4:00 Saturday afternoon mass, St. Cecilia. A big church? Yes. A pretty church? Not so sure. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine remarked to me how "beautiful" St. Cecilia's church was, how I should include St. Cecilia on my short list. Naturally, I had high hopes . . . maybe too high, and maybe that was the problem. Possibly the tallest church I've been to, St. Cecilia seemed to have all the right stuff. All the pieces were there, but for some reason, it just wasn't clicking. The woodwork behind the altar and a gleaming golden tabernacle were certainly striking, but the dark gray interior (limestone? concrete?), the fairly new (and faux?) wood flooring, and discomfortingly ugly stations of the cross were anything but. Stained glass windows, depicting monotonous patterns, were too small and disproportionate to the size of the church. An odd-looking fully-clothed Jesus with outstretched arms glared out from behind the altar. Was this the crucifix? Thankfully, no, but it was a while before I spotted the actual crucifix suspended from the very high ceiling. Four paintings on either side of Fully-Clothed Jesus were brilliant in color - good, making them oddly out of sync with the rest of the church - bad. I would like to say that the abundance of minute, painted details on the ceiling had some redeeming value, but the choice of colors - baby blue, salmon pink, and ivory - again didn't sit well with me. There was something almost panhellenic . . . or Mayan . . . or harlequin-esque here. There was so much potential within St. Cecilia that the reality of what I was seeing left me disappointed and a little bit sad.
With that said, there were still a few positives at St. Cecilia. Situated in the balcony at the back of the church, I have no doubt that St. Cecilia's huge pipe organ is phenomenal. Even at this particular mass, it was pretty darn good. Also pretty darn good was the celebrating priest. An affable, easy-going guy, it was obvious that he was well-liked. His homily began with the story of his encounter that very morning with copper thieves outside of his window. As featured on the local news just a few days ago, thieves were once again at work, brazenly stealing copper downspouts from the church. He proudly displayed one of the salvaged downspouts which was met with much applause from the congregation. Sadly, however, he and the police were unable to save all of the church's copper fixtures. Other churches on the east side continue to battle the same - and very frustrating - problem.
In spite of its aesthetics - or lack thereof, my visit to St. Cecilia was a good one. It's not exactly convenient for me to attend mass there, but I wouldn't hesitate to visit again, and I think that says a lot about the parish . . . and maybe even about me. Am I finally learning to look beyond the physical?
ATTENDANCE: Half full
DURATION: 50 minutes
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