Capitol Catholic

Ecuador-Bound

2012-01-04T01:01:00.000Z

I got very busy this past semester and didn't get to visit as many churches as I would have liked to. I'm looking forward to finishing the project during the 2012-2013 school year, since I will not be in Washington for the Spring 2012 semester. I'll be studying Spanish language and Ecuadorian culture in Quito, Ecuador from January until May.

I'll be keeping a blog while I'm down there. Follow me at:

www.msalinquito.wordpress.com

God Bless, Friends.

Holy Comforter/ St. Cyprian Church

2012-01-04T00:57:00.002Z

I finally visited another church in December, after a long, hard semester which kept me too busy to work on Capitol Catholic. I took my friend Dan to Holy Comforter/ St. Cyprian Church in the Capitol Hill area. I knew a bunch about the history of the parish because I studied it as part of a paper I wrote on black Catholic parishes in Washington, D.C. From my paper:

The parish formed as a result of increasing black migration into Washington, providing a large enough base to support another parish. Between 1880 and 1890, Washington’s black population increased from 48, 377 to 75,572, or 40.1% of the city’s population. Many settled in the Capitol Hill area, east of the Capitol, where the African-American Catholics attended St. Peter’s parish. They were forced to sit in the rear of the church and were offered few services, since the parish priests considered them technically part of the colored parish, St. Augustine’s. This policy engendered complaints as early as 1878, when a letter was sent from Catholics in east Washington to Archbishop of Baltimore James Gibbons, bemoaning the “deaths of a number of colored Catholics without the last sacraments because the other reverend fathers, considering them as parishioners of the distant St. Augustine’s, would not attend to their spiritual needs.”

Eventually, the voices of these Catholics were heard, and James Cardinal Gibbons sent a Maryland priest, Father James R. Matthews, to St. Peter’s, to work with the black Catholics. He initially held Masses in the former parish hall, and the new parish was organized in 1893. While credit is due to the initiative of the St. Cyprian’s parishioners and the hard work of Father Matthews, it is evident that the most important factor in forming St. Cyprian’s was the increase in black population in Washington and the Capitol Hill area in particular. The St. Joseph’s Advocate noted at the St. Cyprian’s cornerstone-laying that there was a “need long felt of this second church in a section of Washington abounding with colored people having a large percentage of Catholic families for generations accommodated at St. Peter’s.”

St. Cyprian, facing decaying facilities and a smaller parish, merged with nearby Holy Comforter parish, formerly a majority white parish, in the 1960's. Today, the Mass at the merged parish features a large Gospel choir and a very passionate service. The priest gave a sermon which discussed how we develop in our faith, and told stories about working as the only African-American in a small farming town in California. The Mass closed up with a performance of one my favorite Gospel pieces, "I Opened My Mouth To The Lord," a fiery piece which requires that three parts of the choir sing different pieces of the hymn at the same time. It was great, and a great way to end the semester.

St. Francis Xavier Church

2012-01-03T23:19:00.001Z

These are some pictures from my visit to St. Francis Xavier Church in Southeast D.C. in September. I have delayed doing this so long that I have lost my notes and honestly couldn't tell you much about the service. There was a small choir and they incorporated a few Gospel hymns into the Mass, but it was much more low-key than churches like St. Teresa of Avila. I also brought my friend Hunter, who enjoyed the Mass.

Our Lady of Victory Church

2011-09-05T22:54:00.000+01:00

Hey friends! It's back to D.C. for another semester of church visits. Yesterday I went to Our Lady of Victory Parish in Northwest D.C. It's in a cute neighborhood east of Georgetown which is also home to George Washington University's Mount Vernon campus. Instead of taking the shuttle to Mount Vernon, I walked to OLV along the C&O Canal path.

Our Lady of Victory is a relatively small church perched on top of a grassy hill. The brick building had a pentagonal facade and had relatively bare walls on the inside. Colorwise, the church was dominated by blue, white and brown, with blue carpet, a blue velvet apse, and brown support beams. There was a very cool looking medieval-style painting near the front as well.

Music was provided by an organ and a choir of about half a dozen people. It was refreshing to hear their traditional hymns after slacking off on church attendance this summer. In his homily, the priest discussed the beginnings of the Church, and said that it formed a "body" of which the Pope was the "head." He compared the body of the Church to a symphony, which despite being made up of diverse "instruments" and "voices," is able to make beautiful music because they read from Christ's score.

View DC Churches I've Been To So Far in a larger map

A Couple Links

2011-08-02T05:38:00.000+01:00

Here's a new blog project I'm working on before I go back to visiting D.C.'s churches in September. I'm doing 20 different hikes every day from August 1-20.

20hikes20days.wordpress.com

Do you know about the Power of Love Foundation?
Power of Love is an innovative non-profit that works with communities in Africa struggling with the AIDS epidemic. In order to create healthy, self-reliant communities, Power of Love (1) Trains women to care for their HIV-infected children and orphans, (2) Provides women with micro-loans and business training to generate income, and (3) Provides food, medicines, and a package of life-saving healthcare services to the children in their care.

My good friend Annu wrote some great blog entries about her experiences visiting the Power of Love's care center in Lusaka, Zambia earlier this summer:

http://annutozambia.wordpress.com/

Click below to read more about the Power of Love, sign up for the e-newsletter, and donate. POL does important work that Catholics and non-Catholics should be eager to support. Thanks so much!

www.PowerOfLove.org

St. Brigid Catholic Church (Los Angeles, CA)

2011-07-15T06:38:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago, I took my mom to St. Brigid’s Catholic Church in Los Angeles. After two years of stories about D.C.’s black Catholic churches, I figured we should try to visit an African-American parish in L.A. St. Brigid is located southeast of downtown Los Angeles and it is famous for its Gospel choir.

We came for the 10:30 AM Mass, which didn’t end up starting until around 10:50. The procession was led by three young men beating on drums with their hands in African-style rhythms. The priest, Father Frank, began the Mass by pouring water into a small plant and calling on the parish to remember their ancestors. I asked him about this later, and he said that it derives from West African tradition, which begins religious worship by calling on ancestors. Watering the plant is a symbol of life.

The church had some very pretty architectural elements, though it didn’t appear to have a unifying theme. There seemed to be a lot of African-inspired design elements, as well as a lot of dark green features. I did notice that while the left side of the church had a very cool looking stained glass window, the corresponding window on the right had nothing. I actually like it when churches are left partially unfinished (even unintentionally) because it’s a great symbol for mankind’s inability to achieve perfection.

The choir consisted of around a dozen members, and they did a nice job. On this particular Sunday, Beau Williams, a Gospel singer, came by to sing a few songs and sell some CD’s. He had a great voice, but I still found his rather transparent attempt to promote himself was a little bit inappropriate for Mass. After getting some applause after his first song, Beau tried to get permission from Father Frank to sing a second tune. “Later,” the priest said.

In his homily, Father Frank said that the Body of Christ is present not only in the Eucharist, but also in the church members who come together to worship as one body in Christ. Altogether it was a wonderful Mass. At the end of the Mass, visitors were asked to stand. I introduced myself, and told everyone that I had brought my mother with me. After church, a few shocked parishioners told us that they thought she was my sister. Pleased, though not surprised, my mother said: “They sure know what to say to make you want to come back.”

Pictures:

Pittsburgh Catholic

2011-06-28T05:14:00.000+01:00

A few churches I found in Pittsburgh while visiting my family a few months ago...

St. Mary of the Mount Church

St. Stanislaus Kostka Church (Polish Parish)

Heinz Chapel (Non-denominational)

The stained glass in the Chapel included figures from American history.

St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Martin of Tours Church

2011-05-18T21:58:00.000+01:00

For my final church visit of the year, I asked my good friend John, who’s gone with me to a bunch of different churches, to pick which church he’d like to go to. I also wanted him to do it because he’s not coming back to GW next year as a FOCUS missionary, since joining the seminary to study to become a priest next year. At any rate, he picked the 9 AM Mass at St. Martin of Tours in Northeast Washington. After trying to figure out how long it would take to take the Metro there, a trip involving several transfers and a considerable walk to the church, I suggested that we just walk the entire way from Foggy Bottom. It was about a forty minute walk up Rhode Island Avenue, and John, Loreto and I got to enjoy a beautiful day in Washington.

St. Martin of Tours is in an interesting location, situated on hill right next to a bridge going over North Capitol Street. It was hard to distinguish a single architectural style on the building, it seemed to embrace neo-classical Greek and Roman architecture. The interior of the church had mostly plain white walls, with blue stained glass windows. At the front of the church were two banners, one depicting human figures dancing, and another showing a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. At the rear of the church, below the choir loft, there were two quilts hung with African-influenced patterns. The area behind the altar had a large wooden frame and a golden cross; it had a very modern feel.

There was one cantor singing accompanied by the powerful pipe organ. The Mass was interesting because not all of the pews had kneelers, so rather than kneeling, the parish stood up. I asked Deacon Robert about this after Mass, and he said that the standing was also something the parish chose to do regardless of the missing kneelers. Father Michael gave the homily, and discussed the appearance of Jesus to the men on the road to Emmaeus. He reminded us that these fellows were leaving Jerusalem disappointed before Jesus appeared to them. While they may have given up on Christ, but Christ did not give up on them. Father said that our mothers often do the same thing in our lives, and then called the church’s mothers up to the altar for a Mother’s Day blessing. When he did, a long line of mothers formed that went all the way to the back of the church.

John, Loreto, and I went downstairs after Mass for a fundraiser for the parish youth group’s production of The Wiz. We had a nice time talking with Deacon Robert and our new friend Irene, a nursing professor at Georgetown University who supervised a service-learning project at St. Martin of Tours. It was a great way to end the semester.

Links:
St. Martin of Tours Website (The noisiest church website I've ever been on)

Pictures:

Churches I've Been To So Far:

View DC Churches I've Been To So Far in a larger map

St. Mary Mother of God Church (Tridentine Latin Mass)

2011-05-18T21:13:00.002+01:00

A few weeks ago, my friend and fellow Knight of Columbus Peter suggested a trip to St. Mary, Mother of God Church in Chinatown to see their Tridentine Latin Mass. I jumped at the chance to go, as did several other friends from the Knights of Columbus and the Newman Center: Christina, Francisco, and (another) Michael. I had been to St. Mary Mother of God before to see their 11:30 AM Mass in Cantonese (Chinese), so I already knew what it was like to sit in that church for an hour without having any idea what was going on.

