Basilica of the National Shrine of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

So here we are.  52 churches and 52 weeks later, I'm trying to figure out how to sum up this year.  Tambourines?  Favorite guides to the New Roman Missal?  Odometer readings?  For now, I'll stick to the usual post.

The Basilica is the last stop on the official tour.  They offer a Sunday afternoon mass.  We were reminded to turn off our cell phones so not to disturb the liturgy as someone leaned on a car horn outside and sirens of all kinds blared.  The dome has suffered earthquake damage and the church is full of scaffolding and curtains.  Figures, I have visited many beautiful buildings under construction.  I haven't actually seen the new renovations, been on the tour, or spent any time in the John Paul II garden.  

The crowd trickled in and there was a talented cantor and organ.  Familiar songs seemed a little slow and formal set to organ music.  Apparently there is a sign in the sacristy that says: Danger.  Work Zone.  Hard hat required.  Apparently there is a prayer in there too: Celebrate this Mass as if it were your first Mass.  Celebrate this Mass as if it were your only Mass.  Celebrate this mass as if it were your last Mass.  Put those two ideas together, and you've got the homily.  All in all, a fitting end to one crazy idea.  

Saint Vincent de Paul

The last two weeks of this adventure have fallen into busy weekends.  Figures.  The penultimate stop was Saint Vincent de Paul.  Many of you will know it as the green and white church at the end of 83. I went to Saturday evening mass at 7:15.  They even have a midnight mass (actually midnight fifteen) on Sundays.  How cool is that?

Weekly midnight mass brings up an interesting point.  So let me ask you,  Archdiocese of Baltimore, why are all of your masses at the same time?  All the Sunday evenings are at 5:30.  10 am masses are harder to find than I thought.  Saturday seems to land at 4.  And masses on holy days are all at the same time time too.  Can't you move them around, just  a little?

Saint Vincent's is a smaller church with dark wooden pews and dark wooden creaky floors.  The walls are white and the kneelers don't move.   They don't use a lectionary, but their altar Bible.   7:15 mass is a quiet mass with a small crowd and I see how that time could really work.   There were a few parents and kids, but the crowd was mostly older.   There are statues of Mary and Joseph and Saint Vincent tucked away on the side of the church.

It's also one of the few churches where I have seen a familiar face.  Guess I'm not the only one who doesn't go to church.

And then there was one.

Corpus Christi

Still behind.  So much for blog blast part deux.  September 16's church was Corpus Christi.  The summer scheduled had ended, so it was mass at 10:30.  The church is white with two columns of pews, 52 in total.  (They are numbered;  I didn't even have to count.)  It's often open during Artscape, so if you go, you should look inside and check out the cool mosaics.

We were greeted by an enthusiastic and happy usher.  We were a little early, but the church filled up by the end of the gathering hymn.  I would peg the group sitting behind me as former religious, but I can't be sure.  They spent a long time talking about sitting in the back of the church.  (See, I told you.  Everyone knows good Catholics sit in the back.)  They also used plenty of gender neutral language.

There was good music and I wanted to go outside and see if you can hear it from the street.  I didn't.  In categories of churches, it falls under churches with endless signs of peace.  The priest even made it back to row 52.

And then there were two.  I keep checking the count, but somehow that's right.  The last two come during busy weekends, but I'm hoping for the best.  In case you can't stand a cliffhanger, the penultimate church was Saint Vincent de Paul.

Saint Clare

Blog blast part deux, day two.  In my next of catch up posts, I'll be writing about Saint Clare in Essex.  I'm learning a lot about church geography.   I realized that Mount Carmel and Saint Clare are not very far apart.

This was a sunny Sunday.  Saint Clare's is next to a firehouse, and lucky for me, there were some firefighters playing basketball outside.I made it to the Saint Clare campus and had to look at the signs to figure out where to go.  Remember, church entrances aren't always obvious.

Anyway, you trek around the buildings and follow to some glass doors and walk downstairs.   St. Clare's looks like you took someone's really awesome club basement, dusted off and lined up your very best statues, and put in a whole bunch of church pews.

The mass I went to featured their contemporary choir, which as best I can tell is headed up by a husband and wife team.  There were a bunch of kids around and a lot of them were enjoying sitting on the kneelers.  The crowd was split between Ravens purple and Orioles orange.

The homily started out with a question.  To paraphrase...why do we do this, why do we get up on Sundays, get dressed and come to church?  That got my attention, I mean, what are we doing?  Unfortunately, I didn't get many answers, but that's okay.

Our Lady of Grace

As you can tell, I'm behind on posts again. No need to quote me to me, I know all about slothfulness.  I can't blame the Olympics anymore.  Maybe I just don't want to give up summer.  September 2's stop was Our Lady of Grace, and I believe closes out the northern Baltimore County churches.

I think this is a good time to point out that it is not entirely obvious at all churches where you enter.  The church was closed for earthquake repairs and will be painted some colors like biscuit.  Mass was in the parish hall which overlooks some nice greenery (ignoring the power lines) and has a lot of chandeliers.

There was a pretty good sized crowd, plenty of older couples and families with school aged kids.  I know I'm not a parent, but while watching the little boy in front of me get in trouble, I had to wonder about  church going strategy.  I mean it seems obvious to me that if you have two kids and two parents, you play man to man defense.  But I digress.

There was a good homily about living a life of service.  There was good music and heavy recruitment for the choir.  If CCSFX in Hunt Valley is where you will stay until the last note of the last verse of the closing hymn, Our Lady of Grace is where you are in your car before the the refrain.

In clever sightings, they had bins labeled in the make shift narthex for box tops, soup labels, ink cartridges and grocery receipts that the school collects.  St.  Thomas More did that too, and as someone who tries to tithe 100% of that kind of stuff, it's nice when it's easy.

I hope to go back when the church opens.

Preview of coming attractions.....St. Clare, Corpus Christi.  And then there were two.

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.