5th year anniversary Edition

I went to church at St Pius Sunday night.  It was Lauren and Chris’ anniversary.  And that happens to be the day I started my 52 churches plan and I’m feeling a little nostalgic. 

It’s hard to believe that was five years ago.   I’m pretty good at going to church now, not perfect, but much better than before.  I realized I missed out on a lot of good stuff by not going.  Which isn’t to say that you have to go to church, but that there is so much to check out in this world that you need to get out there and find it. 

Without this little project, I wouldn’t have gone to the last printer’s mass at St. Vincent’s, which was the perfect amount of melancholy.  I wouldn’t have stumbled into a Sunday afternoon Byzantine mass or made it a point to look for a church when traveling.  I never did write about Saint Augustine by the Sea in Honolulu.  Our work book club had just finished reading The Colony, a book about lepers exiled to Molokai.  The church had pictures of the missionaries who cared for them, including one of my new favorite saints, Sister Marianne Cope.  

Some things have changed over the years.  Our beloved pastoral life director has retired and we have a pastor now.  We’ve been paired with the church down the street.    I’m volunteering with the youth group and figuring out the pizza to kids ratio.

And just so you don’t think I have deviated too far from my old format – a different Fr. Sam celebrated mass and we were done in 45 minutes – with music!  I feel we are switching back to the Nicene Creed and we’ve been saying the Apostle’s Creed for so long that I don’t remember the words.  And as I wondered if the man sitting two pews in front of me is single, it occurred to me that I am officially too old to be a young adult.  Huh.  Just when I thought I was carving out a place for myself. 

And there’s bigger stuff.  I lost my mom the year of the blog and we lost Mark after that.  So while I’m using words like nostalgic and melancholy, I’ll wonder how seems like yesterday and seems like forever feel the same.  Maybe one day I’ll get it. Thanks for indulging my trip down memory lane.  Maybe we'll play Catechic this weekend, for old time's sake.  

Lent 2013 and St Ignatius Loyola, Reading, PA

So it's been a while...hard to believe I've been away from this blog for a month.  I think that's because things aren't going exactly as planned.  They never do.   Indoor archery season is as busy as you make it.  And I've packed it full this season.  It's fun, but isn't leaving me time for bowling and roller skating.  I'm good for my 52 activities...

I've been sticking it out at the same church except this week, which is going okay, I guess.  I'm starting to recognize some people.  I'm trying not to get too frustrated with Father Fire and Brimstone.  Sometimes he's rather insightful.

Catholic Schools week was a little weird.  He had the many parts one body reading to work with, and somehow the homily was about human trafficking.  I know it's the obvious choice, but I would have gone with something like "some of your are good at spelling, some at math.  We all have different gifts..."
But after that hour of strangeness, there were fireworks.  In January.  And they were awesome.  It's going to be hard to top that on my list of 52 church related activities.

This week took me to the Reading Archery Club and, because why not, St. Ignatius Loyola in Reading, PA.   It's got the modern church vibe down: Seating in the round, bright stained glass.  10:30 mass was full with hard to find parking.   There were kids running all over the Narthex.  They could grab worksheets out of kid level brochure  holders.  This week's theme: It's not easy to be good all the time.  The homily was standard first week of Lent fare.

I was pretty psyched for Lent a month ago.  Now I'm not so interested.  I thought going to mass on Ash Wednesday would help.  It didn't.  So, ironically I'll be trying to limit TV and internet time and hope it opens time for other things.  Reading.  Piano.  Running.  Boring things like cleaning and sleeping.

At both masses, there was some chatter about the pope.  For no particular reason, I had been thinking about John Paul II and World Youth Day.  The next morning, I heard the pope gave his  two weeks.   In Latin.  Turns out five years of Latin are practical for more than reading poems about war.

I got a book for Catholic Athletes while at St Ignatius.  Seemed appropriate.   I know you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but there are only male athletes on there.  Until next time...

the next crazy idea...

Last year took me to 52 churches and to two half marathons.  This year, I'm trying to do 52 church related things and, well, keep going to church.  I've been every week since finishing up the first year of this project back in October.  Now I'm scared to stop going.  Sure there have been weeks where I have stuffed church into over scheduled weekends, but I still went.

I've gotten a lot of advice over the past year, much of which was that you just have to pick a place and go.  So I have. Is it perfect?  No.  Is anything?

On the other front, I am done with half marathons.  (I say that, but we all know I'm a liar.  A bunch of people have their runDisney pictures up on Facebook, and I want the Mickey medal.)  The thing about training for a half marathon is, and I'm about to sound really stupid, is that it takes a lot of time.

So in the spirit of exploration and checking out the great big world, I'm planning on 52 activities.  What's the Catholic Equivalent of Zen and the art of Archery?  I'm going to find out.  (Maybe I should read that book again.)  Bowling, mini golf, roller skating.  I might even break out the Jane Fond and Richard Simmons VHSs.  

Did you know Athleta has free classes?  I tried kicking things off with Barre Class in December, but it was sadly canceled.  This past weekend, they had kettlebell class.  It was me, Lauren, and a bunch of personal trainers, one of whom wanted to eat hemp for the protein.  It was fun and exhausting.

Turns out church is an excellent marker of how good your work out was.  You sit and stand and kneel and walk around, and suddenly you realize how far away your butt really is from the pew.

I'm open to ideas.  Keep in mind that I am the most wonderfully clumsy yet coordinated person you will ever meet.  Any activity requiring any amount grace (ie not a ball sport) will result in a funnier post.

Advent (continued)

I went back to Sunday evening mass with Father Fire and Brimstone for the second week of Advent.  There's been a big push to welcome people back to church when they turn up for Christmas.  I'm all for that.  In fact, send them my way.  Looking for church with organ music?  With an older crowd?  On a winding road?  I can get you there.  Oh, wait, you want them to come to this church...

