Church #109 - St. Charles Borromeo, Woonsocket

Woonsocket has lots of beautiful churches, but I'm pretty sure this one is my favorite. I'm sure I've made it pretty clear by this point that I love these big, old school type churches, and this one has all my favorite details. It touts itself as the oldest church in Northern Rhode Island. I hope the church building is still going strong and not feeling its age too much.

The daily Mass here is held in the basement. I didn't get to linger for long because I had to make it to Mass, but hopefully I'll come back here for another one in the main church at some point. The parish's priest is a Jesuit, and he has audio homilies available on the church website. The parish has adoration every Friday afternoon, and the bulletin contains lots of events and suggestions for the spiritual growth of the parishioners. The parish also operates a food pantry for Woonsocket residents, which a friend of mine helps organize through the Diocese.

Church #108 - St. Kevin, Warwick

I came to Mass here yesterday for a Lenten breakfast and talk given by Fr. Michael Colello of Our Lady of Victory in Hopkinton. This parish has a lot going on, with a parish school and lots of different groups and social events. The parish's pastor, Fr. Marciano, is a colonel in the air force, and has served as a chaplain in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The church itself is one of the nicer modern churches I've seen. The pews in the church form an extremely wide semicircle, and there's a ton of space in the altar area. This shape made communion sort of chaotic, as people had to make their way from all over the place to get to the middle aisle to receive. I somehow neglected to take a picture of the altar area from the back, so I don't think these pictures give a good sense of what the church really looks like. I'm told that the church has been renovated recently, including a new crucifix behind the altar, and some of the more 70s style stuff was purged.

Church #107 - St. Anthony, Portsmouth

This definitely isn't a door, so I guess this is left over from a renovation?

This is a very interesting church (and no, that's not a backhanded compliment). There's a school next to it that I'm guessing used to be a parish school. The church building has a stone exterior, and you can see from the outside that it has lots of colorful stained glass windows. There are decorations everywhere in the entry area when you walk in, including a ton of real plants - I'm not sure if that's the pastor's doing, or if there are some parishioners that are particularly passionate about them.

The sanctuary area is similarly colorful, with statues and other decorations everywhere, including a huge crucifix off to one side. It forms a cross shape, and it has a fairly low ceiling. The lectern is big and wide, almost like a small fortress. We sung the psalm during the Mass I attended, which might be a first for me at a daily Mass. The pastor sang a couple of other parts of the Mass as well; apparently he's pretty fond of it.

Church #106 - Holy Name, Providence

This is an old and vibrant parish on the East Side. I saved this for a Sunday Mass, since I wanted to see what an Extraordinary Form Latin Mass was like. Besides a few Latin Masses per week, the parish has English Novus Ordo Masses and an African community Mass on Sundays.

The main church has an elevated lectern and a mural of Christ behind the altar. There are tons of seats in the altar area, and of course an altar rail for the Latin Masses. The Stations of the Cross are large, carved reliefs. The church has an extremely high ceiling, and easily one of the highest organ lofts I've seen. I couldn't see how to get up into the loft, and didn't want to bother anyone by asking permission to go up there anyway. The stained glass windows are tall and beautiful.

I went to the 11am sung Latin Mass on Sunday. With the freezing cold day outside, there wasn't enough heat in the main church to have Mass there, so we had it in the chapel instead. While I was disappointed that I couldn't see Mass in the normal church, I definitely would have missed out if I hadn't been able to see the chapel. It's enormous, and nice enough to be a regular church in its own right, even having its own choir loft. It has a huge statue of Mary behind the altar; I love how it depicts her looking up towards heaven. There's also a statue of Jesus lying entombed under the altar - I'm not sure if he's always there, or if that's just for Lent.

As I'd expected, there were tons of chapel veils among the women in the congregation, and lots of large families. In fact, besides the rite itself, the most distinguishing feature of the Mass was the number of kids all over the place. Girls made up most of the Mass choir, and there was a small army of altar boys - I counted 11 of them. I'm not sure if girls are explicitly not allowed to be altar servers, or if that's just the culture of the community. While I wasn't totally lost, I certainly had trouble keeping track of what was going on in the Missal. I'm pretty sure that the priest said the readings in Latin with his back to the congregation, before giving them in English as well at the Lectern. He gave a wonderfully substantive homily that was easily one of my favorite parts of the visit.

While I'm not going to turn into a regular Latin Mass guy, I did love my experience, and I'm thrilled that this community exists in our Diocese. There is a seriousness and sanctity to their Liturgy that is not always as palpable in some Novus Ordo Masses that I've been to. It definitely helped me focus more on God and the miracle that was taking place, rather than myself and the other members of the congregation.

Bonus Post - St. Mary's Monastery, Petersham, MA

A lot of people don't know that places like this exist so close to us, and they're truly hidden gems in this part of the country - I know of at least four similar places in Massachusetts, and a few more in Connecticut. I've stayed at this particular monastery about five times now. This is a community of Benedictine monks and nuns - the nuns' side of the place is called St. Scholastica Priory. They gather in the chapel and chant their prayers seven times a day, and you can join them to watch and participate.

The church, with separate sections for lay people (behind the railing) and religious (around the altar). The nuns also have their own private chapel in their priory.

The church has excellent acoustics to help with the chanting.

Part of the Benedictine charism is hospitality, so there's a guest house up the driveway from the main monastery. You can stay there pretty much anytime for free, though of course you should give them a donation if you do. The guest house is pretty big - I'd say there's a couple dozen bedrooms. There's lots of kitchen and social space, and it's very comfortable and homey. If you're ever interested in making an informal retreat, this is the place to go. You can do almost anything you want with your time - read, pray, sleep, talk, make food and drinks, and join the religious in the chapel. You eat lunch with the monks and nuns, which is a cool experience - they eat in silence, with one of them reading out loud from a book. This is part of their entertainment for the day.

The guest house

Every friend I've ever brought here has loved it, and can't wait to come back. It's an extremely relaxing and prayerful environment. I'd recommend an overnight visit to anyone, whether they're Catholic or not. If you're interested, you can see more and contact the guestmasters at these links:

http://www.stmarysmonastery.org/
http://www.stscholasticapriory.org/

Church #105 - St. Anthony, Woonsocket

This church was built in 1926 to serve the Italian community in Woonsocket. It's just a couple of blocks down the street from Precious Blood, the church I went to on New Year's Eve. The parish just added a Vietnamese Mass on Sundays. I got lost for a few minutes trying to get back to 146, as required by Woonsocket city law, since I couldn't go back exactly the way I came.

Unusually for a weekday morning Mass, the Mass had an altar boy - maybe because it's school vacation week - but either way, God Bless the kid for being up for a 7:30 Mass. The church's interior is highlighted by a mural of St. Anthony in heaven behind the altar, being greeted by a Jesus and a rather relaxed-looking God the Father. The church's pews are unusually close together for some reason. The church also has some of the most vivid and interesting stained glass scenes I've seen on its windows.