a feat to bring that down and suspend it in just the right way,” he added.

Combining the copy of the Pistoia corpus probably made for or purchased by the Church of St. Maria degli Angeli in Pistoia, Italy, with the painted wooden contemporary cross has made it a one of a kind object of devotion, he said.

“It’s a solid work of art,” Hoy said. “It’s going to be there for generations,” Hoy said during a telephone interview from his studio.

“It’s a glorious cross. The design is meant to signify both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. “Instead of just a wooden cross, it is a bright color, meant to say that there is life.”