The Tridentine Latin Mass is the Mass that was performed in the Catholic Church before the 1962 Vatican Conference, which produced a new order of the Mass (known as “Novus Ordo,” or “New Order”) and allowed Masses to be given in vernacular languages. I have previously seen a “Novus Ordo” Latin Mass, a Mass in which the post-Vatican II Mass was given in Latin, but it is much rarer to see the pre-Vatican II Tridentine Latin Mass, which can only be performed with the permission of a local Archbishop.

St. Mary Mother of God was the same neo-Gothic church that I had seen before, except for a worn down shrine section of the church, which had since been improved with a navy-blue background and a large metal image of the Virgin Mary. The congregation was very conservatively dressed, with men generally wearing suits, and many women wearing veils. There were a lot of elderly folks at Mass, but a few families as well, like the one with five or six children that sat in front of us. Nearly everyone at the Mass was Caucasian.

The Mass itself was a very interesting affair. For much of the celebration, the priest, had his back to the congregation. He would chant a verse of a prayer or reading, and a response would come either from the congregation or the fantastic choir sitting in the loft at the rear of the church. The choir was fantastic, and their wonderful songs and chants filled the space with a very uplifting ambience. I was pretty confused as to what was going on throughout the Mass because, of course, I failed to grab one of the Latin Missal booklets located at the front of the church. I didn’t realize that nearly every section of the Mass was sung either by the choir or the priest, including the first two readings. I thought I had missed the entire Liturgy of the Word until the priest read the Gospel (in English).

The priest, who wore some sort of hat during the Mass (it looked like a beret) and spoke with a British accent, said in his homily that if we do not actively engage our faith, we become passive spectators to a grand spectacle, like the British Royal Wedding. He said that to avoid doubt, like that of the apostle Thomas in the Gospel reading, we need to work our faith out like a muscle. Part of exercising that faith, he said, was receiving Holy Communion, which preserves Christ’s resurrection over time. Later in the Mass, the congregation received Holy Communion in a manner that I’ve never seen before; we knelt before a small wall in front of the altar, and the priests and Eucharistic ministers distributed the host to our tongues as we knelt. It was a very interesting end to this very traditional Mass. Personally, I didn’t really feel connected to this Mass and some of my friends felt the same way. I think it is great that this tradition is kept alive, but I can also see why the Church moved away from the Tridentine Latin Mass and began to allow Masses in the vernacular.

Links:

St. Mary Mother of God Website

Photos:

(This shrine has been recently refurbished)

St. Augustine Church- Easter Mass

2011-04-24T23:24:00.000+01:00

For Easter this year, I decided to go one of my favorite churches in Washington, St. Augustine Church on U St. (Click here to see my original post on St. Augustine from December 2009).They're famous for their fantastic gospel choir and energetic pastor, Father Pat. I invited my friend Mike from work to come with me, he's a student from Ohio spending the semester interning in Washington, D.C. We thoroughly enjoyed the spectacular music and the wonderful atmosphere. Happy Easter everyone!

Assumption Catholic Church

2011-04-24T23:17:00.001+01:00

On April 3, my good friend Dan and I visited Assumption Catholic Church, in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Southeast Washington. It’s been a few weeks since that visit, so I’m having a hard time remembering the finer points of the Mass, but I can affirmatively say that Dan and I absolutely loved this church. According to a parish history given to me after Mass, the parish was formed in 1916, and their current church building was finished in 1933. The church building reminded me a lot of the chapel at St. Anselm’s Abbey because of its pentagonal face, brick walls, and slanted wooden roof.

There was a small choir providing the music, made up of six or seven ladies and a man accompanying them on the piano. They seemed to incorporate a gospel style of music, but their hymns were less fiery and energetic than those of, for example, St. Teresa of Avila parish or St. Augustine parish. I enjoyed this calmer form of worship, which seemed appropriate for this small, intimate church.

Undoubtedly, my favorite part of the service was Father Montgomery’s homily. He was incredibly entertaining, charismatic, and delivered some clear, important messages from the day’s Gospel readings. He started off by questioning the validity of televangelists like Oral Roberts and Benny Hinn. If these people really have such a great connection with God, he asked, why do they continually face health and marital problems? He then jokingly suggested that he could bring in as many donations as these televangelists by holding a “healing,” where he would slap his parishioners around and then send them running into the street yelling, “I’m healed!!” He then discussed the day’s Gospel, in which Jesus healed a blind man. In Jesus’ time, many saw blindness as a punishment from God for sinning, but Jesus refused to speculate on the man’s past and relieved him of his blindness anyway. This was evidence, said Father Montgomery, that our God is not a vengeful God, but a God of “compassion and mercy.”

Links:

Assumption Church Website

Pictures:

Churches I've Been To So Far (29!)

View DC Churches I've Been To So Far in a larger map

St. Anthony of Padua Church

2011-04-05T02:49:00.001+01:00

Last week, I went to visit St. Anthony of Padua Church, a small parish located near the Catholic University of America. I always wondered whether this parish struggled to draw people in for Mass, since I imagine many people close by would go to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception nearby. This church, however, seemed to be quite lively and functioning. My good friend Dan once again decided to accompany me.

The front of the church was orange-brownish and had a pentagonal shape. Inside the church, a series of large, blue-tipped arches covered the worship area. The walls were mostly white, with carved wood panels surrounding the church. The church had some beautiful stained glass panels along the side of the church. One side depicted the life of St. Anthony of Padua, the other the history of the Catholic Church in Maryland.

Mass was fairly mellow, with a single cantor accompanied by piano taking the musical duties. In the homily, the priest discussed the dialogue Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well, comparing it to the scrutiny given to candidates for Baptism. He also asked us to take up a self-scrutiny, asking ourselves, “Who are we?” and “How did we get here?”

Link:

St. Anthony of Padua Church

Pictures:

Newman Hall/Holy Spirit Parish (Berkeley, CA)

2011-03-16T00:14:00.001Z

Thank goodness it's Spring Break! I spent the beginning of my vacation in the Bay Area, visiting a friend from high school at UC Berkeley. On Sunday, I figured I'd check out UC Berkeley's Newman Center for Mass.

The Newman community at Berkeley has a huge facility close to campus. Their worship space is like no church I've ever seen, with stark stone walls, as well as a stone altar and podium. There was a large stone cross that appeared to be incorporated into the wall. I thought the stone was a very interesting choice, it reminded me of the biblical verse where Jesus tells Peter to build the church upon a rock.

There was a small student choir giving hymns at the Mass, and instead of hymn books, the lyrics to the hymns were displayed on a sharp-looking projection screen above the choir. I couldn't figure out exactly why they were doing this, but my guess was that not having hymn books was a way to save paper. All in all, a very cool, modern place to worship.

Links:
Cal Newman Center

Pictures:

Catholic Churches I've Visited in California:

View Catholic Churches I've Visited in California in a larger map

Holy Redeemer Church

2011-03-06T21:23:00.001Z

This has been a very busy semester for me, but I knew I should get back to this blog so as not to worry my regular readers (and by regular readers, I mean my mother, Fr. Blaise, and my loyal Catholic reader Patsy Anne, from Texas!). This week, I visited Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, near the border of Northwest and Northeast Washington, D.C. It was a short walk from the Mt. Vernon Sq./Convention Center Metro stop.

I was actually a little bit late for the 12:00 PM Mass, but it didn’t appear to matter. As I walked in, I found the entire church empty, except for myself, the woman setting up the Mass, and another parishioner who walked in the same time I did. They told me that the 9:15 AM Mass was more well-attended than the 12:00 PM one was (I made a note to come back and see the 9:15 Mass). They ended up starting the Mass around 12:15, and there were about six people present for the Mass, including the priest. The small crowd made for a very intimate service. My favorite moment came when everyone gathered in the aisle of the church building and held hands when praying the Our Father.

The church itself was reasonably sized, with a brick exterior, and a pentagonal shaped façade with a circular window at the center. The inside of the church wasn’t overly decorated, with patterned white walls and a tabernacle of a variety of different types of stone and marble. They had stained glass panels along the sides of the church, but only a few at the front were really carved out. It appeared that they were a work in progress.

Father Bava gave what I thought was a fairly long homily for such a small audience, but he had some interesting things to say nonetheless. In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples to build their faith upon rock, not upon sand. Father Bava told us, too, that we should base our actions on our faith in God, and not our desire for money or attention.

Links:
Holy Redeemer Church

Pictures:

Churches I've Been To So Far:

View DC Churches I've Been To So Far in a larger map

Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family

2011-01-23T21:48:00.000Z

This week, Dan, Loreto, and I took a trip out to the Ukrainian National Catholic Shrine of the Holy Family, a beautiful church near the Catholic University of America. The Ukrainian Catholic Church is an eastern-rite Catholic church, meaning that they are in communion with the Holy See, but are not part of the Latin Rite, which encompasses most of the Catholic Churches in the United States and around the world. Thus, members of the Ukrainian Catholic Church are Catholic, but not “Roman” Catholic. More on this later.

The church building doesn’t look like any church I’ve ever seen before. Built on a sloping hillside, the church appears to resemble some sort of military battleship. Above a few feet of vertical wall is what appears to be a giant, sloping roof, topped with golden sphires, a distinctive feature of Slavic architecture. On the inside, the church had mostly plain white walls, with several Byzantine-style icons all around. The windows located on the slanted part of the church were designed to allow the sun to shine into the church differently during the different seasons, and to shine directly on the altar one or two days of the year. There was also what appeared to be a big golden fence with several icons on it in between the altar and the congregation. During the Mass, a set of gates in the center of the fence was opened, but much of the action of the Mass was still covered from view.

The Mass was, of course, in Ukrainian, and the three of us had no idea what was going on most of the time. We tried to follow along in the bilingual liturgy guide, though it was tough to keep track of what page we were on. We kept looking over the shoulder of the gentleman sitting in front of us to see what page we should be on. There were a few things I noticed while trying to follow along. The first was that there was very little talking, and a whole lot of singing. The three priests would chant out a verse, and the congregation, along with the choir, located in a loft above the parishioners, would respond. Unaccompanied by any musicians, much of the Mass was done in this purely vocal, call-and-response form.

They did a few things that reminded me of Our Lady of Lebanon, the Maronite Catholic Church I visited last spring. The first was their use of incense at several points during the Mass. Roman Catholics generally reserve incense for special occasions. Another was the way they presented the Eucharist. Whereas most Roman Catholic Churches offer a small wafer as the body of Christ and wine as the blood of Christ, the Ukrainians offered a cube-shaped piece of bread that was soaked with wine. Mixing bread and wine, a practice known as “intinction,” is considered a big no-no in the Roman Catholic Church, but is still practiced in some Eastern churches. Rather than directly placing the Eucharist in our hands or mouths, the priests at the Shrine of the Holy Family stuck the Eucharist in our mouths with golden spoons. I joked to my friends that it was the first time I had ever been “spoon-fed” the Eucharist.

