PathToHoliness

You can’t have enough Nativity scenes this time of year. Our family has escaped the cold and wintery white stuff for the sunshine and relative warmth of south Florida.

I attended early Mass at St. Gregory the Great Church in Plantation, FL. I’m not sure if we’re going to go to Midnight Mass tonight or Mass in the morning. We’ve been going at midnight for years. I personally prefer in the morning. I always fall asleep before midnight and then have trouble getting back to sleep after Mass. Whichever one you pick though, they’re all beautiful!

I enjoyed Mass this morning at the Cathedral of St. John The Baptist in Savannah, GA. It was held in the undercroft chapel. Tomorrow’s Mass will be held in the Cathedral though. I’m looking forward to that.

The Cathedral traces its roots back to the late 1700’s when it started as a small frame church. You can read the history here.

I’m attending an agricultural aviators convention. It was billed as being in the balmy south. However, we’ve had near record cold temps. My 20 min. walk to the Cathedral was in 16 degree wind chill. That was chilly!

I attended Mass this morning at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Memphis, TN. I’m here to make a presentation at a luncheon.

So, why do I post church photos? Because it’s part of my path to holiness. I believe daily Mass is an integral part of my life and am trying to show that you can make it to Mass even if you travel a lot.

Traveling? Need to know where to find a church and what time Mass will be? Then make sure you’ve got Masstimes.org bookmarked. You can look up churches anywhere in the world. The service is totally dependent on donations too so please help them if you can. Here are some other options to use their service.

Automated Church Lookup: 1-734-794-2100

If the Live operator is not available when you call please leave a message and she will call you back. You can also email the live operator.

Recently my wife, Cindy, and I were out of town in different states. We of course went to different churches for Sunday Mass but had very similar experiences.

I would classify them as “weird.” In my case I attended Mass in Lexington, KY at Mary, Queen of the Rosary. I knew something was different when I had to ask an usher where the Tabernacle was. Turns out it’s not in the church proper or anywhere near the altar. It’s in a separate room across the hall. It’s a very tiny room with a couple kneelers in it. Kind of makes it hard for very many to visit with our Lord. And maybe even more telling was the fact that before Mass no one was in the little chapel with Jesus. Most people were yakking in and outside of the church.

Otherwise the church appeared pretty normal. But then we got to the Mass. Let’s just say that there were a several things that I found very distracting. First was the sign language dude right in front of the altar to one side. He was in to it with lots of waving of hands and arms and, well, you get the picture. Now, I could understand this if there were people seriously in need of this service. However, best I could tell, no one was watching him. Except me because it was new I guess. It gets better though. Prior to the readings the priest asked all the kids to come forward before being led away. I’ve seen this before and think it’s a travesty for those children. But he sits down on the altar steps with them I guess tried to pretend to be one of them for a couple minutes. Next up is his sermon after the Gospel. I knew it was going to be strange when he pulls a stuffed monkey out from underneath him and wraps it around his neck and starts telling a story about monkeys in the jungle. He wore it throughout his sermon. He put it away at the end with the comment that monkeys aren’t Catholic! Okay.

So while I was attending Mass in Lexington, Cindy was attending Mass in Plano, TX at Prince of Peace church. I think the design tells a story in and of itself with the round structure and flying saucer shaped disk suspended from the ceiling.

I’m going to ask her to add to this post with her experiences. Let’s just say, her story trumps mine.

*Post Update from Cindy*

I don’t know if it was the most unusual Mass I ever attended, but I have been to literally hundreds of Catholic churches all over the world and POP-Plano is by far the strangest church I have ever entered in my life. It was like walking into a piece of “modern” art – which makes it really hard to describe. Like art, I may not know much about it, but I know what I like and this was not it. You can get a general impression from the photo, but it was the stainless steel poles surrounding the perimeter and the donut hanging from the ceiling that really made it unlike any other church I have seen. They are very proud of their “award winning church,” according to the POP website, which gives a guided tour of their worship space. Apparently they have gotten some questions (no doubt) about the design and felt it necessary to explain them. Here’s an excerpt:

“Art and Environment in Catholic Worship” points out to us that what a church building looks like is not important as long as it facilitates the liturgical actions of the Community. When a design promotes good liturgy, it is successful. When it also includes beauty and simplicity it is a major event. We feel that we have combined both. This has been recognized by professional organizations and publications.

