Saint Michael the Archangel

The stop this week was Saint Michael the Archangel for 9:30 mass.  St. Michael's is a medium sized stone church.  It is a pretty church with cream colored walls and stained glass windows.  A red runner covers the aisle and there are two columns of pews.

It is another church where the ushers wear suits.  There were plenty of little kids, many of whom were wearing their Sunday best despite the rainy weather.  Maybe the older kids were in Sunday school.

The homily covered a lot of territory including the season of Easter, The Cosby donation to Saint Frances Academy and some jokes.  I don't think there was any mention of Earth day, which I celebrated after mass by getting a free grocery bag from the Disney store.  There was a small choir in the choir loft as well as a cantor with organ music.   I know I am getting a reputation here, but mass felt a little slow.

After mass, they were handing out bags to fill and bring back for their food pantry.  This is something I would ordinarily do.  But how do you explain that you won't be back next week or the week after because you are writing a blog about churches?  You don't.  You walk away looking like a jerk.  Blog fail.

On the plus side, I'm getting good at recognizing churches in people's Facebook pictures.  Plans for this week are pending as usual.

St Francis of Assisi and...

Palm Sunday was cold and gloomy.  I spent the morning at St. Francis of Assisi to go from one Jack Hooper field to another.  We parked in the parking lot.  For future reference, I'll know to park on Chesterfield Avenue.

Palm Sunday was kind of a big deal.  There was something with the religious ed classes and the school.  The kids had balloons.  They walked in and out with the procession and sang at communion.  I didn't take any palm.  I know it's expensive, I can't make those cool crosses, and  it's not as easy to burn as you would think.  Mass started late, but was just over an hour long.  Not bad for the longest mass of the year. There was an appropriately short Palm Sunday homily.  The people were nice and there was a kid sitting behind me who liked my fleece jacket.  Their version of "Were you There" was a little doo wop-y or barber shop-y, but all in all, it was a satisfying morning.

For those of you wondering, I skipped Easter this year.  I can't ever remember doing that.  Not even EWTN or a televised papal mass.   I died eggs with a Paas kit and that's about all.

That brings us to this past Sunday.  I thought about hitting up my Orthodox friends for a sort of Easter redux.  I thought about not going at all.  But as a last minute decision, I found my way to St. Pius on Sunday afternoon.  It's getting more crowded there.   I was wearing an old soccer shirt and jeans and that was seemingly okay.  You run into people when you look like crap.  There was a different homilist this time.  More butterflies than my earlier visit.   A man after my heart, he asked that his homily be cut off at ten minutes.  Mass was just over an hour long.  But there was a lot of singing.  More than the Greyhounds.  More than the Carmelites.

I'm hoping to be back in the swing of things this weekend.