This might be my favorite Mass I've been to so far, so I saved this for #75. My trip here was an awesome experience. A fair amount of this is bias, since this is a Polish church and my Mom is 100% Polish and grew up in a Polish parish. The Polish have a long, proud history of devout faith, and the way these parishioners decorate their church and celebrate the Mass lives up to that. I remember coming here at about 12:30 on a Sunday on my April church tour, awkwardly sitting in the back to pray while a baptism was going on and people (presumably) wondered who I was. It was also the loudest/most I've ever heard a baby cry while being baptized - hopefully that's not a bad sign?
I went to Mass here on a Wednesday evening. I knew there was a possibility that it would be in Polish, and I was delighted to find that it was. Besides the language difference, the Mass was mostly notable for all its singing. Before the Mass itself started the (young, Polish and mic'd up) priest came out and knelt, and the congregation went through a number of different songs and prayers. I'm not sure exactly how long this went on for, but probably about five or ten minutes. At least two of these songs were to Mary and Joseph, and I'm pretty sure there was also some kind of litany in there at some point. One of the best parts was that the congregation sounded really good as they sang - as I'm sure a lot of you know, especially anyone who's been to Lourdes, this is not something to be taken for granted. Something about the way the language sounds might have helped with this.
As mentioned above, the church is beautiful. There are images everywhere, including on the ceiling, which I couldn't resist photographing in detail. The stations of the cross are statues that come entirely out of the wall on little platforms. The stained glass windows are also very nice, but it got dark right as I showed up so I couldn't see them all that well. There's only a tiny cross above the altar but there's a big Our Lady of Czenstochowa (I just typed that right on the first try!) picture instead. I was also surprised to find that the church was air conditioned, unusual for such an old and urban one.
The Mass itself was slightly longer than usual - for example, they did the Kyrie. I was able to recognize most of the parts without too much trouble. The Mass was highlighted by still more bouts of singing, more or less whenever the priest was busy doing something besides talking. I would love to see these guys in some sort of "best ethnic Massgoers" competition with the Portuguese, though the Portuguese would undoubtedly have a big numbers advantage. I haven't been to a Spanish daily Mass yet (though I expect that to happen a few times over the next six months), and I bet those will be awesome too. Anyways, I would highly recommend this church to anyone who's looking for a different/beautiful daily Mass experience, as long as you don't mind not understanding the words.
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