Monday, October 25, 2010

Lost in Translation

Week Sixty-Two - Saint Maximilian Kolbe

4:30 Saturday afternoon mass, St. Maximilian Kolbe.  Is there really a difference between West Chester and Liberty Township?  I suppose to the people living in that general vicinity there is, but I surely don't know what the difference is.  I've seen St. Maximilian listed as being in both West Chester and Liberty Township.  Either way, it's a haul from the neighborhood I like to call home, so when My Husband the Heathen set out in that general direction and graciously offered to go the extra mile or two (or five or ten) to drop me off at a church in the area while he ran an errand, I couldn't say no. 

We passed new subdivision after new subdivision, new school after new school, finally arriving at - what else? - a new church. I did my homework and uncovered the following:  St. Maximilian's parish was established in 1989 to alleviate overcrowding at nearby Saint John the Evangelist parish, but for the next twelve years, masses were celebrated anywhere but in a church - in a school or in a newly built parish center (putting the proverbial cart before the horse on that one).  It wasn't until 1997 that the archdiocese finally gave approval to proceed with plans for construction of an actual church - their earlier argument against a new church, that there was "no guarantee for sustained growth" in the parish, now defeated by the very obvious and ubiquitous development in the region.  The new church was completed in 2001.  

Big.  Ridiculously big.  There's no other way to describe St. Max's.  The sanctuary is a vast space, wider than it is deep.  Although I took a seat off to one side towards the back (standard), I felt like I was miles away, not only from the altar but from those individuals seated waaaaayyy over on the other side of the church.  They looked so tiny, so far away.  If there was a charge to go to church here, I was definitely in the cheap seats.  The pews are arranged in a semi-circle around the altar, but everything else is sharp angles and crisp lines.  No surprise, it's a modern church.  Subdued floral upholstery on the kneelers was about as fancy as it got.  A huge stained glass window of Saint Maximilian was impressive, but the stained glass windows flanking the altar - three on either side - seemed kind of cheesy to me.  As best as I could tell, it was a depiction of the Last Supper, each window containing precisely two disciples, each of whom was "looking" towards the altar.  It was like a stained glass comic book.    

Big.  I watched in amazement as a continuous stream of people flowed into the church as 4:30 drew near.  The result was a near-capacity crowd.  Perhaps because the space was so big, however, like Saint Susanna's, any volume expressed by the congregation while speaking or singing was lost.  Hearing and understanding the priest and lectors were also difficult, most words dissolved or lost in a constant echo.  Ironically, as I later discovered, St. Max's big 15-page bulletin included an article about planned improvements to their sound system, upgrades that will include not only new audio equipment but acoustical improvements to the interior of the church.  Amen to that.

In addition to the above problems with sound, I was experiencing additional distortion courtesy of the elderly Asian gentleman next to me.  I didn't catch him singing or responding throughout most of the mass -  until it came time for the Creed.  With missalette in hand, reading along, he wholeheartedly joined in.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure his words were in English.  Each phrase started out in English - "We believe . . . " - but ended in anything but.  Was he misreading the words?  Was he simply mumbling through what he was having trouble with?  Was he translating into Japanese/Chinese on the fly?  There was no way I could participate with his own unique phraseology in my left ear and the echoes of the priest and congregation in my right.  I didn't really care - to be honest, this gentleman was adorable - but, for the moment, I was quite literally at a loss for words.

While reading up on the history of St. Maximilian parish, I clicked on the link to read about St. Max himself.  I strongly suggest you do the same.  A saint of modern times, the circumstances surrounding his death will horrify and haunt you, his actions will move you.  His martyrdom will leave you too at a loss for words.    
 
ATTENDANCE:  Two-thirds full

DURATION:  One hour

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Old Money

Week Sixty-One - Saint Antoninus

4:30 Saturday afternoon mass, St. Antoninus.  Western Hills' finest.  There's no other way to put it.  Not the church.  The congregation.  It's true.  Just ask them, but they won't tell you.  They don't really have to, of course - it's that obvious.  These are the people who have lived and prospered, especially prospered, in Western Hills for most of their lives.  I'm sure their names read like a Who's Who list for the west side - if not all - of Cincinnati.  They exude confidence and comfort, wallowing in the knowledge that they own, often quite literally if not figuratively, the west side.  This particular mass included a huge majority of well-dressed senior couples, most arriving in Cadillacs or Lincolns.  The women, for the most part, wore crisp pantsuits and an incredible amount of bling.  And the men?  I haven't seen that many sport coats at a weekend mass since . . . well, I've never seen that many sport coats at a weekend mass.  Their after-mass plans clearly included dinner at "the club," i.e., Western Hills Country Club, where a jacket is mandatory and a polyester pantsuit is always in good taste.  Ah, the good life . . .   

