Saint John the Evangelist, Hydes, MD

This morning was full of wake you from sleeping thunderstorms.  I had already made plans to go to St. John's for 9 am mass, which I am pretty sure was the motivation to get out of bed this morning.  I wondered about all those times I worked late or babysat until two in the morning and still managed to get myself in a pew for 9 am mass.  Why was it so easy then?

The drive to Hydes was filled with cows, cornfields, and overcast sky.  I think St. John's has an old and new church and mass was in the new church.  It is big, with seating in the round and nondescript stained glass.  It was cold in there this morning.  The crowd was generally older, with more school aged kids than little ones.

Music was provided by a piano and choir.  I learned a new song called Sing Hey for the Carpenter.  The homily was about decision making (not about obedient wives, that would have been the obvious choice.)

And this brings us to the final five.  I didn't know how I would do this, and now I don't know if I want to stop.

Christ the King, Towson

Through the power of loop holes, Christ the King is Baltimore's newest Catholic church.  I say loop holes because until recently Christ the King was an Episcopalian church.  Their pastor is a married priest with grown children.  

If Catholics make up the largest number of American Christians, lapsed Catholics follow.  And following them, people who used to be Catholic.  And those are the parishioners of Christ the King.  A bunch of former Catholics, who, I guess are now just Catholics. 

Christ the King is a small church with two columns of pews.   There was no anonymity here, as soon as I walked in, a pamphlet on the Church was in my hand.  This was also mentioned during the announcements.  They seem to be having trouble with the New Roman Missal, and were reminded to follow along, and to follow along together.  

I guess part of the deal is that the church gets to keep some of it's Anglican traditions.  Catholican?  Episcoatholic?  The sign of peace was before mass (and the hecklers behind me made note of this too.)  

I don't know the hecklers feelings on dipping the body and blood of Christ, but I don't think I'll ever get used to that.  

There was a lot of singing.  The gathering hymn was followed by three more songs.  And while the choir was great, I think we all know my feelings on sing songiness.  

I signed the guest registry and directed them to this website, so I should be careful.  But I also think I can offer a few lessons on being Catholic.  For starters, I don't understand why so many people were sitting in the front of the church.  There were perfectly good open seats in the back.  Mass can't run 90 minutes.  You'll never get masses in at 9, 10, 11, and 12 that way.  E-mail if you want some more.  

Saint Bernadette's, Silver Spring

Blog Blast, Day 3.  The Feast of the Assumption of Mary took me to Saint Bernadette's in Silver Spring.  Thanks to blogging, and not wanting to fall further off my 52 church pace, I think I have hit all the holy days this year.

Mass was at 7:30, which seems to be a pretty popular holy day time.  I was surprised by how many families came to church and enjoyed that there was a  good sized crowd.  Saint Bernadette's is a cross shaped church, and because I followed another family in, I ended up sitting alongside the altar.  That was kind of cool.  I could see the altar, the organist and choir.  I could wonder why they had so many altar servers and I could check out the Infant of Prague statue behind me.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been feeling a little unsettled lately.  It took me most of mass to quiet myself so I could just enjoy it.  The homily was based around the slogan "Life is good."

I'm winding things down, and people are starting to ask what I'm planning on doing next.  I haven't figured that out yet.  I don't consider myself shopping for a church; I find that concept a little bizarre.   This project started out returning to a lost habit, and I hope I can keep going.

Note to self: if you are going to set your phone to silent and plan on using that for your alarm clock, you should turn the ringer back on before you go to bed.  See, another lesson learned.

My stop at Christ the King Sunday rounds out my catch up.  See you tomorrow!

Saint Mary's, Rockville

The blog blast continues!  August 12's stop was Saint Mary's in Rockville for 5 pm mass.  Saint Mary's is kind of a funny shaped church with semi circle seating and plenty of Mary themed stained glass.  The mass itself was a strange blend of conservative and casual, but the music and homily suited me pretty well.

The crowd was pretty diverse in both age and ethnicity.  As for my Tagalog mass, I missed it because it is the 4th Sunday of every month.  (I know I should plan better....next time!)

The best part of the evening was that there was a little boy who brought a Frisbee to church with him.  God help me, I wanted something really interesting to happen there, but it didn't.  Oh well.

I'm finding myself pretty unsettled or annoyed or something lately and more surprisingly finding myself trying to settle when I go to church.  Could it be that I have been something good?

In case you are in a classic fiction book club, you should stop by Saint Mary's, it's the resting place for Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Still to come...

Saint Bernadette's (Holy Days put me on track for 52 churches!)
Christ the King (can I coin the word Episcoatholic?)

Saint Thomas Aquinas

I'm crazy behind on posting...4 churches now!  I'll blame my love of the Olympics and remind myself that slothfulness is a deadly sin.  August 5 took me to 9:00 mass at Saint Thomas Aquinas (Hamden, hon!)  

Saint Thomas is a small brick church that faces away from the street. Inside, there are two columns of pews and stained glass windows.  The crowd was small and mostly older couples.  I was expecting more young adults and young families, but I am getting used to surprises.  

We were instantly outed as newcomers.  Fortunately, Father Silvester refrained from acknowledging  us during mass.  I hate that.  

He spoke of choosing joy and finding happiness.   The homily was fun and fulfilling, but I could tell that about half the crowd wasn't digging it at all.  It ran a little on the long side.  We were pushing through the readings and were on to the homily by 9:15.  That's okay, I was back in the car at 10.  

In case you are interested, Bingo is on September 7.  

As for the preview of coming attractions....

August 12 Saint Mary's in Rockville

August 15 Saint Bernadette's in Silver Spring (that's right, holy days!)

August 19 Christ the King in Towson (I love loop holes!)

Saint Wenceslaus

I kept it in the family again and went to Saint Wenceslaus, the parish of my grandparents.  My grandfather's eighth grade diploma hangs on our family room wall.  It's huge, easily bigger than my college diploma.  St.  Wenceslaus was the Czech parish until 1902 when Cardinal Gibbons deemed it should be the National Czech and English parish and that both the school and the parish had to be conducted in both Czech and English.

Despite my Czech heritage, I did not blend here.  I was quickly greeted by Father Peter, who asked if I was from MICA.  MICA students live in the school and I was pleased to know I can still pass for a college student.  Moments later, I was chatting with a woman from the church.  St. Wenceslaus is making a bid for friendliest parish.  They also have the world's youngest usher.  

The church is big with two columns of dark pews.  The walls are painted light green.  There is a dome over the altar, stained glass, and a lot of statues.  The stations of the cross are ornate carvings and the Romans have spears.  

The school is now dorms and the convent is a hospice for AIDS patients run by the Missionaries  of Charity.  A new charter elementary school is being built across the street.  

At 8:30 Sunday mass, they sing a Czech hymn each week.  The homily was about feeding others and the tragedy of hunger in this world.  With an extra hymn, a lengthy homily, and a slightly delayed van of parishioners, mass clocked in at an hour and fifteen minutes.  I had fun, so I'll let it go.  

And then there were ten....next stop, Saint Thomas Aquinas.