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.
No comments:
Post a Comment