After Mass, we spoke briefly with the Grand Knight of the Holy Family’s Knights of Columbus Council, Brian. He introduced us to one of the priests, who explained some of the Ukrainian Catholic traditions and symbols. Normally, he said, the church would have icons all over the walls, but they simply didn’t have the money to put them in right away. The big golden fence in front of the altar was called an “icon screen,” and when the priests moved outside of it to distribute the Eucharist or read from the Gospel, it symbolized the way God moves toward us to awaken the spirit inside of us. Altogether, quite an interesting Mass.

Links:

Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family

Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia

Pictures:

Churches I've Been To So Far (26!)

View DC Churches I've Been To So Far in a larger map

DC Catholicism in the News: Shriver's Wake

2011-01-21T23:56:00.000Z

Sargent Shriver passed away a few days ago, and his wake was held today at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown. According to AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former colleagues and admirers of R. Sargent Shriver are gathering to offer condolences to the family of the first Peace Corps director and 1972 Democratic vice-presidential nominee.

Hundreds of people streamed into Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. Friday evening for a wake for Shriver, who was the brother-in-law of President John Kennedy.

House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer, former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd and journalist Bill Moyers were expected to eulogize Shriver.

Vice President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton are expected to speak at the funeral Mass on Saturday. First lady Michelle Obama will also attend.

Shriver will be buried late Saturday in the same Hyannis, Mass. cemetery as his wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver. He died this week at age 95 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

A Link to the Story Here

Holy Name Church

2011-01-17T00:04:00.001Z

Today, I went to church with my good friends, John and Loreto. In honor of our friend Kate, who moved back to Illinois from D.C. last month, I decided we should visit Holy Name, a church she told me about a while back. Holy Name is in Northeast Washington, near Gallaudet University, where Kate was attending school.

The church building wasn’t overwhelming. The red, rectangular-shaped building looked more like a barn than a Catholic Church. Outside is a beautiful statue of the Virgin Mary welcoming people into the building. The worship space is actually on the second floor of the building, with a parish hall on the first floor. This arrangement looks a little bit funny from the outside: the second story has stained glass windows, while the first floor has no windows at all. The actual worship space was pleasant, with plain white walls and patterned stained glass. It felt a lot like some of the other African-American parishes that I’ve visited, which have sort of a Southern Protestant feel.

The singing duties were performed by a small choir accompanied by the piano. Though certainly not as energetic as the choir at St. Teresa of Avila, this group got me swaying and clapping my hands a few times during Mass. Father Villanueva talked about the phrase “Lamb of God” during his homily today. He said it conjured three familiar images: that of the sacrificial lamb of the Old Covenant, that of the sacrifice of the Passover and the blood of the lamb that was to be smeared on the door of the chosen people, and that of a lamb going peacefully to be slaughtered. Father called on us, like Jesus, to become sacrificial lambs by loving and forgiving without condition.

Links:

Holy Name Church

Pictures:

Churches I've Been To So Far (25):

View Churches I've Been To So Far in a larger map

Immaculate Conception Church

2011-01-16T23:23:00.000Z

Ah, back to Washington, D.C. After a wonderful Christmas break back home in California, it was back to my church project. After arriving home on the 8^th, I set out for Immaculate Conception Church, a very beautiful church near the Washington Convention Center, north of Chinatown.

Not to be confused with the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Immaculate Conception was one of several parishes formed during the Civil War, when a boost in Washington’s population began to overwhelm the capacities of St. Patrick Church, the first church in the Federal City. St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. Mary, Mother of God, and St. Matthew’s were also formed during this period.

It’s a striking red building, with one large tower at the center of the church. It also has large glass windows which are quite prominent on the front and side exterior of the church. On the inside, I found a lot of dark-colored wood, which reminded me of St. Gabriel Church. I was immediately struck by the strong smell of pine, which was coming from the Christmas trees and wreaths that were located all over the worship space.

Immaculate Conception was an interesting parish. It seems like a relatively young one, there were a number of children and young families present. It was also racially diverse, with a significant number of both African-American and white parishioners. The pastor, Monsignor Watkins, was energetic and humorous. To discuss our relationship with God, he brought up a boy who was to be baptized later in the Mass. He compared the boy’s relationship with his parents with his relationship with God, saying that “we know who we are because we know whose we are.” We know who our parents are because they look like us; we know that we are God’s children because we were created in his image. He said that through baptism, the young man would be “born again as an adopted son of God.”

Links:

Immaculate Conception Church

Pictures:

St. Peter's on Capitol Hill

2010-12-19T20:45:00.000Z

I've been visiting the Library of Congress a lot recently, both to study and to do research. Every time I'm around the Capitol Hill neighborhood, I run into St. Peter's Catholic Church and I always make a mental note that I still have to go there. I figured it would be an appropriate place to visit for my last D.C. church visit of the year. It's located about a block away from the Capitol South Metro Station, located at 2nd and C Streets, Southeast.

St. Peter's is sort of a sister parish to St. Joseph's, which also gives itself the suffix, "on Capitol Hill." Both have similar architecture, and they're located just a few blocks away from each other on opposites of the Capitol building (St. Joseph's for the Senate side, St. Peter's for the House side, I was once told). St. Peter's has the same pseudo-Gothic style found in other downtown D.C. churches, and I found it remarkably similar to St. Mary, Mother of God. Above the columns of the church, extending all the way around the church, was what appeared to be a banner, with gold letters and a Latin and English message. I couldn't understand the Latin, but the English, at the front of the church, said "Christ has died. Christ is risen."

The church appears to have a pretty young parish, with lots of 30 and 40-somethings and plenty of young families. The Capitol Hill neighborhood, after all, is known for being a haven for young professionals and Hill staffers. The "folk" choir group, made up of about six singers accompanied by two guitars, had some soothing interpretations of familiar Advent hymns. Father Carter was offering confession with a group of other priests after Mass, and in his sermon, he talked about why confession was a necessary part of our relationship with God. He said that the great thing about God's love was that it was unconditional, and that we don't need to live up to his standards to accept his love. The important part of our relationship with God, he said, is how we respond to God's love, and we can help to heal that relationship by going to confession. He said that fear of shame or embarrassment was what kept most people away from confession, and then quoted Jesus, saying "Be not afraid."

Links:
St. Peter's on Capitol Hill

Pictures:

Here's my list of Churches that I've visited in Washington so far. My goal for 2010 was to visit over 40 in both California and Washington, I ended up getting to 27...not bad!

View Churches I've Been To So Far in a larger map

Holy Trinity Catholic Church

2010-12-05T20:09:00.001Z

After coming to St. Anselm’s, I asked Kate’s friend Richard to pick a church for this Sunday. He picked Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, a parish that I’ve been looking forward to visiting for a while. The same group, Richard, Kate, John, and I, headed over to Holy Trinity from the Rosslyn Metro Station. We crossed the Francis Scott Key Bridge, and walked up a strangely placed set of stairs to get to the church at 36^th St. NW. John pointed out that the stairs looked like the ones featured in a famous scene from the horror film, The Exorcist. As it turns out, they were.

Holy Trinity is another one of the churches in contention for the title of “oldest parish in Washington.” It was formed in 1794 by Jesuit missionaries, the same year that St. Patrick parish (located downtown) claims to have been formed. I’m certainly not one to settle these kinds of disputes, but there appear to be two important questions: 1) which parish was formed earlier in 1794? and 2) should Holy Trinity be removed from contention since Georgetown was not considered to be part of the city of Washington at the time? I think St. Francis De Sales can also throw its hat into the ring because of its claim of descending from the Queen’s Chapel, where Catholic worship started in 1722. Anyone have a good answer to this question?

The church itself was built in the early 19^th century, and it certainly doesn’t feel much like a Catholic church. Both the inside and outside of the building feature tall Corinthian columns, indicative of the “Greek Revival” style of architecture popular during the early 19^th century. The outside looks very much like the White House, the Treasury building, and many other federal buildings. Because of its large, overhanging balcony, the interior felt a little like Ford’s Theater.

The mass was very crowded. We were a little late and had to stand at the back of the church. There were lots of families there with small children, and we heard plenty of the whining, shouting, and crying that usually comes with such an environment. I quite enjoyed listening to the choir perform. There were about eight singers accompanied by three guitars and a pianist. They performed some of my favorite Advent hymns, including “O Come, O Come, Immanuel,” and “Soon and Very Soon.”

In his homily, Father Murray discussed the calls for reform that were presented in today’s readings. Jesus left his apostles to do his work of bringing peace on earth. Since the world has not changed, some claim that he was not the Messiah. Father countered this argument by saying that the world has not changed because we have not taken Christ’s message upon ourselves. He told the parish to care for the poor and to “exclude no one from our love.”

Also, at the end of Mass, I realized that Speaker of the House (soon to be House Minority Leader) Nancy Pelosi was in attendance. I managed to snap a picture of her as she left. This is my third major politician sighting while visiting Catholic churches around the country. This summer, I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger at church in Santa Monica and this fall, I saw Joe Biden, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas at the Red Mass in Washington, D.C. I wonder who’s next?!

Links:

Holy Trinity Catholic Church

Pictures:

View of the Interior of the Church from the Upper Balcony

Speaker Pelosi Leaves The Building:

Churches That I've Been To So Far (The list is getting big!)

View Churches I've Been To So Far in a larger map

St. Anselm's Abbey

2010-12-05T19:00:00.000Z

I visited St. Anselm’s Abbey a couple weeks ago, but I’ve been far too busy with school work to write about it. I’m glad I’m doing it now, because it was such a wonderful experience. I asked my friend Kate to pick the church that week, and she chose St. Anselm’s. St. Anselm’s is a small monastery on the very northeastern edge of Washington, D.C. It was not particularly easy to get to, but I trekked over there with Kate, her friend Richard, and John one of GW’s FOCUS missionaries.

The abbey was a 40-acre property which was beautiful on a mid-November morning. The church was actually one of the smaller buildings on the campus. It was a tiny brick building that looked like it couldn’t hold more than 40 or 50 people. There was a wooden roof and some brilliant stained glass, which lit the church beautifully as the sun started to shine through. The monks were seated in front of the congregation, facing each other, with the priest and the altar in the very rear. A crucifix was hung from the ceiling near the middle of the building; I thought it was interesting because the vertical and horizontal parts of the cross were of the same length. The whole thing felt very much like an old Protestant church in rural England. I learned later that the Benedictines, who built St. Anselm’s, are an order that hails from Scotland.

