Michigan,USA: It seems to be becoming a tradition – students at St. Albert the Great University Parish at Michigan Tech University have once again built a chapel of snow and ice, and were able to have Mass celebrated for them there.
Construction included beams and plywood to support and mold the ice and snow.
The most impressive feature of this year’s chapel was a 500 pound block of ice that a group of students cut out of the canal that runs through town and hauled up the hill to the snow chapel to use as the top of the altar, according to a campus ministry spokesperson.
This year, the students one-upped themselves by doubling the size of the chapel and the attendance – 270 Mass attendees vs. 140 last year.
Five priests and two deacons were present to celebrate this year’s Mass, so “it was quite an event,” a spokesperson for the parish told Catholic News Agency.
Michigan Tech isn’t the only college to find the beauty in particularly chilly Masses. Wyoming Catholic College in US and others have also built snow altars, either out of tradition or sometimes necessity!