Immaculate Conception, Elkton, Maryland

On the first Sunday of Lent, I went to Immaculate Conception in Elkton, Maryland for 8:30 mass.  This is the second Immaculate Conception, the first church in the diocese of Wilmington, and the first mass before 9 am.  Or likely 10 am.  I wasn't lazy like this before.

Immaculate Conception is a smaller church with two columns of pews and light blue walls.  There is a pitched ceiling with sky lights along one side.  It has a sort of rustic feel.  There were people of all ages, including a whole bunch of little kids who were going to be in big trouble when they got home.  There was a flying Grover, spilled cereal, and much discussion on the right time to sit and stand a kneel.  That's okay. Those little trouble makers are our future.

The homily fell to the butterfly side of things this week.  It was about floods and rainbows.  And it was about giving up your personal floods this Lent.  After all, once you get to the other side of the rainbow, your troubles melt like lemon drops.

I did a little searching on ideas for Lent.  This one intrigued me...and not just because it has a heading for bloggers.

http://www.nicksenger.com/csc/101-practical-fasting-ideas-for-lent

Good luck with whatever you give up or take up for Lent this year.  

Stops on the Journey

1.  St. Pius X
2.  Cathedral of Mary our Queen
3.  St. Joseph, Taneytown
4.  Immaculate Conception, Towson
5.  Holy Cross, Kensington
6.  St. Elizabeth, Rockville
7.  Immaculate Heart of Mary
8.  St. Isaac Jouges
9.  St. Ursula
10.  St. Joseph, Fullerton
11.  St. Brigid
12.  St. Jane Frances, Bethesda
13.  Holy Redeemer, Kensington
14.  St. Joseph, Cockeysville
15.  St. Thomas More
16. Carmelite Monastery
17. St. Rita
18. Nativity
19. St. Stephen
20. Loyola Alumni Memorial Chapel
21.  Shrine of St. Jude, Rockville
22. Immaculate Conception, Elkton
23. Catholic Community of St Francis Xavier
24. Blessed Sacrament, Harrisonburg, VA
25.  Good Shepherd, Silver SPring
26.  Sacred Heart, Glyndon
27.  St. Francis of Assisi
28.  St. Michael the Archangel
29.  Shrine of the Sacred Heart
30.  St. Joseph Medical Center Spiritual Center
31.  St. Ignatius
32.  St. Charles Borromeo
33.  Sts. Philip and James
34.  St. Mary of the Assumption
35.  St. Frances de Sales
36. St. Elizabeth of Hungary
37.  St. Mark, Catonsville
38.  St. Dominic
39.  Holy Cross
40.  Our Lady of Mount Carmel
41.  Shine of the Little Flower
42.  St. Wenceslaus
43.  St. Thomas Aquinas
44.  St. Mary, Rockville
45.  St. Bernadette, Silver Spring
46. Christ the King

Shrine of Saint Jude, Rockville

What is is about Ash Wednesday that makes it the most popular mass of the year?  It's not a Sunday or holy day of obligation or Easter.  What compels people who ordinarily wouldn't go to mass to turn up today?  Is it because they give ashes away?

I was never much for Ash Wednesday.  I don't remember ever going as a kid.  I guess I'm not much of a joiner.  But I like Lent and I like Easter.  And since I'm blogging away, I thought I would check something out tonight.  The Shrine of St Jude is a big church made of red bricks.  There is geometric stained glass and a pitched roof in the middle.  It was crowded.  I reached another milestone on this journey: The first mass in Spanglish.

Senora Gonce is laughing at me from heaven right now.  This is what you get for changing the title of your workbook to Spanish is Not Fun.  Actually, they alternated the readings and songs in English and Spanish. The priest translated his own homily as he went.  That was helpful because all I picked up at first was something about heads and hearts and doors and the celebration of Easter.  It was rather fire and brimstone tonight.  Don't take the ashes if you aren't planning on 40 days of fasting, prayer, and alms giving.

Loyola Alumni Memorial Chapel

Sunday marked another trip to a place where I spent my formative years. I landed at 6 pm mass at Loyola. Back in my day, mass in the chapel was at 9 pm and was followed by the more popular 10:30.   I would often go after logging hours at the library.  Picking a time to go to mass made a stopping point and allowed for some quiet.  

It appears that the later masses are in the dorms now.  That's too bad, because sometimes you need a 10:30 mass.  The chapel is full of stone and stained glass.  The pews have high backs and sit at a perfectly uncomfortable 90 degrees.  It seats about 400 people.