We present this “tour” with the prayer that it will help you understand the reasons behind some of the decisions made in the design process. We believe that our church reflects the wisdom that flows from the liturgical renewal affirmed by the Second Vatican Council.

About the “donut” floating on the ceiling – according to the website, “The canopy or “cloud” over the raised platform reminds us of the cloud that was a sign of God’s presence as the Israelites were led through the desert after their release from slavery to the Egyptians.” Ohhhhhhh, now I get it!

As far as the liturgy itself, it was of the normal liberal Catholic variety, nothing I really hadn’t seen before – but the church design itself will be hard to top in the “weirdest ever” category in my book. It’s also important to note that this was the closest church I could find to where I was staying near Dallas, in a new town called Prosper, and it was 18 miles away!

Everyone I know refers to the Basilica of St. Louis, King as the “Old Cathedral” in St. Louis. It may be old but it’s still going strong. The Basilica sits right off I-70 under the St. Louis Arch so it can’t be easier to find or get in to. There is a weekday, including Saturday, Mass at 7am and my wife and I have attended a number of times over the years.

I did so yesterday on my way to Lexington, KY for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. That’s my home away from home for a couple days. I’m getting ready to decide on which church to attend Mass this morning and will probably feature it here later this week.

The history of the Old Cathedral and the early history of the City of St. Louis are intertwined. The Old Cathedral Museum, located on the west side of the Cathedral, contains many artifacts and relics from the early days of the Catholic Church in St. Louis and also historical information. When Pierre Liguest Laclede and his First Lieutenant Auguste Chouteau founded the City of St. Louis in 1764, Laclede dedicated the square just west of where he built his home, to church and graveyard purposes. The first Catholic Church in St. Louis built on this site, was a small log house built in 1770. St. Louis IX, King of France, is the Patron Saint of the City and of the Church. In 1776, the mission of St. Louis became a canonical parish and the second log cabin church was built. Its bell, the gift of Lieutenant Governor Don Piernos and enriched by 200 Spanish silver dollars in its casting, can be seen today in the Old Cathedral Museum.

This week I had the opportunity to attend weekday Mass at SS. Peter & Paul Church in Naperville, IL.

Saints Peter & Paul was founded in 1846 and is the oldest established parish in DuPage County. The parish was originally established as St. Raphael’s, after the given name of its pastor, Rev. Raphael Rainaldi. The first church served 25 families, and was a small frame structure with a lean-to attached to the south side, which served as both sacristy and priest’s residence. This church was built on the west side of Front Street (Ellsworth) and faced east.

Here’s the latest church I was blessed to attend Mass at, as well as confession. It’s St. Mark Catholic Church. I was traveling with my wife, Cindy, for a change. We were doing some work at a swine health seminar in Wrightsville Beach, NC. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it. The beach was nice but it’s good to be home.

“St. Mark is a Roman Catholic Parish sustained by God’s Word and Christ in the Eucharist, empowered in the Holy Spirit, which provides for the sacramental life of our community. As a welcoming and diverse people, we are called to evangelize, to teach and to live the Catholic faith. We do this through our parish and school programs and our commitment to stewardship that span all generations.”

I’ve been in a blogging drought here the last several weeks. In that time I’ve been to events in Panama City Beach, FL, Minneapolis, MN, Denver, CO, Willamsburg, VA and Des Moines, IA. Finally got home at the end of last week.

So I may not have been real diligent in my posting but I did make it to weekday and Sunday Masses at several churches like Holy Ghost Church in Denver. I’ll try to be a little more frequent here now that the schedule has calmed down temporarily!

As I have often found to be the case, my guardian angel led me to Mass today. Usually when I’m in a place I don’t know and I’m about to give up finding a church, it’s then that I suddenly come across it.

