Church #66 - St. Theresa, Tiverton

This church is joined with St. Christopher in Tiverton, which I'd been to a few weeks previously. The parish priest is easy to remember since he's Polish. I remember reading about him in the Rhode Island Catholic a couple months ago (http://www.thericatholic.com/archive/detail.html?sub_id=7479) as he officially became a U.S. citizen. Welcome to Rhode Island, Fr. Shemek! In that article he says that he sees himself as a missionary priest of sorts. I think we definitely need that around here, and we'll be seeing a lot more priests like him in the future.

The congregation was doing Morning Prayer together from the breviary before the start of Mass. I love seeing this from a parish, since discovering it has been a huge area of growth in my faith life lately. The church is quite recently built, with the parish hall attached to the back of the sanctuary, instead of being underground or in its own building. It has the fairly standard modern semicircle shape. The corpus above the altar emphasizes the resurrection over the crucifixion, an interesting choice that I'll leave it up to others to give their opinions on.

The book of the Gospels on display in the altar area

The church hall with Bible School setup in full swing

Church #65 - St. Francis of Assisi, South Kingstown

This is a beautiful church. The current building is about 80 years old, but it feels newer than that, and it's clearly very well taken care of. There's tons of wood inside, and nice but small stained glass windows. There's something written on a wooden beam above the altar which I was never able to make out - if anyone knows what it is, I'd love to hear it.

There were at least 40 people here for a 7am Mass, many of whom were clearly on their way to work. The Mass started with the Angelus, a prayer that I strongly associate with my childhood for some reason. The priest's homily was about St. Claire, and I was here on the feast of St. Rufinus, neither of whom I'd heard of before. St. Claire founded the Poor Clares, a contemplative order, and was a companion of (fittingly enough) St. Francis of Assisi. Very little is known about St. Rufinus historically, but he was the first bishop of Assisi, and he's the patron Saint of the city.

St. Francis doing his thing

Church #64 - St. Vincent de Paul, Coventry

This church is pretty close to Gabriel's Trumpet in Coventry. The parish community seems pretty active, and they have a Lighthouse Media stand. There's a school next door which I'm assuming used to be a parish school. I've definitely seen the priest here before, but I can't quite remember where - I remember him because he talks very, very loudly, to the point that it's hilarious sometimes during the Mass. Don't get me wrong, he's a great priest and all, so I'm not trying to pick on him.

The church has a blue carpet, and several large steps up to the altar area. The balcony was locked. They exposed the Blessed Sacrament after Mass. I can't tell from the bulletin how often this happens, but it's a wonderful thing to see a parish doing. I came here on the Feast of St. Bernard. There's a whole bunch of St. Bernards, but I'm assuming this is referring to Bernard of Clarivaux, the famous abbot and driving force behind the Cistercian order and their reforms of the Benedictine life.

 Epic bulletin cover

The Christmas theological CDs are coming out earlier every year....

Church #63 - St. Francis of Assisi, Warwick

This church is on Jefferson Boulevard, and it shares a parish with St. Catherine in Warwick. While not very big, it has a bunch of pretty distinctive things about it. The sanctuary is dominated by one of the walls, which is made up entirely of colored glass. It's at an angle where the sun shines right through it during the morning, which gives the place a very cool feel for a Mass.

Almost everything in the church is made of wood. There's artwork everywhere you look, a lot of which looks handmade and unique. I'm sure I missed some stuff, especially in the altar area. I was impressed with the parish priest, and he gave a great homily. The parish also stands out for having a social justice ministry.

I'm guessing this is St. Francis?

St. Jude with an enormous St. Jude medal

Church #62 - Immaculate Conception, Cranston

I remember showing up here on my April walking pilgrimage as a funeral was getting out. This is where I decided to leave my car for the day as I made a big loop around Cranston. I had a great experience coming back this week for a morning Mass.

This is easily one of my favorite modern churches I've been in, for reasons that I can't really articulate. I like the color scheme a lot, which I'm sure is part of it. It also has (and I know this sounds ridiculous) the best cry room I've seen so far. They were doing something to the floor in thealtar area, so I wasn't able to roam around quite as much as I normally do.

The Mass was said in a separate chapel without a tabernacle. There were so many people at the Mass that we had to pack in, to the point that someone had to stand in the back. It goes without saying that this gave the Mass a different feel from a typical daily Mass, in a very positive way. The priest was excellent, and gave a great homily. I also enjoyed seeing the adult altar server wearing an alb.

The daily Mass chapel

Church #61 - St. Mary, West Warwick

This would be a thoroughly charming little church on its own, but the fact that it's the oldest in Rhode Island makes it even more so. It's less than a 5 minute walk from where I used to live in West Warwick, but I had no idea that it existed until I mapped out the directions to it. The weekday Mass I went to was preceded by a rosary and litany to Mary, both led by the priest from the pulpit - a fantastic example for a pastor to set for his parishioners.

My favorite part of the church is its three balconies - the typical one in the back, and two more on either side of the altar to form a T-shaped sanctuary. A couple of them were roped off, and I sort of wish now that I'd ignored that and gotten into them anyway. While relatively bare, I found the church to be a very prayerful environment, mostly (I think) because of its size and age. I certainly wish I'd known about it when I lived so close.

Church #60 - St. Pius X, Westerly

This is a large, active parish in the distant southern tip of the state. The parish has an attached school, and I have heard several people talk about how wonderful the priest here is. The priest (Fr. Ray)'s homilies are actually available every week on the parish's website, and are archived going back years.

The church is huge and rectangular, with a rose window and tons of stained glass. They haven't yet joined the trend of moving the tabernacle back behind the altar. I love the alpha and omega symbols on either side of the crucifix, and there are some great statues scattered around. There's also a beautiful little side chapel room that doesn't really look like it's used for anything, but I could be wrong about that.

The Saturday morning Mass I went to was presided over by a visiting priest from New York. Though not particularly strong, he had a noticeable New York accent which I greatly enjoyed. He was also one of the most animated priests I've ever seen say a Mass. The Mass was also very well attended, especially for a Saturday morning, with almost 50 people. It's the only Saturday morning Mass in town, which I'm sure helps with that.

St. Jude with the world's biggest club