The best laid plans for Saturday afternoon mass took me to Saints Philip and James on Sunday afternoon. Somehow, my Saturday filled up fast. I had to double check my cheat sheet to make sure there were a few Sunday afternoon masses left. There are.
Sts. Philip and James is the parish for Hopkins. Now that school is out, there were only a few dozen people at mass. In fact so few, I was asked to give up my seat in the back of the church and move forward.
It is a beautiful cross shaped church full of domes and stained glass and columns. (And like many other pretty churches, linoleum floors.) It was dark and cool which was welcome on a hot afternoon. Their contemporary group was talented, but too mellow for me. They seemed to belong in a hipster coffee shop. The crowd was mostly young adults. I wonder what the vibe is like when the school year is in full swing.
I've learned over the past few months that there are cycles of expectation and disappointment associated with this journey. There are churches, like this one, in which I place unfair and unrealistically high hopes. If this were my neighborhood church, I think I would be there most weeks. Though I plan to see this year through, I'm not sure I have it in me to church hop forever.
On the funny side of things, I asked my sister why Philip and James are always paired. After giving me a blank "you godless heathen" type stare, she told me they were both apostles. I didn't believe her. Then she told me to name the apostles. It's hard to get all twelve when you are insisting that Philip is not one of them. I learned a trick, in case you are on Jeopardy one day. If you can remember baptism, and use the "I" for all the "J" names, you get them all.
There's much left out there. I won't bother guessing weekend plans. See you next week.
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