The word being tossed about has been stodgy.   We were told for two weeks in a row that we were too cold and too uptight and that people like other nearby churches because they are all warm and fuzzy.  I've been to some stodgy churches, and I don't think this is one of them.  In fact, I don't think it's stodgy enough.  I wear jeans half the time I'm there for goodness sake.

But really, when I find myself searching, I could use a little more order in my mass and a little less open mike night.  So I took a break from Sunday evening mass and checked out Sunday morning.  The mass itself was a little more me, but I'm not so sure about the crowd.

In other news...

I went back to Nativity for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and it was lovely.

I have finally been to see Handel's Messiah.  It was amazing and of course left me with lots of questions.  The biggest  being why do we sing this at Christmas?  It was written for Easter tide.  Christmas last year, I commented that Rick "we can't change manger to feed box because that would be ridiculous" Hilgartner has a nice voice.  Turns out I was right.  He sang the Messiah with the rest of the Baltimore Symphonic Chorale.

I'm glad I included book club for one on my to do list for this year.  Rebuilt: The Story of Building a Catholic Mega Church (okay, that's not the real title) will be hitting an online bookseller near you in February.  I'm writing a book too.  It's called Demolished.  Or Already Built.  Well, it's a work in progress.

And lastly Theology on Tap has gotten off to a sputtering start.  If at first you don't succeed...

Here's to finding joy in the third week of Advent.  Until next week...

Year Two

Advent begins the liturgical year, and so I begin year two.  I was trying to roll things about by November 1, but you, loyal readers, know about my slothfulness.  So here I am. In this past year, I  wanted to establish the habit of going to church.  So far so good.  I've been every week since finishing up my tour at the Basilica.

I've been to two old standards and some how managed to get to stewardship Sunday at both.  At one, the pastor pointed out that the Sunday evening mass collects $2000 in one dollar bills.  "This isn't planned giving," he said.  I would argue.  I had some crumpled up dollar bills in my pocket.  That was pretty amazing, because cash is kind of a novelty item for me.  And more importantly, there are churches where $2000 in pennies would be welcome.

This first week of Advent, I made it to another old favorite.  Or at least a place I want to be a favorite.  But it was driving me a little crazy.  And Father Fire and Brimstone didn't leave me feeling all warm and Christmasy.  But I'm too stubborn to give this up.  (By the way, why do people say stubborn like it's a bad thing?)

I don't know that I can come up with an idea as great as this last one or even if the new year has to top the old one.  I tried getting ideas from my friends, who proved to be less than merciful.  I'm not, for example, attempting to start a prayer group for  pagan babies.

It's not much, but here's what I've got.  52 new things.  New churches.  Parish activities.  My own personal book club.  Acts of service.  The best part?  I make the rules, so I say what counts.

And then I got to thinking, if I can put this part of my life in order (well, sort of), can I launch another personal project?  More on that later.  For now, my gift has been placed under the sharing tree and I'm reading (very slowly) The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything.  Happy Advent.

week two

This is the week I landed back at St. Pius X and back at 5:30 mass.  The rundown...

Old Friends: Check.

Clock time: One hour.   (Fr. Sam had a train to catch or something.  With this week's "sell all, give to the poor, and come follow me" reading, I thought we would experience one fired up homily about the evils of greed.  I hate to admit  I was a little disappointed.)

Crying babies:  Allowed.  (Lauren threatened to sign me up for Children's Liturgy.)

Boxtops: Tithed.

Music:  Shine FM.  No tambourines.  (if they could back off, just a little...)

Is parish life for me?

week one (kidding,kidding...)

 How do you measure a year?

churches: 52

Sundays skipped: 2 (careful readers will note the Epiphany and well, um, Easter are not quite accounted for.  Those are stories for another time.)

non-Catholic churches: 1

number of people suckered into coming to church with me: 7

states: 2

counties: 6

dioceses:  4

tambourines: 4?

tuxedos: 1

priests: 51

Obviously this requires more thought...so for now...Week 53.  

This week, the question "where are we going to church this week?" took on whole new meaning.  I had let myself out of my self opposed obligation to go to a new church every week.  I've decided I'm not done yet, but have also decided that this pace is getting annoying.  Maybe one a month for the next year.  I hope to role out the next phase of my crazy ideas soon.

I felt strangely compelled to go back to Nativity.  Once upon a time, I had a lofty idea that I would go back to 5:30 mass at St. Pius and celebrate with dinner(beer) afterwards.  But how was I supposed to know that Sunday would be cool and rainy and that the Orioles would be in an afternoon playoff game?

So then it was down to the monastery and Nativity for a morning mass.  I mean they are both easy, largely in part because they are right here.  

There were a few things that bummed me out about Nativity.  I didn't notice last time, or maybe they hadn't done it yet, but the shelf below the pew that holds hymnals has been removed.  It looks like an end to Gather books forever.  

It was loud in there.  Really loud.    (To quote me to me, I was looking for protected, quiet time.)  There was significant pre-mass chatter and high volume music.  The lector is a member of the parish staff and seems to read at all the masses.  Kids are pretty well kicked out, and it makes me kind of sad.  Somewhere out there, there are adults who put up with the likes of me in church.  And so much for fasting before mass, I saw a lady actually bring coffee into church with her.

But there was an amazing, albeit lengthy, homily based on First Corinthians: Love always trusts.  I think if you go to their website, you can watch it too.  

I left thinking about all the things that I just wanted to fix.  I wondered about all the old friends I had hoped to see, but didn't.  Instead, I decided it's time to stop searching for memories and start making new ones.   

See you Sunday.