End of an Era

Week Forty-One - Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (Reading)

5:00 Saturday afternoon mass, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. After a long process of elimination as to which church to visit this week, My Husband the Heathen and I headed east on Cross County Highway to Reading. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart is situated at the end of a cul-de-sac in a well-kept middle class neighborhood. The parish has a considerable expanse of land, which includes a spacious parking lot, a playground, and what appeared to be a very nice elementary school.

Given all of the plusses going on outside of the church, things changed drastically after entering the front doors. There was something . . . well . . . sad here. In short, OLSH seems to be a church fighting to stay alive - and losing. The atmosphere, the decor (or perhaps, more aptly, the absence thereof), dare I say - the congregation, even the choice of hymns reeked of days gone by. My Husband the Heathen described it as "odd." I would have said this was a church clearly in its prime during the 1960's . . . but which hadn't changed a bit since then. I have to believe the static nature of things wasn't a voluntary choice. The baby boomers have moved on, the next generation is struggling, and the seniors can't keep footing the bill. Hence, it was all rather . . . sad. Things got even sadder when we read in the OLSH bulletin that this had been the final year of operation for the parish's school.

I have to be honest and say that I wasn't particularly taken with OLSH, even as it toyed with my emotions. It wasn't aesthetically pleasing, and there was something rather stiff about the whole mass. Pet peeve alert: the priest read his lecture, err, I mean, homily. Kudos for the gentleman, however, who led the singing. He was a man who looked like he should be selling appliances at Lowe's - and maybe he does - but his voice was wonderful. I'm hoping he sings with the May Festival Chorus because, if he doesn't, he should, and frankly, it was a nice change of pace to hear some of the classic hymns that you don't hear very often. Well done. A "Hail Mary" tossed in at the end of the petitions was nice too, as was recognition of a new server's first mass as such.

All things considered, I guess OLSH wasn't so bad. A pleasant little parish. It's unfortunate that it's trapped in a time warp and, if I had to guess, an inevitably fatal one at that.

ATTENDANCE: About half full

DURATION: 45 minutes