Shrine of the Sacred Heart

Shrine of the Sacred Heart is a stone church that sits on that crazy Smith Avenue intersection in Mount Washington.  It is another medium sized church with two columns of pews.  In the Venn diagram of churches, the Shrine of the Sacred Heart would be where "churches you would like to use for your wedding" intersects with "churches where you are likely to get in an accident in the parking lot."  (As you'll recall, Sacred Heart in Glyndon also falls in that overlap.)

I went to 11:30 mass on Sunday.  I tend not to like late morning masses.  I think they mess up your day.  And they tend to be long (an hour and twenty minutes!).  When I walked in, I got the stink eye from a priest who I assume to be the pastor.  He did not say mass, but I think he deemed me harmless enough and let me in.  In fairness, I didn't exactly blend here.  I had never given the matter much thought, but it turns out I am not Filipino.  There was a brief moment where I wondered if mass would be in Tagalog, and then a moment where I was disappointed it wasn't.  That would have made for an awesome blog.

The church is pretty with dark brown pews and lots of stained glass and statues.  There was a cantor and organ and lots of singing. (It takes some effort to make it to an hour and twenty minutes.)   The church was full and there were a lot of families with kids of all ages.  The younger ones were pulled away for children's liturgy.  Communion wasn't done even after singing all the verses of "One Bread, One Body."  The homily was something about being a willing shepherd.

Sometime this week, their young adult group will be having a Catholic trivia potluck.  Lucky for me, I have a copy of Catholic Bingo unearthed from my grandmother's house.  And because I couldn't resist, I bought Catechic The Catholic Trivia game by Tyco at the Nearly New Sale.  Is it a sin to cheat at Catholic trivia?

This brings us to week 30.  And for those keeping track, church 29.  Yes dear readers, I am now one church off pace.  Don't worry, I'm good for it.  And have big plans.

Have a good week.