5:00 Saturday afternoon mass at Saint Bernard. Note that it is NOT "Saint Ber-NARD", like the dog. Put the accent on the first syllable and make the "nard" sound like "nerd". "BER-nerd". To be completely accurate, it's "Saint Bernard of Clairveaux." St Bernard's is charming - from the old world exterior and well-kept grounds to the dark wood of the pews and beamed ceiling to the rather medieval chandeliers over the center aisle. Everything is good . . . until you get to the altar where a disastrous clash of styles occurs. Charming meets contemporary, and it's not pretty. I unfortunately used a good portion of my thought processes during mass trying to unravel the mystery of three truly distracting images on the wall behind the altar. The third image was clearly a dove, i.e., the Holy Spirit. Duh, that must mean the first is the Father and the second, the Son! Then why does the first look like a volcano? And the second was a four-legged animal, possibly a horse or a lamb, the latter of which would make sense, but whatever it was carried a banner. Maybe this is a reference to some story about St. Bernard I don't know about. Troubling. And while I can understand the electric bulbs in the chandeliers, electric bulbs in the candle sconces on either side of the altar? Really? Really?
St. Bernard's is what I would consider a small parish, and the size of the church seemed to agree. Therefore, I was surprised by the number in attendance. The mass was very crowded, almost to the point of being claustrophobic. Between me and the women on my left and right, there was a lot of "purse-bumping" going on. I liked the elderly woman in front of me who had her hymnal open and ready to go from the moment she sat down, a good 20 minutes early. She quietly sang every song, from the "classics" (nice organ accompaniment) to the more recent (not-as-nice-but-adequate piano accompaniment). I think I saw Colonel Sanders there.
It struck me as I sat at St. Bernard's this week. Isn't it funny? Anyone, anywhere, can walk into any church for any mass and sit down and enjoy the show. You don't need a ticket; you don't need a reservation. You don't have to be a member; you don't have to show an ID. You get your pick of the seats (they're all in the same price range - free), and you'll be treated the same as the senior citizen next to you who was baptized there. Huh. Pretty cool.
ATTENDANCE: Full
DURATION: 55 minutes
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