If I had to pick a way to describe mass at Loyola, I would call it Mass:The Musical!  Crazy kids these days and their American Idol and Glee.  There was a great big talented choir.  And lots of singing and pausing and singing and pausing and singing and pausing some more.  Don't get me wrong, I have always loved going to mass at Loyola.  They used to have First Sunday mass for alumni and I have always regretted not going.  Though I mostly felt like I was about 100 years old, there were several families with young to teenage kids.

The homily was about the immersion experience and its role in Jesuit education.

This brings us to 20 churches (I'll get the running list started, I promise.)  And brings us to Ash Wednesday.  I'll see what I can do about a church tomorrow.  Any good ideas out there for Lenten sacrifice?

St. Stephen's, Bradshaw

Saint Stephen's marks the first Saturday mass and first mass with cantor and organ on the tour.  It is a small stone church that sits in front of a school.  The red front doors open into the back of the church.  It must be hard to be a latecomer.  The little kids seem to hang out in the choir loft, but I am not entirely sure about that.  There are two columns of pews,  and again yellow walls.

There is a marble altar and red and blue candles for Mary and Joseph.  The church was reasonably full for a snowy night, mostly with older adults.  There was one baby who seemed excited to be at church.  On Sundays, they double up on masses and have one in the church and one in the hall.

I know this is going to come out entirely wrong, but the homily was basically asking if you had hugged a leper today.   We were challenged to reach out to annoying coworkers or well meaning family members. I am clearly not doing this justice.

I'm getting better at The New Roman Missal, but sometime after the Creed, I still have a momentary panic that I put down the cheat sheet even though I still need it.  My "And With Your Spirit" t-shirt arrived this week.  Red heather is a reasonable description and it even came with a thank you note.

Mass planning this weekend is a little tricky.  I think it will have to be an evening mass in the greater Baltimore area.  As I drove past St. Joseph in Fullerton, I wondered if I should have started with bigger circles.  Oh well.  I have had a request for the run down of visits, I'll try to post it later this week.

Church of the Nativity, Timonium

There's a reason I like mass to be no longer than 47 minutes with music.  And to start three to five minutes early.  And preferably be in a church with a hearty dose of brown.  And that reason is Nativity, the place where I have by far logged most of my mass going hours.

I made it to 5:30 mass on Sunday afternoon.  I had last gone there for a friend's funeral, and before that I can't remember for sure.  I was nervous as I walked in.  I took what used to be my regular seat and the feel of the wood below my hands was familiar.  Not much else was.   There was no quiet before mass began.  The altar has been flip flopped and there are now two projection screens on either side of the crucifix.  I can admit that those were helpful for responses for the New Roman Missal and for the Apostle's Creed.

Things got started with a video message introducing us to the current message series on finding happiness.  Later there was a second recorded message reminding us to turn off our cell phones and telling us there are programs available for children.  I could feel myself getting annoyed, but as things got lower tech, I settled down.

A priest I didn't know was saying mass, and I was admittedly disappointed.  I was hoping to hear the homily of a certain pastor.  Never fear, he appeared, as if out of no where,  and gave the homily, which was rather engaging.  But kind of weird.

In fact, the whole thing is kind of weird.  There are responses in Latin and bells to the setting of a Christian rock band.  The Gather books are long gone.  At the end of mass, two members of the parish staff recapped the homily (which is also recapped in the church bulletin, in case you are a slow learner).  Then, they asked you to turn your phone back on so that you could vote for the time of the Easter service (not mass) by text.   Oh, and if you don't have a phone, you can vote by Facebook.

And I was doing so well.   Part of me wants to get philosophical here about how you can't go home again or step in the same river twice or something.  But I won't.  I'll just know that this place holds a lifetime of happy memories and was more than worth a second look.

I'm planning on St. Stephan's in Bradshaw, 6 pm on Saturday.

Exploring the New Roman Missal

I wanted to make a "And with your Spirit T-Shirt." The people at Popple beat me to it. It looks pretty cool. I hope it's a red red and not a pink red. I hate that. No such luck for a "consubstantial" t-shirt.



http://www.popple.us/web/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/AndWithYourSpirit07b.jpg

Sorry, I can't seem to paste the image in tonight.


Then I googled "Explain the New Roman Missal to me." This is what I found, courtesy of Life Teen.



I speak Latin too.


More on this later...Happy Saint Blaise day.