Bonus Pictures - Steubenville East

I got to help out on the security team for the conference, and I had a blast. Here are a few pictures from the closing Mass, taken from the luxury box in the arena.

Cardinal O'Malley from Boston was the main presider. He is totally awesome.

Communion - front of the arena

Communion - back of the arena

Church #50 - St. Barnabas, Portsmouth

There were about 40 people at the morning Mass here, which is impressive for a daily Mass. This parish seems very active, with lots of clubs, ministries and committees listed in the bulletin. There is adoration every Wednesday. The bulletin lists several festivals happening at other parishes nearby. There's also the obligatory "Everest" vacation Bible school happening later in August, since every vacation Bible school is required by canon law to be either Everest or "Weird Animals."

The inside of the church is T-shaped, with the music area to the right of the altar and pews on the other side. The church's interior is extremely colorful thanks to the glass windows. The pastor is an excellent preacher. This is my second straight church that's had a "prayer line" - how exactly does that work? Is there a group of people in the parish that receive the prayer intentions, or is it just for one person or the general Mass intentions?

Barnabas was a prominent early Christian - not one of the 12 Apostles, but included in several stories in Acts of the Apostles. He had the priviledge of being St. Paul's mentor and traveling companion, and he was firmly on his side when it came to including gentiles in the Church, though he was a Jew himself. Tradition has it that he was martyred in 61 AD, and the New Testament mentions that he was the cousin of Mark the Evangelist.

Church #49 - St. William, Warwick

I went to a 9am Mass here this morning. The building looks more like a school than a church from the outside. Its best feature is an adoration chapel open three days a week, which I unfortunately didn't know about until I got home and looked at the bulletin. I can't tell how big the parish is, but it does have several active ministries, such as a food closet, a youth ministry and a prayer line.

The interior of the church is fairly sparse, with plain white walls and red carpet, though there is one shrine area in the back and a large free book and pamphlet table. The crucifix in front has a huge corpus on it. There is no balcony, with the music area up on a platform in the back of the sanctuary. The altar is way out in the middle of the sanctuary. Everything in the altar area is on different levels, so the priest has to constantly walk up and down steps to get anywhere, which must get old pretty fast. The tabernacle is in the back way behind the altar, up still more stairs.

According to Wikipedia there are six Saint Williams, and none of them stand out as the clear namesake for the parish. It's worth reading about all of them, because they're a pretty diverse bunch. Somewhat alarmingly, the one who's the patron Saint of adopted children was robbed and murdered by his adoptive son as they were on a pilgrimage to visit the Holy Land.

Church #48 - St. Eugene, Glocester

Hopefully the locals don't mind that I'm saying "Glocester" instead of "Chepachet," but I'm following the Diocese' web site. This church is in the rather charming village of Chepachet (part of Glocester) in the western part of Rhode Island, which is close to Connecticut and a lot more rural than the parts along I-95 and the coast. I wasn't aware that there were rural parts of Rhode Island when I moved here, but seeing these places is part of why I'm enjoying this pilgrimage so much.

I enjoyed this parish community a lot. I have no idea how big the weekend attendance is, but the church has lots of special events and activities. Most of the people at the morning Mass seemed to know each other well; they sat in a big group in the front left part of the sanctuary, and there was far more talking going on before Mass than there usually is. It was like a little family. The priest was extremely animated, especially during the consecration, and one of the parishioners raved about him and his involvement in the community afterward. At the end of Mass they said the St. Michael the Archangel prayer, as well as a long prayer for vocations to the priesthood. The altar server for Mass was a seminarian who's staying here for the summer.

The sanctuary has a very simple rectangular layout. It feels like the pews go back a very long way, and that the church could seat a ton of people if necessary. There's a little kneeler pad in front of the altar, which suggests that adoration takes place at least occasionally.

The name of the parish is a bit of a mystery. Pope Eugene I from the 7th century is a saint, but his biography is pretty thin, and he was only pope for a few years (I hope he isn't offended). There's a few other St. Eugenes too that I can't really find much info about. There's a more famous St. Eugene, but he wasn't canonized until 1995. This Eugene was an 18th Century clergyman from France who grew up during the French Revolution. He served Pope Pius VII during his captivity by Napoleon. This inspired him to spend his life working with the poor, and he founded a missionary order called the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate for this purpose. He's the patron Saint of dysfunctional families, which I would definitely make lots of jokes about if this were my home parish.

Church #47 - St. Joseph, Providence

My friend Tom had a Mass said for my family here yesterday morning (on my Dad's birthday, it so happens), and we agreed that this is an absolutely wonderful church. For the second time on this tour, I was lucky enough to be able to get into the main church even though the Mass was in a side chapel. The side chapel clearly used to be the sacristy, but it was a beautiful setting for the Mass. The priest was a great preacher, and the parish seems very well run (see below). Some people stayed after Mass to pray the Rosary.

The church was built in 1853 and has stood ever since, making the parish the oldest continuously operating one in the Diocese. The parish has an impressive visitor's packet, featuring a pamphlet and guided tours of the sanctuary area and the stained glass windows. We know this because a nun from the Sisters of Mercy approached us in the church after Mass and gave them to us. This is a brilliant recruiting tool for a parish, especially one as old and historical as this.