The mass was very low-key, but I thought that was perfect for such a peaceful setting. One of the brothers served as a cantor, accompanied by a small organ. He wasn’t a particularly good singer, but I don’t think any of the monks were. Each week, the monks who have been ordained as priests (the “Brothers” who are also “Fathers”) trade off leading the Sunday services. This week was Father Phillip’s turn. He talked about our concept of time, particularly the “end times.” He said that since, according to God, history ended at the crucifixion, we are really living in the “end times.” He said that the “end times” could be quiet and peaceful, like the feeling of waking up on Christmas morning.

After Mass, John, Kate, Richard and I talked to Father Phillip and asked him to show us around the grounds. After taking some time to start preparations for the day’s lunch, he took us around for about two hours! I was particularly impressed with the numerous historical artifacts of the Abbey. He showed us furniture from the Middle Ages, a first edition of a book by Renaissance scholar Desiderius Erasmus, and my personal favorite, a bunker constructed on the property to defend Washington, D.C. during the Civil War era. I eagerly climbed over a fallen tree to get into the ditch where the bunker was located, nearly causing Father Phillip to have a heart attack. Father Phillip also showed us the small cemetery where monks and friends of the monastery were buried. It was beautiful to see men buried in the same area where they had committed so much of their lives. In such a peaceful wood, it was hard to imagine that I was still in Washington, D.C.

Links:

St. Anselm's Abbey

Pictures

Civil War-Era Bunker

Shrine to Mary

Latin Inscription "His Mercy Is To Those Who Fear Him"

St. Stephen Martyr Church

2010-11-01T18:29:00.000Z

After an exhausting Saturday at Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity," I felt like staying close to home for church on Sunday. I decided to go to St. Stephen the Martyr Church, located very close to the GW campus. I've been there many times already for Masses held by the GW Newman Center, but I've never written about it, and I was curious to see what their 1:00 PM "Filipino community" Mass was like.

As I walked in the church, two greeters handed me plastic folders with the words to the hymns that would be sung during Mass. Thankfully, they were all in English. I was worried that the Mass would be in Tagalog, or one of the other Filipino languages (My knowledge of Tagalog consists of "Kumusta ka?", meaning "How are you?," "Mabuti," meaning "Good," and "Bastos," the word my grandmother would use to describe rotten children like myself.).

St. Stephen's is a small, odd-looking church. It has a large stone belltower, and a large, arching piece of stained glass at the front of the church. The interior is also quite unconventional. The walls are almost pure white, with a smooth, rounded, arched ceiling. The white, adobe-like walls make it look like someone's set up a Catholic church in Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen's house on Tatooine. (This is a Star Wars reference. For those of you not galactically inclined, you can educate yourselves here.)

The choir, made up of a couple dozen male and female singers, did a nice job. Accompanied by one fellow playing the keyboard, their voices resonated strongly through the echo-prone church building. Though their style seemed to be a mix of modern church music and Filipino folk music, the echo and the many voices made them sound like Gregorian chanters. I was particularly struck by their rendition of the pop song "You Raise Me Up." I guess my grandmother isn't the only Filipino who likes Josh Groban.

The priest today introduced a Indian nun from the Sisters of Christ the Light, who cater to the needs of rural communities in India. She told several stories about their work, including that of a man who tried to kill her in a forest, but later came to her asking for forgiveness, and about a little boy who was grateful to receive an education from the Sisters. The thing that I found most interesting was that these Sisters work in areas that are 80% Hindu.

What I loved about this Mass was just how many people were participating in the Mass. There were probably 20 choir members, and 6 altar servers (think about it! That's a lot!) as well as ushers, greeters, and eucharistic ministers. It seemed like it was truly the product of a proud Filipino community, in which everyone was eager and willing to participate.

Links:
St. Stephen Martyr Church

Pictures:

St. Teresa of Avila

2010-10-28T05:08:00.001+01:00

It’s been a while since I’ve gone church-exploring, so this week I got right back on the horse. I brought two new friends to church this week, John and Kate (Plus Michael! Get it?). John is a missionary with the Fellowship Of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) and is busy spreading the Word at GW. Kate is a student at Gallaudet University, a college for deaf students, (she can hear, but she’s studying deaf education) who hangs out a lot at the GW Newman Center. I decided to bring them to St. Teresa of Avila in Anacostia, in the Southeast part of Washington, D.C.

One of the reasons I wanted to go to “STA” was that it was close to a little-known D.C. landmark called the “Big Chair.” It is, as its name suggests, a 19-foot tall chair, created by a furniture company in 1959 and cherished ever since by local residents, it even made an appearance in a recent Wale music video (here, around 1:49). It was very cool, but not nearly as cool as the Mass we were about to attend.

The church had a pretty simple design, a pentagonal façade with few architectural flourishes. The walls of the inside of the church were bare white for the most part. As I walked in, the first I thing I noticed was the large painting of Jesus on the wall behind the altar. He appears to be seated on a throne in the middle of space, with stars, the Earth and the moon in the background. On second glance, Jesus is actually engulfed in yellow light, and is thus shown as being separate from Earth, space, and the moon. Quite frankly though, it was still the strangest-looking piece of art I’ve ever seen inside a church. Also behind the altar was a red, bush-looking statue that John guessed was a representation of the burning bush.

As we walked in, the church was about half-full, and some of the parishioners were praying the rosary together. Things quickly livened up, however, as the young adult choir started belting out the opening hymn. The choir got everyone moving (see video below) and I soon found myself clapping my hands and moving from side to side. They were led by a fantastic piano player, who also served as the choir director. My favorite choir moment was when they stood on the church’s balcony (in the rear of the church, where many churches have their organ players) and performed a brilliant a cappella rendition of the Negro spiritual “I Opened My Mouth To The Lord,” with the choir director furiously directing them from the front of the church.

The Mass was similar to many of those I’ve seen at other D.C. Black Catholic parishes, but STA had its own unique sense of emotion and enthusiasm. These folks all seemed to be very much part of a community, with their own traditions and shared memories. John liked that the readers of the Word would make sure to announce which specific books, chapters, and lines they’d be reading from, and the parishioners would all pull out their Bibles and follow along.

John, Kate, and I had a very warm welcome into the STA community. Just like in many other black parishes, all visitors were asked to stand up and introduce themselves. Once the three of us did this, we sat down, but the people sitting near us told us to remain standing. After standing for a minute as the other visitors introduced themselves, I asked the man in front of me why we were supposed to stay standing. He then stood up, and said, “We’ve got a gift for y’all,” as he opened his arms to give me a hug. The rest of the parish stood up, and the hugs didn’t stop for about five minutes. It was a tremendous way of welcoming folks into the church. Kate was a hit with the whole parish because of something that she did later in the Mass. When the pastor, Monsignor East, heard that she was from Gallaudet, he asked her to pray the “Our Father” in American Sign Language for the rest of the parish. He told the parish to follow along, and it was great fun watching people try to copy Kate’s signs.

Monsignor East, the pastor, was a fantastic man. He came into the church smiling and didn’t let up for the whole Mass. When the choir began to sing the “Hallelujah,” before the Gospel reading, he stopped them mid-song, and reminded everyone that “Hallelujah” means “Praise the Lord,” and encouraged everyone to sing louder! His sermon was very colorful, and he used a mix of humor and seriousness to speak to his audience. In the day’s Gospel readings, Jesus contrasts a Pharisee who brags of his holiness in his prayers to God, and a tax collector who merely asks forgiveness for his sins. To illustrate this, he brought Tasha, a choir member to the back of the church with him. He pretended to act out the part of the Pharisee, talking about how he was holy and righteous and Tasha said, referring to herself, “unlike this heathen!” In his sermon, he talked about the struggle many people have in coming back to church and asking God’s forgiveness for their sins. He talked about people who had left the church, and cited Tasha as an example of someone who had come back after falling away from the church. He referenced Tasha multiple times, and the sermon became very emotional for her. He eventually brought her back up, and she received hugs from several members of the parish. In this way, Monsignor East demonstrated the deep connection he had with his parishioners and the meaningful effect that his work has had on their lives. Sunday was his 60^th birthday, and the three of us were happy to sign birthday cards for him.

After a tremendously moving Mass, we finished the trip off with a quick visit to the Frederick Douglass National Historical Site, just a few blocks away from STA. It was Douglass’s former home, and although we didn’t get to go inside, we got to see his terrific view of Washington, D.C. Just another reason to love this city and this project.

Links:

St. Teresa of Avila Website

Washington Post Article on the Big Chair

Frederick Douglass National Historical Site

Pictures

The Big Chair

St. Teresa of Avila Roman Catholic Church

Video of the Choir Singing the Closing Hymn

Frederick Douglass National Historical Site

Churches I've Been To So Far (The count is 19, I'm almost half way there!):

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Congrats to Archbishop Donald Wuerl!

2010-10-20T18:22:00.000+01:00

The Vatican announced this morning that Archbishop Donald Wuerl of the Washington Archdiocese was named to be a Cardinal. He's a great, down-to-earth guy, and I think he will do an excellent job in his new position. Congratulations and God bless, Your Excellency!

Archbishop Wuerl's Remarks this morning:

Chapel of the Sacred Heart- Los Angeles, CA (LMU)

2010-10-19T02:06:00.000+01:00

I have been off my game recently, but I'll be back on the trail next weekend. Here's some photos of the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, located on the campus of Loyola Marymount University, a Jesuit university in West Los Angeles. I was there visiting a friend two weekends ago, and I made sure to snap some pictures. Pretty little church, looks to have some Middle-Eastern/Levantine architectural influence.

Also, my post on the Red Mass seemed to be a hit all around the Catholic blogosphere. I read some interesting things, none more so than the remarks from an enthusiastic poster at Angelqueen.org. (Click the link and then scroll down to the last comment.)

Red Mass- St. Matthew's Cathedral

2010-10-03T20:33:00.002+01:00

So, I’ve already visited St. Matthew’s Cathedral, but I went back today for a very special occasion. Today was the date of the annual “Red Mass,” a special Mass offered every year at the start of the Supreme Court session. Bishops and other Catholic dignitaries gather to ask the Holy Spirit to guide the nation’s justices and others involved in law. It often draws high-ranking federal officials, including Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Supreme Court Justices, and is hosted by the John Carroll Society, a fellowship of Catholic business, legal, and community leaders.

I’m not sure why, but it wasn’t easy to find information about the Red Mass. I eventually emailed St. Matthew’s Cathedral, asking what time the Mass would be held at. I got a response back from Maureen, an assistant to the Rector of St. Matthew’s, who told me it was a 10:00 AM Mass, and then asked me if I was interested in ushering! I said yes (because I knew it would make an interesting blog post! Or rather, a less uninteresting blog post).