The church at St. Antoninus is noticeably . . . ivory and a bit off-kilter.  A large crucifix is hung not directly behind the altar but set off to the side.  Recessed panels behind the altar are likewise unbalanced, with a door on just one side, opening to what appeared to be a smaller chapel.  There are several large windows, but only one stained glass window, a huge circular one.  It reminded me of a flower . . . or a lollipop.  Lighting was helter-skelter - there were canned lights, recessed lights, hung lights reflecting upward.  If there was a pattern, I couldn't find it.  Looking around at St. Antoninus's church, I could easily envision a wedding party there.  Not just the actual ceremony, mind you, but the whole event.  Take out the pews and you have a very attractive reception hall.  Unfortunately, once I made that connection, that's all I could see.  It's not a very "churchy" church.  

The celebrating priest was quite a character.  Stooped at a 45 degree angle, he commented that he had graduated from the seminary "59 years ago . . . no, wait . . . is that right? . . . 70! 69!"  He never really decided which anniversary it was, but either way, he was certainly up there in years himself.  Later, he commented in a casual aside that his teeth were loose.  Had the congregation nodded sympathetically, I wouldn't have been surprised.    

ATTENDANCE:  Half full

DURATION:  50 minutes

Sunday, October 10, 2010

I Should Have Followed That Buick

Week Sixty - Saint Joseph (North Bend)

4:30 Saturday afternoon mass, St. Joseph.  I enjoyed my drive to North Bend this weekend.   A quiet, curving road leading down to the river on a beautiful, sunny day put me in a good mood.  Even a wrong turn at the last minute didn't throw me.  What did throw me, however, was St. Joseph's church.  I have to be honest - I have never seen the interior of a church like this one . . . and I'm not saying that as a good thing.  I'm completely, completely, baffled.  I had to come home and research the history of the church just to try to make sense of it all.  Was this, at some time, a gymnasium?  A multi-purpose room?  No, no, it was the "new" church (for a parish now 150 years old) built in 1961.  Honestly, I don't even know how to describe it.  I don't want to describe it.  Let's just move on. 

It was a full house at St. Joseph's Saturday afternoon mass, and a fairly sizable crowd it was.  I have to believe these were the "Aston" people, as in Aston Lake, Aston Woods, Aston Oaks, Aston View, the empty-nesters in their landominiums and the young couples living the good life on the edge of a golf course.  My suspicions were confirmed after mass when I followed several cars straight from the parking lot of the church to one of the many "Aston" streets where they, sure enough, turned off. 

I don't know who Aston is (or was), but he or she and his or her heirs have to be sitting pretty right about now.  One would expect St. Joseph's to be sitting pretty as well with the influx of so many new residents in the area.  Apparently, however, that part hasn't quite panned out.  Again, I was lucky enough to catch another "stewardship" homily this week which included this fun fact:  out of St. Joe's roughly 900 registered families, only a little over 200 use their weekly envelopes.  I'm not sure what that really means in terms of dollars received, but if the 700 families not using their envelopes aren't dropping their loose change in the basket, Houston, we've got a problem. Thus, this week, all registered parishioners will receive a letter asking for a "commitment."  If no reply is received, they will be sent "a series of follow-up letters" and their house will be foreclosed on.  Just kidding about that last part, but it looks like someone's going to be making some hard decisions over the next few days. Hmmm, jacuzzi in the master bath . . . or God?  I liked the byline on a printed "guideline for giving" that was placed on the chairs in the church (yes, they had chairs, not pews), "Not equal gifts, but equal sacrifice."  That's good. 

