4:00 Saturday afternoon mass at Saint Aloysius Gonzaga - a whole 2.5 miles from my house. I attended a wedding at St. Al's once, but since said wedding was over 40 years ago, I'm going to count this one as a new experience. Ironically, as I was getting out of my car in the parking lot, a neighborhood friend - and fellow St. Ignatius parishioner - was getting out of hers. Small world. She immediately warned me that St. Al's is notoriously cold inside, and sure enough, all of the regulars came equipped with sweaters and jackets. Of course, 90% of those regulars were senior citizens, so they probably take sweaters and jackets just about everywhere, cold or no cold.
In spite of its fairly contemporary appearance, upon entering the church, it was impossible to ignore the huge organ pipes. Unfortunately, no luck hearing the organ - piano accompaniment was the order for the day. The altar at St. Al's is situated in the center of the church with the majority of the seating surrounding it. A few seats are directly behind the priest which means that most of the congregation is not only looking at the priest and the altar but, unavoidably, at those people who choose to sit in those back seats. I thought this would be awkward for them, but apparently I was wrong. I couldn't help but notice that the few people who came in late, after mass started, took those very seats, unfazed, and then during the consecration, because they didn't have kneelers, sat there like a bunch of lazy heathens taking in a movie. They probably left right after communion too.
Given the recent uproar over the N1H1 flu, during the sign of peace, I couldn't help but wonder what would soon happen to The Handshake. Sure enough, before mass ended, the priest addressed the issue in vague terms - don't shake hands if you don't feel well or don't want to, etc., etc. At that same moment, one of the servers managed to both cough into the crook of his arm while wiping his nose on the sleeve of his alb. Priceless. BUT my new BFF was there! An elderly, white-haired gentleman dressed in his very best black suit, white dress shirt . . . and A BOW TIE. You just don't see that much. The whole experience was actually nice. On my 10-cross scale, I give St. Al's 7 crosses, but I'm still wondering - is it GON-za-ga or gon-ZA-ga?
ATTENDANCE: Comfortably full
DURATION: 45 minutes
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