Ushering wasn’t too much work, and I’m glad I got to take part in such a special Mass. Archbishop Donald Wuerl was the principal celebrant, and he was joined by several other Bishops, as well as a representative from the Vatican. Vice President Joe Biden sat in the front row, and across the aisle was John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the United States, as well as Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, Associate Justices of the United States Supreme Court.

The actual service was incredibly special. It started off with a large procession of dozens of bishops and priests, accompanied by incense and the powerful organ and brilliant choir of St. Matthew’s Cathedral. Members of the Knights of Columbus proceeded to the front of the church with the American flag, and the choir led the national anthem. It was fascinating to see the flag raised in the very classical-styled Cathedral; it was an interesting moment of church meeting state. I also enjoyed seeing Vice President Biden and Chief Justice Roberts walk up at the same time to receive communion.

The homily was given by The Reverend J. Augustine Di Noia, O.P., who is the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Don’t worry, I didn’t know what it was either. After doing my homework, I learned that it is a Vatican “congregation” dedicated to the regulation and promotion of liturgy, sacraments, and many other aspects of Catholic life. In his homily, Reverend Di Noia recited parts of the Latin poem “Veni, Sancte Spiritus” in between comments on the importance of the Red Mass. He said that the Holy Spirit was asked to make sure that the justices maintained their “personal integrity and spiritual equilibrium” in light of contending interests and political pressures.

All in all, this was a very cool Mass and something to remember if you’re ever in Washington on the Sunday before the first Monday in October. I also got to shake Archbishop’s Wuerl’s hand for the second time this semester. I didn’t bother to tell him to read this blog again, but I did get a picture with him!

Links:

St. Matthew's Cathedral Website

John Carroll Society Website

Veni, Sancte Spiritus

Pictures (click to enlarge)

Vice President Biden enters the cathedral, he's the fellow in the red tie. He's taller than I thought he'd be.

The choir, and the musicians that accompany them, were spectacular today.

Myself and Archbishop Donald Wuerl. Glad I ran into John, a FOCUS missionary, and James, another GW student, who took this picture for me!

Questions? Comments? Interesting Dreams? Were any blog readers at the Red Mass today? Share your thoughts in the comments section!

St. Francis de Sales Church

2010-09-20T00:03:00.000+01:00

This week I headed out to St. Francis de Sales Church in Northeast Washington. It’s a little church with a very interesting story. It claims to be the “oldest continuing congregation” in Washington, and can trace its roots back to the Queen Family Chapel, which Catholics started worshipping at in 1722. The chapel was burned down three times, once during the Revolutionary War, once during the War of 1812, and once by Union soldiers during the Civil War (I found it bizarre that Union soldiers would burn down a building in Union territory. It was a regiment from New York, so my guess is that they were motivated by the anti-Catholic sentiment of the time, which was very strong in New York because of the influx of Irish and German Catholic immigrants.). In 1908, the original church of St. Francis de Sales was built on the location of the old Queen’s Chapel. It moved to its new location on Rhode Island Ave in 1927, to the anger of many parishioners. Now, on the original Queen’s Chapel location is Langdon Elementary School, near Queen’s Chapel Road. The St. Francis parish started by building a lower, basement church, but then the Great Depression hit, and they never had funds to start building the upper church. St. Francis de Sales remains the same small church that it was in the 1930’s, a proud descendant of the first generation of American Catholics.

On the outside, St. Francis de Sales appears to be an incredibly small church. That’s mostly because it’s built to be the basement of a much larger building, and a good portion of the worship area is underground. The worship area felt a lot like the lower church at St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a modest but adequate space. As I walked down the center aisle towards the altar, I realized that I was walking on a downward slope.

The parish was mostly African-American, and I began to recognize the same patterns of behavior that I’ve seen at other African-American churches. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. A woman named Linda decided to introduce herself to me and give me a hug before Mass even started. For the hymns, there was a man on piano and a female cantor. For a few of the songs, they seemed as if they were not on the same page, but they did a nice job overall.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells us that we cannot serve both God and mammon (money). In his homily, Deacon Bert said that someone once told him, “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy the Cadillac you can drive around to look for it.” He then dissected the question, “Is money evil?” No, he concluded, for we need money to feed the poor, clothe our children, and give back to the community. It is endless desire, a “bet you can’t have just one” attitude, which brings us further from God. He told the congregation to take all that they had and put it at the service of God.

Links:

St. Francis de Sales Website

Here's some info on the history of St. Francis de Sales, both of which can be found on the Saint Francis de Sales Website. This document is a basic history of the church, and this is a copy of a 1908 Washington Herald newspaper which has an article discussing the dedication and history of St. Francis de Sales.

Pictures:

Churches I've Been to So Far (I'm up to 19!)

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St. Mary Mother of God Church

2010-09-14T01:52:00.001+01:00

On the way back from New York, I asked my roommate Allen to pick out a church for me to go to the next day. He looked at my list of churches and suggested St. Mary, Mother of God church in Chinatown. I got my two reliable church-going partners, Dan and Loreto, to come with me on another adventure.

St. Mary, Mother of God is an interesting parish. They play host to the Our Lady of China pastoral mission, which hosts an 11:30 Mass in Cantonese. They are also the only church in the Washington Archdiocese who performs a Tridentine Latin Mass, which is the mass which was celebrated in Catholic churches before the Second Vatican Council in 1962. I decided to go the Cantonese Mass this week, I’ll probably go see the Latin Mass another time.

The church building was very nice, with a single tower in front and a dark stone exterior that reminded me of St. Patrick Church. The interior was pretty standard neo-Gothic architecture, with pretty marble columns and a light color scheme that reminded of me of St. Monica’s Church.

As for the Mass, I really didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. There were some prayers we were able to pick up on, but some, like the Nicene Creed, we were lost on. We were able to follow along during the readings in the English missal, but were lost again during the homily. It seemed like the priest took an awful long time to give his homily, but perhaps it just seemed that way because we couldn’t understand him.

They did a couple more odd things that I found intriguing. One was that the choir, or what I believed to be the choir, was not standing up near the front of the church, or even standing at all. They were seated in the first two rows of the church and they stood and sat just like everyone else. Where most parishes either sing or recite the responsorial psalm, this parish appeared to do a combination of the two: a lector read the verses, but the choir sang the refrain. I also found it a little amusing that they had two very short women going down the aisles collecting the contributions; normally that’s done by Knights of Columbus members or older parish men.

After the mass, we talked to some regular parishioners, Paul and Margaret, who told us a little more about the church and the Cantonese service. I asked them what the priest said in the homily. Paul said he couldn’t understand the priest’s sermon, because the priest was speaking Mandarin, but Margaret told us that he was talking about the story of the prodigal son. While the father’s rejoicing may not have seemed fair to the “good” son, he said, his actions were based on love, not fairness. Margaret told us that she was moving to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, but she told us to look her up and that she would cook us some delicious Chinese food if we wanted it. I’ll probably take her up on that.

Links:

St. Mary Mother of God Website

Archbishop Donald Wuerl gave mass at the GW Newman Center this past Sunday night, and I got the chance to hear him speak. (I also shook his hand and told him about this website...Are you reading this, Father?) He spoke about the New Evangelization, a call for Catholics around the world to bring others into the fold or back into the fold. He summarized his ideas in his new Pastoral Letter, which you can read in a PDF here or in neat-o flipbook form here. Enjoy!

Pictures

Churches I've Been To So Far

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NYC (New York Catholic)

2010-09-12T21:35:00.001+01:00

My roommate Allen and I decided to make a quick trip to New York this weekend. It was a lot of fun. As we scampered around the city to see the big sights, i.e. Central Park, Times Square, Chinatown, I managed to find a bunch of New York's Catholic churches. I've discovered that I'm getting better at determining if a church is Catholic or not just by looking at it. I was about 65% accurate this trip, I'm hoping to get a little better as I study more churches. In any case, here's what I found.

St. Francis of Assisi Church (W 31st St.)

St. Patrick's Cathedral (Undergoing some renovations)

Shrine Church of St. Anthony of Padua (Grenwich Village)

Capuchin Monastery of St. John (Midtown)

Sts. Cyril & Methodius, St. Rafael - Croatian Catholic Church

I found this church as we left New York on the bus...wish I had some better pictures!

St. Gabriel Church

2010-09-06T04:18:00.000+01:00

This morning I visited St. Gabriel Church in the Petworth neighborhood with my friend Loreto. We had a little trouble waking up in the morning, as well as some trouble using the D.C. Metro system, but we managed to only be a few minutes late for 11:00 AM Mass (I’ll get better, I promise.)

St. Gabriel was a large stone church that reminded me of St. Ann’s in Tenleytown. On the inside were large stone columns, stained glass windows, and a very pretty wooden structure which held the tabernacle. Mass was fairly well-attended, with mostly African-American parishioners. I was expecting to see more Hispanics at the Mass, because of the large Hispanic population in the Columbia Heights/Petworth area. Perhaps I would have seen more if I had gone to one of St. Gabriel’s two Spanish-language masses.

There was an interesting choir in Mass today. It featured about a dozen singers, a piano player, a drummer, and a trumpet player. They had some really nice moments, despite a male soloist who was a little flat. At the end of the Mass, a woman who appeared to be the choir director sang a particularly passionate hymn. St. Gabriel’s pastor, Father Mateo gave a nice homily about distinguishing which things in our lives are taking us away from God. Whether they be people or habits, he encouraged us to get rid of things that take us away from Him and to love God first.

After Mass, I told Father Mateo about my project and he introduced me to Sister Regina, one of the Sisters of the Holy Name who resides at St. Gabriel Parish. She told me a little about the church, and gave me a book detailing the history of the parish. As it turns out, the parish started out worshipping in a hut in 1920. They built the St. Gabriel Catholic School in 1924 (it is now a public charter school) and broke ground on their current structure in 1930. I also learned that Michael Steele, former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and current Republican National Committee Chairman, attended St. Gabriel School as a child. Thanks so much, Sister!

Links

St. Gabriel Parish Website (Not much and not updated recently, but it has their contact info.)

Washington Post Article which makes mention of the former St. Gabriel Elementary School, which was sold off by the Archdiocese and made into a public charter school a few years ago.

Pictures

Churches I've Visited in Washington, D.C.

View Churches I've Been To So Far in a larger map

Amtrak Catholic

2010-09-01T05:12:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm back in Washington, D.C. after a long summer in California. I got a little behind in posting blogs because the end of summer got so hectic, but now I'm all caught up. I arrived on Saturday from a four-day long Amtrak ride across the country (with a 24-hour stop in Chicago). I saw a few interesting churches along the way, and I thought I'd share them.