Today that’s in Utrecht, Netherlands where I’m attending a dairy conference that starts tomorrow. I had some free time before my first dinner this evening so I got some very approximate directions to a church. It turned out to be St. Augustine’s and I arrived while Mass was in progress which started at 12:30pm.

As I was leaving I met one of the priests who celebrated Mass. He pointed me toward the St. Catherine’s Cathedral which proved to be a really nice walk along the riverwalk that goes through town. I first stopped at St. Martin’s Cathedral (or Dom Church) thinking I was there but it turned out to be the original Catholic cathedral which was taken over by protestants.

I like to find a statue or image of our Blessed Mother in each country I visit so I was looking for a gift shop. At St. Catherine’s I was directed back to St. Martin’s where they have a nice little shop. Interestingly, since it is now protestant they had quite a few images and statues of Mary and I purchased one. They also sell rosaries and holy water founts. I guess they get a lot of Catholic visitors.

So, it has been another interesting day and another opportunity to visit our Lord in His Blessed Sacrament!

Cindy adds: Reminds me of a Dan Fogelberg song “Netherlands”

Off in the Netherlands
I heard a sound
Like the beating of heavenly wings
And deep in my brain
I can hear a refrain
Of my soul as she rises and sings
Anthems to glory and
Anthems to love and
Hymns filled with early delight
Like the songs that the darkness
Composes to worship the light.

The next couple of days I’ll be in Atlanta but this morning I got to attend Mass at St. Pius X in Conyers, GA with my parents. It was a beautiful Mass with a young priest on his first assignment. Here’s the welcome message from the Pastor.

Dear Friend,

Father John C. Kieran, Pastor

Last week I was on the road again. While in St. Louis I attended Mass at St. Ann in Normandy, MO which is a south side suburb. They’ve got a great website. Pastor Fr. William Kempf has his own blog called “Pastor’s Pen.”

It all started with the kindness of a woman, who like the widow in the gospel, was so incredibly generous with what God had given to her. In 1854, the widow Ann Lucas-Hunt donated the land along with a monetary donation to the Jesuit Order “to establish a church and see to the education of the children” in her beloved Normandy, Missouri. The Jesuits then tasked Fr. Peter DeSmet with the project of establishing St. Ann church. In him we know a parish founded with a missionary spirit. St. Ann was his ‘home’ when his feet were not on the road proclaiming the good news to the Native American Indians. Our first pastor, Fr. Adrian Van Hulst, would make the journey from the Jesuit provincial house at the corner of Lindell Boulevard and Grand Avenue by horse and carriage. It was said that he was so punctual that farmers could set their watches by his approach. In him, we see the virtue of a steadfast, faithful presence.

Today I had the pleasure of delivering an image of the Divine Mercy to our parish office.

Pictured with me is our Pastor, Rev. Msgr. Robert A. Kurwicki. He blessed the image right away. We found a temporary home for it in the office area until they can decide on where to place it permanently.

On Divine Mercy Sunday my wife and I participated in our service and that’s when we found out that we didn’t have one available in the Cathedral Parish except for one in the school. So we ordered one right away from Divine Mercy Images. It is beautiful and I would recommend them if you’d like a nice image for your church or home.

I know I’ve posted a picture of the Redemptorist church in Kansas City, MO before but it is one of my favorites. This week my wife Cindy and I were in town to exhibit our company, ZimmComm New Media, at an annual convention. We attended Mass here.

Welcome to the website of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church – affectionately known throughout the area simply as “Redemptorist Church.”

Redemptorist Parish also sponsors the Redemptorist Social Services Center, one of the largest food pantries in Jackson County.

This is St. Joseph Church in Salisbury, MO. I had forgotten all about the photos I took there last month until I was cleaning up my memory cards.

This is the home of Fr. Bill Korte, Pastor and my spiritual director. Salisbury is pretty far removed from the hustle and bustle of big city life. I think I envy that country lifestyle a little bit.

Most months Fr. Korte comes to Jefferson City to provide spiritual direction to myself and some other folks. But every once in a while I need to drive up there to see him. One thing I can tell you is that in your plan of life you need regular direction from a good priest. I come away with some new insight, thoughts, resolutions every time. I highly recommend it.