Church #5 - Our Lady of Good Counsel, West Warwick

I went to Sunday mass here this morning. Overall, I really enjoyed this church. The numbers for the Mass were fairly small, but I got the impression of a great little parish community. It skewed young (which makes sense for an 11am Mass), and the people seemed prayerful and engaged in the Mass. They had a choir featuring guitars and a tambourine, and it could have just been the people around me, but it felt like a lot more people were singing than you usually hear at a Mass.

Some other random things I enjoyed: first of all, the priest was probably the loudest I have ever seen, whether it was speaking or singing, to the point that I thought it was kind of hilarious. Now I know how my students feel. At one point (and this is absolutely nothing against the priest) one of the altar servers actually twiddled his thumbs, which I'm not sure I've seen someone actually do in real life before. I felt bad for the altar servers and priest, because it was kind of warm and humid - I felt a little bad about wearing shorts to Mass, but it was definitely a good decision.

Hope none of these people mind being in this picture.

The mass also featured one of my favorite things, which is people with strong Rhode Island accents speaking in public. Another thing I really enjoyed about the mass was the psalm, which had a musical chorus but spoken verses. I found that I payed much better attention to the words of the verses when they were spoken vs. sung.

The church's walls and ceiling are relatively bare of artwork, but there are a few decorations around and various tables devoted to different ministries in the back. The priest mentioned something about adoration at the end of Mass, which is a great sign for any parish. After Mass, everyone seemed to know each other, and there was a palpable sense of warmth in the way everyone greeted each other.

I would really enjoy kneeling at the edge of a balcony during Mass and being able to look straight down.