Better view of the stained glass in front of the altar

The church features the very old-school dividers that cut the pews into two sections. What was the rationale for making the pews this way? I guess it makes it easier to separate different families from each other?

Stained glass at the very back of the church. The choir loft goes back an unusually long way.

My favorite part of the sanctuary is the balcony, which wraps most of the way around the sanctuary. Tom observed that this partially covers some of the stained glass windows. Was the balcony added after the windows to accommodate more people? That would be my best guess. The seats in the balcony clearly aren't used anymore, and now contain ductwork.

One last thing I love about the parish is the big stone rectory. I would be ecstatic to live in a house that looked like this. There's a building that clearly used to be a parish school, but it's now being used for something else.

Church #46 - St. Ambrose, Lincoln

I went to a 7:30am Mass here yesterday, the feast of St. Bonaventure. The church is mostly white on the inside, with a green carpet. The parish is over 100 years old; I have no idea how old the actual church building is, though I'd definitely err on the side of older. The congregation sang an opening and closing hymn, unusual for a daily Mass. The priest had by far the greatest beard I've seen on my tour so far.

After Mass some of the congregants stayed with their breviaries for Morning prayer with the priest. I loved the image of the priest praying with his people instead of in solitude. Unfortunately, this really restricted my picture taking since I didn't want to disturb them. In recent years this parish has merged with St. James in a different part of Lincoln, with the one priest sharing both parishes. This parish has morning Mass on Mon/Wed/Fri, while St. James has evening Mass on the other two days. Like all the other evening Masses I'm aware of, I'll be saving St. James for the school year for schedule reasons.

St. Ambrose was a 4th century Bishop, and (in my opinion at least) one of the toughest figures in Church history. He is best known for his staunch opposition to Arianism, which had a significant foothold in the Church during his time. His convictions were so strong that he fearlessly and repeatedly stood up to powerful figures of his day, making a lot of enemies in the process. This included Roman emperors, one of whom he excommunicated. He is also considered an important figure in Roman history for the enormous political influence he wielded, and he drove many of the events of his time period.

A quick programming note - I'm only going to have a couple of new posts over the next week. I'll be at the Steubenville East conference this weekend and on the road visiting friends during the week.

Church #45 - St. Bernard, North Kingstown

As you can see in the picture above, this parish is building a new parish center, so it must be doing well. Unfortunately, this also means that we had loud construction sounds coming from outside for the entire Mass, which actually forced me to concentrate more than I normally do on the Liturgy. I'm sure the daily Mass crowd here is used to it by now.

The ceiling in the church is unusually high. There is wood everywhere, including some very cool looking support beams on the ceiling. I would love to go back and see the parish when all the construction is done and everything is back to normal.

A rendering of the finished parish

The Mass was concelebrated by one of our diocese' three brand new priests, Fr. Nick Fleming. I'm not sure exactly what brought him to this parish on this day, but it was really cool seeing him go through the consecration for one of his first times ever. After Mass the Blessed Sacrament was exposed for adoration, and some people stayed to pray the rosary.

Today is the feast day of St. Kateri, but only in America for reasons that I can't track down (everywhere else it's April 17, the day of her death). I like that I came to St. Bernard's on her feast day, since St. Bernard's launched the St. Kateri parish that I wrote about last week. St. Kateri is the first Native American saint, just recently canonized in 2012. She was disfigured by smallpox as a child. She converted to Catholicism despite being shunned by her tribe for doing so, and moved to a Jesuit missionary village in Canada for the last few years of her life. She took a vow of perpetual virginity and died in the village at the age of 24.

Church #44 - St. Thomas, Providence

I walked to a 7:30am Mass here this morning. It's hard to tell how old the church is, but everything inside feels modern and well maintained. The daily Mass is said in a nice chapel room behind the altar in the main sanctuary. The priest was very engaging; I actually think I've heard a homily preached by him before, but I didn't get a chance to ask him. The Gospel was one of Jesus' most interesting and challenging speeches, the "I have come to bring not peace but the sword" one from Matthew.

The parish has an attached school

The daily Mass room

The man sitting in front of me at Mass had a prayer card sticking out of his bag, a presumably obscure devotion to "the shoulder wound of Jesus." This particular injury of Jesus' had never occurred to me before, but it's very compelling and sobering to think about. At the end of Mass this same man turned around and gave me a rather extraordinary piece of paper. It's photocopied and double sided, and contains a jumble of 22 numbered prayers for all occasions, some cut and pasted and some handwritten. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it, but I love that this little encounter happened. Unfortunately, it happened so fast that I didn't even think to introduce myself to him before he left.

The priest also mentioned that today is the feast of St. Henry, yet another in the endless procession of saints I've never heard of. He was a Holy Roman Emperor in the 11th century known for his personal holiness and support for the church, including reform efforts. The lesson, as always, is that the church is in a permanent state of needing reform. I don't want to read anything about him as a political figure because I know virtually nothing about this period of history, and I don't have the time to tumble down that endless rabbit hole. Hopefully someday.