The mass itself was standard and unremarkable.  The music group sounded great, loud and clear, probably a result of those gymnasium acoustics.  There was one woman in the group who had a truly beautiful voice that stood out from the others.  I'm embarrassed to report that I found a considerable amount of humor in observing the people around me.  Two rows up sat a young family, including a little girl around four, "Big Sister Maria 09," according to her t-shirt, and the incriminating one-year old sister, a real-life Cindy Lou Who, aka "Little Princess," according to her own t-shirt.  I have to give it to Maria - this kid must have the patience of a saint because you know that somewhere in the back of her mind is the footnote to her graphic tee, "My mom and dad had another baby, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."  She was a well-behaved little girl, arranging and re-arranging the hymnals and missals, only breaking down into silent tears once for some unknown reason.  On the flip side, Little Princess was non-stop wiggles and gigggles that kept mom and dad non-stop busy.  It was as exhausting to watch as it was entertaining.  At one point, I had a bizarre thought that the parents could have made it easy on themselves and slipped Little Princess into the purse of the woman in front of me.  I swear it was the biggest purse I have ever seen in my life, and it was made of - get this - snakeskin.  Oh, it probably was fake, but had it been real, it would have taken a python or two to make a purse that size.  Some of the Aston folks, no doubt.  She with her snakeskin duffel bag and he in his Ralph Lauren jeans . . . in North Bend, Ohio.

I don't see myself returning to St. Joseph's anytime soon.  Yeah, it was a nice drive to get there, but next time, I think I'll just keep going. 
     
ATTENDANCE:  Comfortably full

DURATION:  One hour

Monday, October 4, 2010

St. Francis is My Hero

Week Fifty-Nine - Saint Anthony Friary and Shrine

10:00 Sunday morning mass, St. Anthony Shrine.  In a brief lapse in sanity, I purposefully got up at an ungodly weekend hour this past Sunday morning to go to mass.  Not just any mass, but a mass on a specific weekend at a specific location that I had planned for some time now.  The location was St. Anthony's Friary, and the weekend was that preceding Saint Francis' feast day (October 4th).  Last year, I had heard that there was quite a celebration in connection with the feast day of the Franciscans' beloved patron, so although this year's October 4th wasn't actually on a Sunday, I thought I'd take my chances and see if "close enough" counted.  Well, as it turned out, "close enough" didn't count, and the festivities were planned for Monday, the actual feast day.  Complicating matters was the fact that this liturgical party was going down at St. Francis Seraph Church on Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine.   'Nuff said.  So, bottom line, I got up early for a party that wasn't happening, but I did get up early for a wonderful mass and a peaceful place to celebrate it in, and that made it all worthwhile.

St. Anthony's overlooks Colerain Avenue, directly across from the heart of Mt. Airy Forest.  Perched high on a hill, the grounds are wonderfully quiet and serene.  There's quite a bit to see here, and visitors are welcome to walk the grounds.  The indoor shrine, at the back of the chapel, holds a "first-class relic" of Saint Anthony, "first-class" indicating the relic is a part of the body or bone from the saint.  I didn't look closely, and, no, I'm not sure I want to know.  The chapel is truly the epitome of "a chapel" - small, attractive, and charming.  This fact was a bit of a catch-22 for me after reading that the chapel, built in 1889, originally featured an elaborate interior with "eight side altars and two large paintings over the high altar depicting scenes from the life of St. Anthony."  For some reason - and I can't imagine what - the chapel was redecorated in 1978 in a "more simple style," at which time, the paintings were covered.  While the current interior is certainly attractive in its "more simple style," I couldn't help but wonder what the original had looked like and whether a true piece of history had been lost.  With that said, everything is in pristine condition, a result, I assume, from minimal use as St. Anthony's is not an active parish and, with the exception of two additional novena masses on Tuesday, only one mass is celebrated each day. 

What's not to love about the Franciscans?  With a Franciscan priest among my relatives, maybe I have a certain innate affinity for them, but how can you not admire those brown robes, the knotted rope belt, and - if you're lucky - the sandals.  On this cool morning, I noticed one of the priests wore socks with his sandals.  I love that.  I've never seen any young man in Franciscan garb, and at this location, all nine of the priests in attendance were clearly in, or at least approaching, their senior years, so I have to wonder if the Franciscans are a dying breed.  I hope not.  The celebrant at this mass was a kind-looking man who frequently smiled throughout the mass which was a really nice thing to see.  His homily was clear and insightful and . . . full of hope.  I don't know how else to describe it.  Great job.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm no spring chicken, but somehow I was still one of the youngest people at this mass.  Other than three teens (two of whom were with a family from St. Ignatius who sat in front of me - interesting) and one little girl, almost all of those in attendance were seniors.  That's not a bad thing, just an observation.  My other observation noted that this was a congregation who had made a conscious decision to be at this particular mass at St. Anthony's.  There was no parish boundary pulling these people in.  No rigid weekly routines.  No unspoken social conventions.  Rather, the only obligation was their "Sunday obligation."  They made a good choice.

ATTENDANCE:  Slightly less than full

DURATION:  55 minutes
 
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