This is an old church in New Mexico. Looks like it's abandoned, but kind of neat.

I spotted these two churches from the train window in Galesburg, Il.

St. Patrick's Catholic Church

Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church

I visited my friend Jenna in Chicago and we bumped into some interesting Catholic landmarks in the city. The first was the Archbishop Quigley Center, a former seminary that now serves as the headquarters for the Chicago Archdiocese. We also stopped by the Holy Name Cathedral. It's one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen. It's textbook Gothic design with some brilliant modern flourishes. I was particularly impressed with the carved wooden roof.

Archbishop Quigley Center

Holy Name Cathedral

Thanks for showing me around, Jenna!

I've had a wonderful summer and I've enjoyed comparing the churches I've seen in California to the ones back in Washington, D.C. I'm excited to continue on my journey.

St. Joseph's Cathedral (San Diego, CA)

2010-08-31T03:36:00.000+01:00

I visited St. Joseph’s Cathedral two weekends ago with my parents while we were vacationing in San Diego (Sorry, I'm still playing catch-up here!). St. Joseph's is located on Third Avenue in downtown San Diego and houses the seat of Bishop Robert Brom of the San Diego Diocese.

I thought I would get to see a beautiful church, but it was undergoing renovations, and scaffolding covered most of the outside of the building. It appeared to be a mission-style church, but I didn’t really get a good look at it. Once inside, the building was pretty, but unconventional. It seemed quite narrow for a church of its size and length. A series of skinny columns made up a colonnade leading to the altar. In most churches that attempt to imitate the Gothic style, there is a single, semi-circular wall behind the altar. St. Joseph’s had three walls coming together at 90° angles. Maybe I’m starting to get too picky, but I thought it was weird-looking. I did, however, like the wooden cross beams near the ceiling of the church and my mom especially liked the stained glass.

Father Gil, a visiting priest, gave a homily about salvation. Catholics, he said, believe in a universal invitation to salvation. It is the responsibility of the individual, however, to respond to that invitation. He encouraged his parish to accept this invitation by having faith in Jesus. He also said that “sitting in a garage doesn’t make you a car, and sitting in church doesn’t make you a Christian.”

Links:

St. Joseph's Cathedral

San Diego Diocese Website

He who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Millions of people are being displaced by the floods in Pakistan. I know money's tight for everyone right now, but please consider making a donation to the United Nations Childrens Fund here.

Pictures:

Drawing of St. Joseph's Cathedral (Not done by me...ha ha)

A little disappointing...

Churches I've Been To In Southern California:

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Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (Los Angeles, CA)

2010-08-30T05:16:00.001+01:00

I wanted to make sure that I visited the Cathedral of Our Angels before I left California. It’s a beautiful, modern church right in downtown Los Angeles. My good friend Todd agreed to come with me again.

My grandfather says that the Cathedral reminds him of a fortress, and I certainly see where he’s coming from. A series of walls surrounds a large courtyard, with the imposing church building serving as a castle. The church is not modeled after a Gothic cathedral or a Spanish mission; the modern architecture reminded me more of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It had tall, sheer walls without a lot of decoration on them, other than tapestries of the saints along the sides of the church. A large stone cross appears to pop out of a window near the roof of the building. I really can’t give you an accurate description, you’ll just have to take a look at my pictures below. It was truly an awe-inspiring modern Cathedral, complete with a powerful organ and a brilliant choir. I imagine that my feeling of reverence was similar to what medieval worshippers felt when they walked into the great cathedrals of Europe.

The Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Los Angeles, who manages the largest Roman Catholic Archdiocese in the United States. The position is currently held by Cardinal Roger Mahony, but Pope Benedict has appointed Bishop Jose Gomez as his successor. Gomez is currently serving as Co-adjutor Bishop of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, which is something like a “co-bishop” position (He is still slightly lower in stature than Cardinal Mahony). Gomez will be the first Hispanic Archbishop of Los Angeles and the highest-ranking Hispanic bishop in the United States.

Todd and I were lucky enough to see Bishop Gomez give the Mass on the Celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Bishop Gomez emphasized Mary’s special position in the relationship between man and God. He said that she symbolized humility and our own hope of resurrection. He also talked about his personal relationship with Mary, saying that he went to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadelupe in Mexico City when he was first appointed to become Archbishop.

Links:

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

Los Angeles Archdiocese

Over 15 million people are being affected by floods in Pakistan. These people need our help. Click here to donate to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Bishop Gomez walked right in front of our seats!

Churches I've Visited in Southern California

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St. Charles Borromeo Church

2010-08-10T05:40:00.000+01:00

I’ll start this post off by saying that one of the first and biggest fans of this blog has been one of the priests at my home parish, Father Blaise. When I came home for the summer, I asked him which local churches might be good to visit, and he suggested St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood. When my friend Todd’s parents also recommended the church, I knew I had to go. I got my mother to come along with me to the 10 AM Mass.

St. Charles is somewhat of a legendary church in the Southland. It’s been home to a few celebrities over the years, including the late Bob Hope, whose memorial service was held there. The church building, finished in 1959, attempts to recreate the Spanish mission style, with a carved stone exterior and large bell tower. The interior of the church was enormous, with a large dome at the center. While the other domes I’ve seen, like at the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the Shrine of the Sacred Heart had colorful mosaics or illustrations inside the dome, this one was bare. In fact, most of the walls around the church were undecorated. The church felt half-finished, as if the pews and the large wooden structure behind the altar were dropped into some sort of medieval warehouse. After Mass, I learned that the parish was trying to raise money for a multi-million dollar restoration of the church building, including decorating the central dome.

The Mass was nice. A deep-voiced male cantor was accompanied by the organ. The priests had an international flavor: Father Patrick was an Irish priest who had come to visit for the summer, and he introduced another priest visiting from India. In today’s reading, Father Patrick said, Jesus teaches us to be vigilant in the practice of our faith, just as we are vigilant during the night time. He said that one way to do this was to be sure to receive the holy sacraments (Can you name all seven? Answer below.), contrasting the “darkness of night” with the “light of the sacraments.”

Links:
Interesting L.A. Times Article on the failures of American Christianity...Do you agree with the author? Leave your comments below!
St. Charles Borromeo Website

Pictures:

Churches I've Visited in Southern California:

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Answer: The Seven Catholic Sacraments are Baptism, Eucharist, Reconciliation (or Penance or Confession), Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders (or Ordination), and Anointing of the Sick.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Newhall, CA)

2010-08-03T09:22:00.004+01:00

This Sunday, my friend and former high school drama teacher, Steve, invited me to his parish, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, to watch him and his wife lector during Mass. Our Lady of Perpetual Help isn’t too far away from me, but I had never bothered to visit before, so I gladly accepted.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help (or “OLPH”) is considerably older than my parish, Blessed Kateri, and is located in Newhall, the oldest section of the now heavily-developed Santa Clarita Valley. While the church wasn’t run down, it wasn’t magnificent architecturally. I found the face of the church interesting because of its large mosaic and tile covering, which I typically associate with Greek Orthodox Churches. They are currently trying to raise money to build a new church building.

A very well-trained young man served as the cantor, accompanied at different times by a piano, guitar, and organ. Steve, and his wife Cheri both did an excellent job as lectors. Cheri delivered a condemnation of “vanities” from the Book of Ecclesiastes and Steve read a letter from St. Paul telling the Colossians to “put to death the parts of you that are earthly.” The newly ordained priest, Father Raymond, delivered a nice sermon on the theme of vanity. He criticized a bumper sticker that read, “Whoever has the most toys when they die WINS,” arguing that a person with many toys still dies, and that this person has the most to lose by dying. He encouraged his parishioners to caution themselves when tempted to buy unnecessary items, and to ask themselves, “what good will all these things do when we die?” What matters, he said, are our relationships with God and each other.

I've added a few new features to the blog, in case you haven't noticed! Recommendations? Questions? Shoot me an email at capitolcatholic@gmail.com.

Links:

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Website

Pictures:

Churches I've Been To In Southern California

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St. Euphrasia Church (Granada Hills, CA)

2010-07-26T03:51:00.000+01:00

I decided to continue my tour of the Southland’s churches by visiting my friend Todd in Granada Hills, CA. He invited me to visit his local church, St. Euphrasia, which is also home to the school where Todd and his brother attended first through eighth grade. (Side note: I had never heard of St. Euphrasia before, so I looked her up. I assumed she was Middle Eastern and that she was somehow connected to the Euphrates River. I was dead wrong. She was a nineteenth century French-born nun who dedicated her life to assisting women and girls, eventually founding the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.)

The interior of the church was rather plain-looking (as Todd’s father warned me it would be) with plain white walls and wood paneling reminiscent of St. Thomas Apostle. While absent many of the architectural flourishes seen in other churches, St. Euphrasia had a few design features that made it a pleasant space to worship. The small stained glass windows on the outer walls of the church were donated by different people at different times, leading to a somewhat eclectic collection of images. Like any parish, St. Euphrasia was nurtured with the help of many different individuals, all of whom left their mark on the parish community and the tiles were a perfect illustration of this. Also of note were the large stained glass image on the exterior face of the church and the positioning of the altar so that it was surrounded by pews on three sides; it was interesting to see this in such a small space.

We ended up finding Todd’s grandfather when we entered the church, and appropriately enough, Father Jim’s homily today was about family. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus teaches his followers the Lord’s Prayer. Father Jim reminded us that the prayer starts with “Father,” or the Greek word “Abba,” which translates into “Papa” or “Daddy.” Later in the reading, Jesus asks, “What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish?” Through praying the Lord ’s Prayer, Father Jim said, we become part of God’s family. We become children whom the Father will always grant love and salvation, as long as we ask. To end the Mass, Father Jim asked all of the children present to come up and receive a special children’s bulletin. It was a very cute way to end the Mass and it left everyone in attendance thinking about how we are all children of Our Father.

Links:

St. Euphrasia Website

Sisters of the Good Shepherd Website

Pictures:

Churches I've Visited in Southern California:

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St. Dominic Church (Eagle Rock, CA)

2010-07-20T07:11:00.000+01:00

This past weekend, I spent a night at my grandfather’s house in Eagle Rock, CA (It’s a small neighborhood north of Downtown L.A. and east of Glendale), and I decided to visit the local Catholic church, St. Dominic, the next morning. My father’s side of the family calls Eagle Rock home; I spent my early childhood there in a house just down the street from where my father was raised, and where my grandfather still lives.

