A picture-perfect day offered an ideal backdrop for the March 7 dedication of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel on the campus of Thomas Aquinas College.

More than 500 supporters, benefactors and friends of the 340-student liberal arts college joined students, faculty and staff to celebrate at the campus located in the hills north of Santa Paula in central Ventura County. The dedication capped an eight-year financing and building process toward realizing the dream that materialized in the $23 million, 15,000-square-foot chapel --- the most prominently situated and most elaborate of the 38-year-old campus' structures.

Cruciform in shape, the chapel combines Spanish Mission influence with elements from the Catholic Church's tradition of sacred architecture. A 135-foot bell tower, a dome rising 89 feet over the sanctuary, floors and columns of Italian marble, and a detailed limestone façade are among the design features.

Designwise, the chapel provided "a great challenge," admitted project architect Duncan Stroik, professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame. The college requested that the chapel contain a dome, columns (for earthquake preparedness), a baldacchino (canopy over the altar) and other particular features.

But, Stroik added, "it is an honor to design a house of God, a chapel that is traditional yet innovative, a chapel that speaks to the past, present and future of our faith. My hope is that this chapel will be a light on stand, placed in this city on a hill."

In pre-Mass ceremonies, Maria Grant, chair of the College's board of directors, expressed gratitude to all involved in bringing the chapel to reality, especially college president Dr. Thomas Dillon. "There would be no chapel," she declared, "without Tom Dillon."

In his remarks, Dillon noted that the chapel incorporates four distinguishing marks: beauty, grandeur, prominence and tradition. "This new chapel," he said, "will speak to all who come, announcing that Christ is the center of all we do, and that we will always give our very best to God."

Cardinal Roger Mahony, presiding at the dedication Mass, noted in his homily "a providential link" between the new chapel and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The three Scripture readings (from Nehemiah, Ephesians and Luke) were identical in both dedication liturgies.

Most significantly, the cardinal said, the Scriptures speak to the importance of God's Word and the presence of his Son Jesus, both found in "this beautiful sacred space."

"An encounter with the Word of God brings about dramatic transformation," the cardinal said, pointing out that in the reading from St. Luke's Gospel --- the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector who climbed a tree to see Jesus --- "the Word of God stands in their midst." Zacchaeus, the cardinal pointed out, is so transformed by his encounter with Jesus that he promises half of his wealth to the poor.

"This sacred space will provide the opportunity for those who enter it to listen to God's word, and to meet the Son of God in the Eucharist, to be transformed," Cardinal Mahony said. This opportunity for transformation, he added, will be available "to all generations of students who come here to be inspired by the Word and to receive the presence of the living Jesus."