Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

The view of Saint Elizabeth's from Patterson Park is carved into my brain.  The stone church with the steep white steps looks just like I remember.  But somehow when I walked in Sunday morning, I insist to myself that they must have painted the inside.  The convent has been turned into apartments.  The school is now Patterson Park Public Charter School.

Sunday morning mass is at 10 am.  I was looking for a mass in Fells Point, but I think all the churches there have closed.  (Am I forgetting something?)  Highlandtown and my mother's home parish were close enough.

There were about 100 people there, but not enough by any means to make the big church seem crowded.  The crowd was generally older, but there were scattered young adults and young families.  The parishioners completely embrace the kids that were there.  At the sign of peace, one curly haired little boy worked two or three pews, and may have even climbed over one.  One of the altar boys shook hands with everyone sitting on the aisle two thirds of the way to the back of church.   Then he held up both his hands making peace signs and walked backwards up the aisle.  And I sense a future priest in another young man who looked especially prayerful in his gray suit.

I've encountered a new hymnal that I can't remember the name of.  Baltimore has stolen another Franciscan seminarian from DC.  The homily was wonderfully brief.  And it's church carnival time.

For this weekend, I'm trying to combine the Women's Classic 5 K with mass...and not having much luck.  Let me know if you have any ideas!

Saint Frances de Sales, Abingdon

I reached an even 2000 page views today!  I could say I was waiting for that before my next post, but I've just been more on the lazy side than usual this week.  That's one of the deadly sins.  I should be more careful.

Saturday and Sunday were jam packed fun in  too much sun days for me.  I have a dwindling number of available Sunday evening masses and somehow everything on Saturday always seems too early.  I decided I could squeeze in a trip to Sam's Club and make it to St. Casimir's for 5 pm mass.  I couldn't.  The sun must have gone to my brain.

Then I thought I would skip a new church and visit an old favorite.  I'm already behind, and was thinking of an installment that's called "Who goes to weekday mass anyway?"   Turns out, said old favorite doesn't have mass on Sunday afternoons in the summer.  Yeah, that's right, during the summer, I want to give up sleeping in.

So I did some frantic searching and somehow got it in my head that mass at St. Frances had a 6 pm mass.  It doesn't.  It's at 5:30.  It also escaped me that it is a Byzantine mass.  Ironically, I was trying desperately to remember who has a 7 pm mass in Spanish to buy myself some more time.

Instead of being 15 minutes early, we were fifteen minutes late.  There were 9 or so cars parked in the driveway in front of the small stone church.  Mass had started when we walked in.  There are twenty pews arranged in two columns of ten.  There were about a dozen people there, and all but one was sitting in the back three rows.  Blending was definitely out.  A helpful gentleman brought copies of the Divine Liturgy so we could follow along.  In chant.  Was it changed to reflect the New Roman Missal?

There were icons and incense.  We made the sign of the cross a lot and right to left.  We called Mary Theotokas.  Communion is dropped from a gold spoon into your mouth.  And just like the little Episcopalians, little Byzantine Catholics take communion.  There is also prayer for people celebrating birthdays, which is harder to google than I thought.  I thought it was kind of cool, especially since my birthday was this week.  

Here's a helpful FAQ from St. Michael's parish in Toledo about being a Byzantine Catholic.

http://www.stmichaelstoledo.com/index.php?name=FAQ&id_cat=1

I haven't made up my mind for this week yet.

Saint Mary of the Assumption

Happy Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity!  Yeah, I didn't think that would work, but the seminarian at mass yesterday said it, and I thought I would give it a try.  I don't think I've ever been wished a happy trinity before.

Sunday's church was Saint Mary of the Assumption for 8 am mass.  It's a quiet mass, but for the record, there are both Gather and Worship books stocked in the pews.   There were about 70 people there for mass including some happy ushers who encouraged me to vote in the parish council election.  I protested and mentally added it to the list of things you don't do when you are not part of a parish.  I'm still undecided on whether I miss parish life or I miss going to church.

Saint Mary's offered pretty standard fare.  An early and quiet mass was perfect for a busy weekend.  I grossly over estimated how long it would take to get there so I was able to enjoy the stained glass above the choir loft and the statues of Mary and Joseph.  It's a happy church with a lengthy sign of peace and where people reach across pews to hold hands during the Our Father.

Of note, I spotted my first tuxedo, significantly upping the church dress code.  In fairness, I'm pretty sure the young man wearing it was en route to his high school graduation.

Early on in planning, I made a list of churches I wanted to be sure to go to this year.  There's thirty or so listed, and I've barely touched it.  There is much left to see, and again I wish I had made bigger circles and worked my way in instead of out.  Guess I'll know for next time...