I would describe the church as medium-sized, without many of the architectural flourishes that I’ve seen in churches that try to imitate the Gothic style (what I call “pseudo-Gothic”). St. Dominic seemed to incorporate even more elements of Spanish architecture than St. Monica’s did. The wrought iron chandeliers were a telltale sign of Spanish influence, as was the use of wood in both the interior and exterior of the church. The modeling of churches after the Spanish missions seems to be a running theme among churches built in Los Angeles in the early 20th century.

Eagle Rock has a large Filipino population, so I expected to see a good amount of Filipinos at the church. My prediction was confirmed when I heard someone ask, “Kumusta?” to another churchgoer, who responded, “Mabuti.” (Tagalog for “How are you?” and “Well.” My mother’s family is Filipino, but this is about as much Tagalog as I know.) The church seemed pretty crowded for a 7:30 Mass, filled mostly with Filipino parishioners.

There were no singers, but the beautiful organ filled the space with wonderful music. The organ as an instrument can be powerful, intimidating, and soothing at the same time, just as the presence of God can be in one’s life. The homily today discussed the theme of Christian hospitality. The priest encouraged the congregation to provide hospitality to others by serving their community and those in need of protection. “Providing hospitality,” he said, “recognizes the dignity of the human person,” and is an act “motivated by faith, hope, and love.”

Also, for all you adventure-seeking Angelenos and those who may be visiting the Los Angeles area, I have a recommendation for a sight you must go see. The Watts Towers are a Los Angeles cultural landmark, built in the 1920's by an Italian immigrant named Simon Rodia. These brilliant structures are almost 100 feet tall, built out of concrete, tile and glass. I just learned about them recently, and was amazed when I visited. The site is now struggling for its life as it faces budget cuts from the city. I highly recommend visiting this incredible historic site, for your own pleasure and to preserve this treasure for future generations.

Links:
St. Dominic Website (Not totally up to date, but still interesting)
Watts Towers Art Center Website

Pictures:

My friend, Annu, and I at the Watts Towers:

Churches I've Visited in Southern California:

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St. Monica's Church (Santa Monica, CA)

2010-07-13T06:25:00.007+01:00

It has been a few months since my last post, and I have been enjoying my summer back in California. I’ve enjoyed Mass a few times at my home parish, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, and I figured it was time to start exploring other churches in southern California. My mom suggested St. Monica’s in Santa Monica, which we had previously visited for a family wedding.

Built in 1926, St. Monica’s had much of the same feel as many of the churches I’ve visited in Washington, with a high, arched ceiling and two sets of colonnades leading to the altar. The church also had a touch of Spanish design, incorporating a beige color scheme and several iron chandeliers.

My mom specifically remembered the music at St. Monica’s, and it didn’t disappoint. The main cantor, a very talented woman, led a group of about ten singers and a full rock and roll band. They had the audience singing and clapping through the whole service. There was definitely a feeling of energy and community in the church; one of my favorite moments was when everyone crossed over the center aisle to hold hands as we recited the “Our Father.”

The priest, Fr. David, had an entertaining and important reflection on the day’s readings. He started by discussing the feeling of having love for someone who just wants to be friends, and cited old high school crushes, Ray Charles’ song “You Don’t Know Me,” and Jacob Black’s love for Bella in the Twilight series as examples of this feeling. (Father David said he rated movies based on how many homilies he can make out of them. He was disappointed that The Twilight Saga: Eclipse was only a “two-homily” movie.) He said that this feeling is what God experiences when we sometimes “just want to be friends” with Him. Most of us, he said, are still falling deeper in love with God. He called on the congregation to pray for God’s grace, and reminded them that in the story of the Good Samaritan, we are the robber’s victim and God is the Good Samaritan, who helps us up and nurses our wounds.

After Mass, I was chatting with someone who told me that Arnold Schwarzenegger was sitting a few rows behind me during Mass. I’m always very skeptical of such claims, but sure enough, I spotted the Governor chatting with a few parishioners outside the church after Mass. I got the feeling that he was a regular at this Mass because there didn’t seem to be a throng of people around him. I managed to get a quick picture of him before he left. Wonder who I’ll run into next week!

Links:
St. Monica's Website

Pictures:

The Governator Himself:

Churches I've Visited in California So Far:

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Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America

2010-05-02T19:23:00.005+01:00

At last, this unbelievable school year is coming to an end. With summer within my sights and finals breathing down my neck, I figured it was time for one last Capitol Catholic visit before going home to California. I decided to visit the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America, one of the many Catholic institutions in the vicinity of The Catholic University of America. My good friend Dan decided to get up early and come with me.

The monastery is run by Franciscan friars, the group put in charge of caring for many of the important sites in the Holy Land. The church is surrounded by several acres of beautiful gardens filled with shrines and replicas of holy sites throughout the world. It is definitely an area designated for prayer and meditation; I counted dozens of shrines throughout the gardens and in the church itself. The stone columns, open courtyards, and peaceful atmosphere made me feel as though I had walked into Rivendell, the home of the elves in the Lord of the Rings movies.

The church itself is a shrine-style church, similar in design to the National Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the Shrine of the Sacred Heart. The other shrines I’ve visited have domes towards the front of the church, and a shrine behind the altar. In this church, however, the dome is above the center of the church, and a metallic shrine covering the altar is right below it. This arrangement brings focus to the center of the space, especially because pews are arranged so as to surround the altar on four sides. Dan and I sat in one of the side sections, and it was interesting to see the Mass from a different angle: it was sort of like watching a play from backstage.

There were two interesting outfits that gave the church an old-world feel. The first was that worn by the ushers, a white military suit with a red belt over the shoulder and waist. As it turns out, these men were members of the Order of the Knights of Mt. St. Sepulchre, dedicated to assisting the friars who run the monastery. Also of note were the plain brown robes of the Franciscan friars, who dedicate themselves to humility and service to others. Father Jacob’s homily touched on these themes. He talked about a “blueprint” for our lives that we were to follow. He said that in order to truly be Christians, we must love one another as God loves us. When we look at others, he said, imagine that God is holding a soul out to you, and saying “take care of this until I’m ready to call it home.”

That will be my last D.C. church visit until next September. I’ll have a reflection on my first year of Capitol Catholic in the next few days. This has been a tremendous experience, and I’m not even halfway done!

Links:
Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America

Pictures:

Churches I've Been To So Far:

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Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church

2010-04-25T23:26:00.005+01:00

Just when I think I’ve seen it all, D.C.’s Catholic community throws me a curveball. Today I went on an adventure to go to Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Seminary in Northwest Washington, D.C. As far as I can tell, it is the city’s Northernmost Catholic church, in the Takoma Park area, near Silver Spring, Maryland. The twenty minute walk from the Metro station to the church through this lush, quiet neighborhood was a soothing antidote for life in the hectic concrete jungle around GWU.

Our Lady of Lebanon is a unique church in that it is a “Catholic” Church, but not a “Roman Catholic” church. The Maronite rite is one of many eastern churches that did not break with the Church of Rome during the Great Schism in the eleventh century. While they are still in communion with the Holy See, they are not part of the traditional church hierarchy. Rather than being under the jurisdiction of the Washington archdiocese, they are governed by a Patriarch in Antioch (who has a seat at the College of Cardinals) and belong to a local “eparchy” centered in Brooklyn, New York. Maronites are mostly found in the Levant, particularly in Lebanon.

I did some research on the Maronites before I went to Mass, and I got the impression that the service would be done in Arabic. I was worried that I wouldn’t know what was going on, but luckily I made some new friends, Ed and Mary, before Mass. They were both regular parishioners and they explained to me that the Mass would be performed in English and Arabic, with a few prayers in Aramaic, the language of Christ. They showed me how to follow along with the service in the prayer book and helped explain some of the Maronite traditions to me.

The church itself, according to Ed, was finished five years ago, and was the first church built in Washington, D.C. in about forty years. The building was all white, with a large steeple. The worship space was all white as well, with no decorations or paintings on the walls. The center of the church featured a glass dome, allowing sunlight to shine on the altar. The intention of this design was to give the church an austere feeling, with no extra decoration or ornament to distract from worship. Also, the sunlight at the front was intended to give the worshipper the feeling of walking out the darkness and into the light.

The fusion of Arabic and English into the Mass made for a beautiful service. The choir was made of about ten people in black and red robes, accompanied by a man on keyboard and two kids playing violins. Most of the hymns and chants were in Arabic, and they were beautiful. A female cantor did a solo chant at one point, and it felt like she was pouring her soul out into the church. In the Maronite Mass, there is only one reading before the Gospel. The reader asked the permission of the priest to read the Scripture, and, of course, he was granted it. The first man read in English, and then another man read the same passage in Arabic.

There were a few other noteworthy traditions at Our Lady of Lebanon, one of which was the abundant use of incense during the Mass. Another was the blessing of peace, during which Mary told me to put my hands together, and let an altar boy put his hands over mine, before shaking hands and wishing peace to those around me (Thank goodness Mary warned me, I would have had no idea!). The consecration of the host was done in Aramaic, and communion was only given on the tongue, because the host was dipped in wine before being presented to the worshipper.

The priest, Father Dominic, gave a wonderful homily. He started by talking about a boy in Sunday school who was asked to explain the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden. Remembering only that the event had something to do with fruit, the boy guessed that Adam slipped on a banana peel. Father Dominic talked about how our mistakes, like slipping on a banana peel, may wound our pride and embarrass us. He said that Peter “slipped” many times during Christ’s life, doubting him and denying him three times when he was being persecuted. Yet when Christ returned and saw Peter face to face, he did not ask for explanations or apologies, and did not say “I told you so.” Christ only asked, “Peter, do you love me?” Peter may have failed, but none of it mattered to Christ. The most important question was “Peter, do you love me?” It was a great lesson for Catholics everywhere. Indeed, Peter did love Christ, and I must say that I loved Our Lady of Lebanon.

Links:
Our Lady of Lebanon Website
Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn

Pictures:

Churches I've Been To So Far:

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St. Luke Church

2010-04-11T19:20:00.005+01:00

I decided to visit St. Luke Church today, across the Anacostia River in east Washington, D.C. I hadn’t been to church in the Eastern part of the city in a while, and truth be told, I had never been east of the Anacostia River before. It’s located near 49th and E. Capitol St., on the dividing line between the Northeast and Southeast quadrants of the city.

The Church was fairly small and square, without any magnificent architectural flourishes. It looked a lot like St. Benedict the Moor Church, but larger. Some interesting features included large wooden statues near the front of the church, and a beautiful wall painting that served as the background of a small shrine.

