Sunday Recap: St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church

The field trip to St. Mary's this past Sunday was wonderful. Rev. Tai-Ping Monkey ditched me (something about he forgot he had to teach Sunday School--bah) but a lovely woman from Channing-Murray community accompanied me. After much enthusiasm from the C-M board, though, no board members showed...I suppose they'll need some more vigorous reminding next time around.

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church is beautiful, with a blessedly diverse congregation. There were five languages spoken during Mass, with several prayers repeated in multiple tongues: English, Spanish, Korean, Latin (of course) and even a dialect of Mayan! The priest's vestments and altar decorations were all in the El Salvador style that should be familiar to any hippy Catholic liturgist, and their sister church in El Salvador was mentioned both in the service and on the posters all over the lobby. The church itself, though plain brick on the outside, inside had stained glass of deep rich colers that played warmly on the gold-trimmed cream walls; I do so miss that kind of beauty in a worship space.

The homily was surprisingly heavy on nuanced Catholic theology; the priest spoke of the reintroduction of the Tridintine rite for the Mass that was used before Vatican II (all in Latin), and he contrasted it with the Novus Ordo Mass that's used today, digging deep into the difference in perspective between the two. The Tridintine, he claimed, focused on the power of the priest to connect God to the individual worshipper, whereas the post-VII rite focuses on bringing the community together in God. It seemed pretty clear that the priest preferred the new rite, though he did not say that explictly.

Two of my favorite hymns were sung, both deeply meaningful to me: "Here I Am, Lord," a song I often wake singing, based on Isaiah, and "Canticle of the Sun," an almost pagan song celebrating nature, beloved and overused by both myself and my mother back in the days when I'd help her organize church services. Think God's trying to tell me something?

All in all, it was a nice return visit to Roman Catholicism for me.

The Open Mic worship afterwards was minimally attended...I get the feeling Open Mic is being used as "filler" for the weekends when most folks can't be there. I don't like it, but then, I suspect the solution to this is to do a better job getting new people there. And more vigorous reminding. Anyway, at least Tai-Ping and a few other beloved regulars showed up. I filled a quarter of the hour with my Giant Fighting Robot Jesus sermon, because Tai-Ping had never heard it, and we also heard some good poems and a few groovy songs, and a newcomer shared her story with us. So it was still a fulfilling time, even if it was hard to fill the time, and I variously mock those who missed it. Your loss.

In other news, I just resigned from my full time web application development job of six years! I'm now two full weekdays into unemployment, and it's just starting to sink in. I've got some money in the bank, so I'm taking a short sabbatical before looking for new sources of income. Still, if you know anyone who'd like to give me money, possibly in exchange for services rendered, drop me a line and let me know!

I leave in a week for a Chicagoland trip, followed by Wisconsin camping, but so long as I'm not eaten by BEARS, I'll be back at the end of the month. I'm hoping to schedule another round of open mic and field trip for early November, and what with my unemployment, you'd better believe the reminding will be vigorous. Hope y'all can make it!