Midnight Mass

As you'll recall, I took a time out for Christmas and went to midnight (err 11 PM) mass at St. Pius X.  Midnight mass is my favorite of the Christmas masses and one of my favorites of the year.  There is something beautiful and mysterious about it, something special about a choir singing Silent Night on Christmas Eve.

Mass did not disappoint. Rick "And with your Spirit" Hilgartner celebrated mass.  That's right pseudo practicing Catholics, you have been away so long that the words to mass have changed.

The homily was about how our lives would change if we would accept Jesus into our hearts.  Rick "consubstantial" Hilgartner even broke into song, complete with piano accompaniment.  He has a nice voice.  There was also some discussion about what popular songs tell us we want for Christmas, including our two front teeth, you, crabs and beer, and a hula hoop.  He left out hippopotamus.  We left into a cold and wonderfully starry night.

Merry Christmas.

Twas the night before Christmas...

I'm home from midnight (err 11 PM) mass after a wonderful and exhausting day with family and friends.  I'll update tomorrow.  For now, here's a link to all of the Christmas readings.

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/122511.cfm 

Merry Christmas!

St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Bethesda

Hello readers!I heard some of you were worried I would hit the wall this week.  I didn't, but thank you for the concern.  I made it to 5 pm mass today at St. Jane Frances de Chantal.   An afternoon mass was perfect after a late Christmas party.  (I didn't know you could bring alcoholic gifts to dirty Santa...this changes everything!)

I never knew St. Jane Frances had an afternoon mass, making this a happy find.  (St. Elizabeth is at 6, nice to see some varying mass times.)  The church is made of red brick, it is bright inside with white walls and pink cushions on the pews.  The pews are in multiple columns that go all slanty ways.  It was pretty packed.  A choir with organ sang Ave Maria and O Come O Come Emmanuel.  They have the red hymnal that I can't remember the name of.   Today's homily was about accepting God's plan.   They didn't have enough guides to the New Roman Missal, meaning I got most of the and with your spirits and not much else.  In case you are wondering, I was in my car at 5:59.   

This brings us to the 4th week of Advent.  Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, which means I'll be taking a Christmas time out.  See you at midnight (11 PM) mass at St. Pius. 

St. Brigid's

I went to the Jingle Bell Run in Canton this morning so going to St. Brigid's afterword seemed like a really good idea.  Mass is at 10:30, despite what the sign on the side of the church says.   We arrived in our sweats, Charlie Brown Christmas t-shirts, and as an extra surprise for me, with cream cheese in my hair.  I have a lot of nice things to say about St. Brigid's, but this is by far the longest Sunday mass I have ever been to.  We were approaching Easter Vigil territory here.  It was like mass in slow motion.  This is what I get for being annoyed on Thursday.

Before mass started, someone was reading announcements.   She continued 8 minutes past the 10:30 start.  I know this because sitting behind us was St. Brigid's very own Statler and Waldorf, who by the way, have the New Roman Missal down.  They sigh for the rest of us.  And she was kind of a downer.  The cost of heating the buildings has gone up.  Church calendar sales are dwindling.  When those announcements ended, the priest spoke about two parishioners who had died this week.   There was a lengthy presentation by a Mission Helper of the Sacred Heart.   Mass was also slowed down because they were offering anointing of sick.

But after that, it was like they were dreaming up ways to make church longer.  People actually left.  At communion, the priest gave communion to the altar servers and folk group by name.   There were more announcements.  I asked what they could possibly have left, and Lauren told me that a lot had happened in the world since we came in.  The laughter that caused was reminiscent of the Slagathor incident of 2009.

But as promised, there is good stuff.  St. Brigid's is a small brick church with stained glass and brown pews.  I used to go there sometimes with my grandparents.  There's an extremely folkly folk group.  There were pink vestments for the third Sunday of Advent.  Most of the crowd was older, but there were several young couples with babies.  They have a support group for people who have lost their pets.  They had a post church tailgate.

I'm planning something easy for next week, but I'm not sure what that is.

Hail Holy Queen...

Tonight took me back to Holy Redeemer in Kensington for the feast of the Immaculate Conception.  The last time I was there, I definitely got the Mickey Mouse scrubs are not acceptable for Sunday mass vibe.

I walked in to hear a choir in a choir loft.  They had three altar servers.  I was impressed. And kind of pissed. I was expecting a quiet mass lasting no longer than 30 minutes.  I'm tired and cranky and if it weren't for this stupid blog, I probably wouldn't have gone to church at all.   But I did, and by the time the choir was singing Ave Maria, I had cooled my jets.  They ended with Hail Holy Queen, and I really thought they were going Sister Act style, but they didn't.  Their hymnal was called Journey Song (or something of like, I tried googling, but you get songs by Journey instead).  I told you I was tired.

Holy Redeemer is a t shaped church with 3 sets of 2 columns of pews.  That layout makes it big and small at the same time.  It's kind of white and green.  Tonight's message was focused on sin and sin creating a divide between you and God.  It fell appropriately between butterflies and fire and brimstone.

Tonight was a pleasant surprise.  It showed me what I already know, that one visit to a church is not a fair or accurate representation of what they have to offer.

see you at St. Brigid's.

St. Joe's Fullerton

I finished out the quadrangle of partner parishes this week at St Joseph's in Fullerton for 10:30 mass.   St. Joe's has a semi circle layout with 7 or eight columns of pews with modern stained glass windows lining the back wall.  It was a full house with plenty of people standing in the back and sitting in the choir loft.  There was a diverse crowd made up of young and old.  The ushers wear suits.

The had Children's Liturgy at this mass, and it was like the Pied Piper was there leading the kids away.  There were a lot of them, barreling (in a good way) up to the front of church.  At the end of mass, the second graders turned in their reconciliation project.  That was another mob scene of enthusiastic little ones on the altar.  

This was the first mass I have been to with a Choir.  I think their robes make them look rather like Pilgrims.  They use the Gather Comprehensive.  I've never seen so many people leave after communion.  You know all those jokes about church parking lots?  They are about you, St. Joe's.

This week's homily started out pretty standard for the second week of Advent: Christmas is about more that trees and presents and parties.  There are no short cuts to spirituality. No short cuts?  Like say, going to a different church every week in desperate search of something you can't identify?  Uh oh.  Maybe I'm in more trouble than I thought.

And I still haven't gotten the hang of the New Roman Missal.

Next week I'm going to St. Brigid's after the Jingle Bell Run.  And this week some where for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

I'm almost at 500 page views!  Thanks for reading, and happy St. Nicholas day!