Church #94 - St. Basil Melkite Catholic Church, Lincoln

This was a really cool experience - the first non-Roman rite I've been to since I was a kid. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who's curious to see a different sort of Catholic Liturgy. The Melkite Church originates in Greece and has a lot in common with the Orthodox, but it's been in full communion with the Holy See since 1724. There are about 1.6 million Melkites in the world, mainly in Syria and Lebanon.

This might be the newest and most modern church I've been to so far - if memory serves, it was built in 1998. A couple of friends came with me, and I was grateful for the company, since we were clearly outsiders to the community. The church hall and sanctuary area are one huge room, with a partition dividing the two. As I expected, there are tons of icons everywhere, especially in the altar area. There's a gate in front of the altar that is opened at the beginning of the Mass. Before the Liturgy, the priest spent at least 10 minutes singing and chanting into his microphone as he went around getting the altar ready.

The Liturgy we attended at 11:15 was in both Arabic and English - the parish also has a 9am Mass that's entirely in English. It was well attended, with the vast majority of the seats filled. I wonder how far away some of the parishioners live. I felt very underdressed. The Church uses the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, which you can read about here. They have booklets with the Liturgy in English available when you come in, one of which I accidentally took home with me. I was very thankful that there were people sitting in front of us, so that we knew when to sit and stand.

The Liturgy featured lots of singing and chanting, and included a couple of elaborate processions around the church. It was mainly in Arabic, apart from the readings and the (excellent) homily. There was an occasional prayer in English, which allowed me to keep up with the Liturgy in the Missal most of the time. The parish has two priests and three deacons, most of whom were present on the altar. The deacon played a large and active role throughout the Liturgy, which clocked in at about an hour and five minutes. There were five altar servers, all male, a couple of whom appeared on the altar after the Liturgy had already started. Everyone takes Communion in the mouth; the body is dipped in the blood, which I'm told is the way the Roman Rite used to work as well. The Mass started and ended rather abruptly, without opening or closing processions. There are delicious rolls in plastic bags in front the altar, and everyone gets to take one home after the Mass. I had already eaten mine by the time we got out of the parking lot.

Church #93 - Holy Family, Woonsocket

There's a nice, intimate daily Mass here every morning in a side chapel. I liked the priest a lot - he was smart and engaging, and seemed very close with his parishioners. The Mass begins with Morning Prayer and ends with the Office of Readings, which I had never done before. They played the "Ave Maria" song during and after communion as something to reflect and pray on; I winced a little bit when I saw the boom box, but thankfully they picked something that was appropriate and non-cheesy.

The daily Mass chapel

The main church is my favorite type - big, beautiful and old school. I didn't get to spend a lot of time in it because I didn't want to keep people waiting if they were trying to lock up. There's a big statue of Jesus behind the tabernacle, and some nice stained glass windows above the altar area. It's been lovingly decorated for Christmas, including multiple manger scenes, which is fitting for a parish called Holy Family.

Church #92 - St. Joan of Arc, Cumberland

This church is on Mendon Road in Cumberland. It's kind of hard to see from the street, since it's set back a ways and it doesn't really look like a standard church from the outside. There's an attached school that's now part of the Blackstone Valley Prep charter network.

The church has a large interior, with the pews forming two huge rectangles. There's an obligatory Joan of Arc statue in one corner along with a massive Divine Mercy image. On the other side of the altar is a stable where parishioners are putting their "giving tree" presents for Advent, which I thought was a nice touch. There is a balcony for the music with confessionals tucked away underneath. The church bells rang to begin the Mass, which I'm assuming is a normal thing for the parish. An unusual number of people stayed behind to pray afterward.

Church #91 - St. Mary, Cranston

I was very impressed by what I saw from this parish. I came here a couple of weeks ago with a friend for a well-attended Saturday morning Mass. I don't have pictures of it, but the lower church here is definitely the biggest one I've seen. I came back to take pictures of the main church on a Saturday evening, and even half an hour before Mass there were already so many people there that I felt awkward going around and taking pictures. I almost left to come back at a different time when the church was emptier. The parish has an attached K-8 school, and there's an absolutely massive Catholic cemetery next door. They also have an unusually high 5 Masses a weekend, including two on Saturday, which I don't think I've ever seen before.

The church itself is a great balance of old and new - it's beautiful in the way of the older church, but it's clearly well taken care of, and everything feels bright and polished. The highlight of the church is the area behind the altar - there's a ring of beautiful statues and an awesome mural. The balcony has a wonderful rose window which I unfortunately didn't try to get a closer look at. There are more paintings on the ceiling, and lots of other large statues and decorations scattered around.

Church #90 - St. Patrick, Burrillville

My Mom and I came here for Thanksgiving day Mass. It was a very pleasant drive through Smithfield and Burrillville to get there and back, and I enjoyed seeing the village of Harrisville for the first time. Among other things, there's a beautiful pond directly across the street from the church. The Mass opened with the Battle Hymn of the Republic in honor of the holiday.

The church is fairly small on the inside. The sanctuary has tons of green in it, which I suppose is fitting for a church called St. Patrick's. It still has an old communion rail in front of the altar, and a pair of tabernacles on either side of the altar area. The church's pastor is very lively and animated, and he did a great job of greeting and making small talk with his parishioners as they were leaving the church.

Church #89 - St. Mary, Providence

This is a huge, beautiful, old school church that is about to celebrate its 150th anniversary. The sanctuary features a ceramic floor and elaborate stained glass windows. They have the 12 Apostles above the altar, both painted and in stone, as well as some other original paintings. My favorite interior feature is the huge, handpainted Stations of the Cross, which the parish is slowly restoring.

The old school walk-up pulpit. I'm not sure if the parish uses it or not.

I went to an early Mass here on a Sunday morning. The priest was Korean, since the parish is home to the Diocese's Korean community. The Mass began with the parishioners being asked to greet the people around them, and there was a palpable closeness to the community. The homily was preached by the parish's deacon (and fantastic man of God), Steve Raymond. Steve is an institution at St. Patrick's parish and school, and has more or less given his whole life to the place. The Diocese and St. Mary's are lucky to have him.

My favorite painting

The view from the pulpit

Church #88 - St. Clare, Westerly

There were about 50 people here for Mass on Veterans Day morning. I'm not sure how much that had to do with the holiday or not, but it's impressive nonetheless. I learned from the homily that St. Martin of Tours is the patron saint of both soldiers and peace. They had coffee after the Mass - the first time I've ever seen that on a weekday - and a talk on Dante's Purgatorio. I heard one parishioner jokingly ask another if they were "going to Purgatory." As usual, I know nothing about St. Clare, but I've learned that she's the founder of the Poor Clares, who I am familiar with thanks to a friend of mine joining them a few years ago.

Pillows in the confessional... wonder what they're for.

The main color in the church is reddish-brown, since there's wood everywhere. The windows are blue, and it has the ubiquitous awesome rose window in the balcony. The parish has a big, modern parish center - it's a bit jarring to see the differences between the urban and suburban churches, especially since I've almost exclusively been going to urban ones over the past couple of months.