Church #125 - St. Michael Ukrainian, Woonsocket

This was easily one of the most moving, spiritually profound Mass experiences I've ever had, and I'm very grateful to the priest here for giving me the opportunity. I came here for a 9am Friday morning Mass a couple of weeks ago, and found that there was nobody else in the congregation. I didn't explicitly ask the priest to go ahead with the Mass anyway, but he did. I'm guessing that the Mass is normally in Ukrainian but he did it in English for my benefit, giving me a Missal to follow along with. The Missal is pretty easy to follow, with English on one page and Ukrainian on the other.

Having a Mass said explicitly for you really forces you to pay attention and reflect on what's happening and being said. This is especially true of the Mass of St. John Chrysostom, which this parish uses. In this liturgy the "choir" has a lot more responses than I'm used to, and it really kept me on my toes. The priest would say the responses in my place on the occasions where I lost track. The words to the Mass are beautiful, and I found myself really praying them in a deeper way that I normally do.

The Mass was a lot longer than usual for a weekday, including an amazingly long reading from the Acts of the Apostles. The priest faces away from the congregation for almost all of the Liturgy besides the Gospel, and the Body and Blood are given together during Communion using a spoon. The priest told me his name after Mass but I didn't catch it; I am going to keep praying for him a lot, and I am endlessly grateful to him for ministering to me in such a beautiful way.

This church is small but absolutely packed with icons, to the point that you can't really process them all. There is a screen in front of the altar and tabernacle which is kept closed when Mass isn't happening, with several doors in it that are used at different times during the Liturgy. There's additional artwork around the edges of the church, including a little shrine that appears to depict Jesus being laid to rest in the tomb.

St. Michael shares a parish with a Ukrainian church in Fall River, and they broadcast the Sunday liturgy live online at www.stmichaelsri.org. I showed up here at the wrong time on a weekday last summer and found one of the doors unlocked, so I got to see and explore it in advance. I don't know if this is normal, but I'd definitely try to check it out if you're ever in Woonsocket.