Church #106 - Holy Name, Providence

This is an old and vibrant parish on the East Side. I saved this for a Sunday Mass, since I wanted to see what an Extraordinary Form Latin Mass was like. Besides a few Latin Masses per week, the parish has English Novus Ordo Masses and an African community Mass on Sundays.

The main church has an elevated lectern and a mural of Christ behind the altar. There are tons of seats in the altar area, and of course an altar rail for the Latin Masses. The Stations of the Cross are large, carved reliefs. The church has an extremely high ceiling, and easily one of the highest organ lofts I've seen. I couldn't see how to get up into the loft, and didn't want to bother anyone by asking permission to go up there anyway. The stained glass windows are tall and beautiful.

I went to the 11am sung Latin Mass on Sunday. With the freezing cold day outside, there wasn't enough heat in the main church to have Mass there, so we had it in the chapel instead. While I was disappointed that I couldn't see Mass in the normal church, I definitely would have missed out if I hadn't been able to see the chapel. It's enormous, and nice enough to be a regular church in its own right, even having its own choir loft. It has a huge statue of Mary behind the altar; I love how it depicts her looking up towards heaven. There's also a statue of Jesus lying entombed under the altar - I'm not sure if he's always there, or if that's just for Lent.

As I'd expected, there were tons of chapel veils among the women in the congregation, and lots of large families. In fact, besides the rite itself, the most distinguishing feature of the Mass was the number of kids all over the place. Girls made up most of the Mass choir, and there was a small army of altar boys - I counted 11 of them. I'm not sure if girls are explicitly not allowed to be altar servers, or if that's just the culture of the community. While I wasn't totally lost, I certainly had trouble keeping track of what was going on in the Missal. I'm pretty sure that the priest said the readings in Latin with his back to the congregation, before giving them in English as well at the Lectern. He gave a wonderfully substantive homily that was easily one of my favorite parts of the visit.

While I'm not going to turn into a regular Latin Mass guy, I did love my experience, and I'm thrilled that this community exists in our Diocese. There is a seriousness and sanctity to their Liturgy that is not always as palpable in some Novus Ordo Masses that I've been to. It definitely helped me focus more on God and the miracle that was taking place, rather than myself and the other members of the congregation.