I got a little lost on the way to the church (I always plan on getting lost when I go somewhere in the city) and ended up getting there a few minutes late. The Mass had already started, so I quietly took my seat. The parishioners were mostly African-American, in fact, if I observed correctly, the priest and I were the only two people in that building who were not. There was also a small choir present. Despite a few comical miscues and occasional sour notes, they did a nice job. Towards the end of the Mass, they did a moving rendition of “So Satisfied.”

The priest, Father Joe, was quite a character. A white man with a New York accent, he took a no-nonsense approach to Scripture. He summed up the story of Jesus and “doubting Thomas” in his sermon today, describing Thomas as “a day late and a dollar short.” Jesus appears to the Apostles in a locked room, and says, “Yo, Thomas, come here!” Thomas does not believe that Christ is risen until he sees Jesus. Then Jesus says, “blessed are those who have not yet seen, but still believe.” Finally, he called on the parishioners to bring people to Christ by doing good works.

Links:
St. Luke Website

Pictures: (Click to enlarge)

Churches I've Been To So Far:

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Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

2010-04-04T20:46:00.008+01:00

It is certainly an exciting time to be in Washington. As I’m sure you’ve all heard, the cherry blossoms bloomed this week, bringing plenty of tourists and chaos to the D.C. area. I’ve been down to the tidal basin a couple times already to see them before they leave. There was a big fireworks display on the mall last night to celebrate the cherry blossoms as well.

It’s also Easter Sunday, an exciting time to be anywhere. I visited Washington with my parents when I was 13, and on Easter Sunday we went to Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at the Catholic University of America. It’s the largest Catholic church in the Western hemisphere and holds the title of basilica, meaning that it does not fall under the jurisdiction of an archdiocese, but under the Holy See. I figured I’d go back there again, to see the beautiful church and experience the madness as hundreds of tourists flooded in for Easter Mass.

The Church is absolutely stunning. It’s built in the style of a Roman basilica, so it’s shaped like a giant cross and has a big dome at the center. The walls are covered with statues and other decorations as well as shrines to the Virgin Mary. At the front of the church is a shrine to the Immaculate Conception. On the wall behind the shrine is a muscular, angry-looking Christ, holding his arms up to heaven.

I arrived at a scene of total chaos in the church, as the folks from the 9:00 Mass tried to squeeze their way out as the people attending the 10:30 Mass tried to wriggle by and find a good seat. It calmed down after a little while, but the church was packed. Even with such a large space, there were still people left standing. The whole Mass felt a little chaotic. There were people walking up and down the aisles, kids trying to get out of the pews, and ushers trying to keep everything orderly.

The music at the Basilica was top notch. The first thing I noticed coming in was the organ. It was beautiful, and at some points it sounded like an electric guitar. It was very cool. There was no choir, but individual singers lead various hymns and prayers. The cantors were some of the best singers I’ve heard yet, and the organ accompaniment made their voices that much sweeter.

The priest had a short and simple message today. I think he was trying to keep it short so the Mass didn’t run too long. He said that today is a day of rejoicing Christ’s rising from the dead. He reminded us of Paul’s message from the reading, which was that Christ gives us a new birth and a new life, and that we should “set our hearts on higher values.”

Links:
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Vote for Future Civic Leaders (run by my friend Allen) to receive a $5,000 grant in the Pepsi Refresh contest! Future Civic Leaders is a non-profit run by GW students that is focused on educating underprivileged D.C. youth about civics and government. They're running a summer camp, and they could really use some extra funding. Please vote here!

The Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin:

Pictures:

Churches I've Visited So Far:

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GW Today Article

2010-03-27T03:26:00.003Z

Check out this article by Menachem Wecker in this week's GW Today about my blog!

I won't be going to a new church this next week, I'm going to visit the Gettysburg battlefield with my history class. However, I hope to attend Easter Mass at the Basiliica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Keep reading!

St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church

2010-03-07T19:03:00.003Z

It is a beautiful morning in Washington today. It’s warmed up a little bit, almost all of the snow has melted, and the sun is shining brightly. Today I went to St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church, one of the oldest and most highly reputed churches in the District. It was dedicated in 1859, but the Church flourished after World War II when the Jesuit Father Horace McKenna began to run the show. Today it is also home to Gonzaga College High School and the Father McKenna Center, which seeks to help the poor and homeless. St. Aloysius Gonzaga is located on North Capitol Street, close to Union Station.

St. Aloysius has a beautiful and imposing building; it’s a great example of neo-Roman architecture. I was a little disappointed that the 9:30 Mass was not in the main worship area, but in a smaller space in what appeared to be the basement of the church. However, the 9:30 Mass boasts a gospel choir, and I’m a sucker for gospel choirs (By the way, they were great). Mass at St. Aloysius was honestly quite different from everywhere else I’ve seen it in D.C. That being said, it was awesome. St. Aloysius doesn’t advertise itself as a black Church, but the service today seemed to fit in with the other black parishes that I’ve visited so far. What I found interesting was that a Mass with a black priest and deacon, as well as a gospel choir, was attended mostly by white people.

There were a couple of rituals that struck me as strange. During the prayer of the faithful (“Lord, Hear our Prayer”), the congregation was encouraged to speak up and give their own intentions. Some asked for prayers for soldiers, friends and loved ones, while others put forth bold political statements. One woman prayed for an end to war, and then said that we shouldn’t pay federal income tax to support the military. Another person asked to pray that the Republicans would pass healthcare legislation, and another prayed that the Archdiocese would end their practices of discrimination (presumably those against homosexual couples, as has been in the news recently). While I’m not necessarily opposed to the last two, I felt a little uncomfortable. I think it’s best to keep politics out of the worship area, especially when presenting intentions that everyone prays for. Finally, before the Liturgy of the Eucharist, everyone was asked to get out of their seats and stand by the altar. I LOVED IT. The congregation got a front row seat to watch Father Glenn bless the Eucharist, and it created an unbelievable sense of intimacy and reverence. We all held hands as one big family during the “Our Father” and we all shook hands and offered peace before we made it back to our seats. Electrifying.

Father Glenn delivered a very simple message in his homily, but it was one of the most eloquent responses to Scripture that I’ve ever heard. His theme was that “our God is a God of Second Chances.” He said that a bush that could be burned and not consumed, a people that were enslaved, yet would be free, and a tree that bore no fruit, but would not be chopped down were all examples of a “God of Second Chances.” Lent, he told his congregation, is a time to focus on whatever killed your first chance. He also reminded them that there is someone in all our lives who deserves a second chance. In my lame paraphrase, I cannot even attempt to capture what a profound and eloquent statement Father Glenn made. As with everything else at this uniquely awesome Church, you will have to see it for yourself.

Links:
St. Aloysius Website
Interesting Interview with Father Glenn

Pictures:

Churches I've Been To So Far:

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Cathedral of St. Matthew

2010-02-21T23:42:00.004Z

I’ve done a lot of reading and research on St. Matthew’s Cathedral, and I’ve come to one conclusion: it’s kind of a big deal. It is the seat of Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, it was the site of John F. Kennedy’s funeral Mass in 1963, and it hosts an annual “Red Mass,” which asks the Holy Spirit to guide the nation’s lawmakers, which is attended by many Congressman and Supreme Court Justices. I figured it was about time to head over for a visit, and my good friends Loreto and Amanda decided to come along. St. Matthew’s was walking distance, about halfway between Foggy Bottom and Dupont Circle.

On the outside, the church doesn’t look like much. It is certainly big, but it’s dwarfed by the colossal office buildings that surround it. The red brick exterior is pretty plain looking. The inside of the building, however, is magnificent. Marble and tile line the walls, forming beautiful images of Christ, St. Matthew, and other Biblical figures. On top of the high ceiling is a monstrous dome, which allows light into the space.

St. Matthew’s offers a ten o’clock Mass in Latin, and I jumped at the opportunity. I initially thought the whole service would be in Latin, including the readings and the homily, just like the Spanish and Italian Masses that I had seen. But then I realized this was silly. Why would a priest give a homily in a language that literally NO ONE speaks? The readings, homily, and some of the hymns were in English, while most of the prayers were in Latin. The choir was made up of twenty or so people dressed in flowing, red robes. They led the congregation with hymns and chants that echoed beautifully through the space.

Today’s Gospel reading told the story of the devil tempting Jesus in the desert, after Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights. The priest explained that the devil tempted Christ with food, power, and control over God, things that symbolize a lack of reliance on God. He reminded his parishioners that there are greater temptations than the sweets or television that they gave up for Lent: there is the temptation to stop relying on God. During Lent, he said, we are able to overcome our temptations through Christ.

Pictures:

Churches I've Been Too So Far

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St. Ann Church

2010-02-07T18:12:00.004Z

Before I talk about St. Ann’s, I want to give special thanks to Father Rick from St. Benedict the Moor. I emailed him last week, letting him know that I wrote about the Mass he gave, and he responded by asking me for my address and sending me a book on the history of the Washington Archdiocese. It’s a beautiful book, with a lot of information about the growth of the archdiocese over the beginning with the arrival of Catholic settlers in Maryland in the seventeenth century. I’m going to try to incorporate some of the more relevant information into my posts. Thanks again, Father Rick. Also, thanks to RAnn for inviting me to the Sunday Snippets- Catholic Carnival Group.

For those of you who haven’t cracked open a newspaper, D.C. got pounded with about 20 inches of snow over the past two days, and it has been a blast. I’ve been enjoying the snow quite a bit. Yesterday, I went to the snowball fight in Dupont Circle, slid down the steps near the Lincoln Memorial on a garbage bag, and walked all the way to the Capitol. I’ve been, as one friend puts it, “D.C. Chillin.” However, because of the snow, the Metro is running at limited capacity. Most of the Red Line was still up, though, so I still had access to the northwestern area of the city. I decided to balance my map out a little bit and go with Loreto to St. Ann’s in the Tenleytown area.

According to Father Rick’s history book, St. Ann’s parish was one of three formed during the Civil War in order to accommodate the needs of the soldiers, freed slaves, and others who flocked to the city during the war years. It is a pretty imposing structure on first glance, with much of the same pseudo-Gothic structure that is featured in many D.C. churches. The interior features beautiful stained glass windows, high arched ceilings, and a massive amount of stone. This church, more than any other, made me feel like I was inside a medieval castle.

I really don’t have a lot to say about the Mass. It was probably because of the snow, but there just didn’t seem to be a lot of energy in the church today. There was no music whatsoever, and it seemed like everyone was just going through the motions. Today’s Gospel reading was one of my favorites, when Jesus calls on Peter to become a “fisher of men.” I was totally shocked when the priest didn’t even give a homily! I’ve seen long homilies and short homilies, but never have I seen a priest not give one! In total, the Mass was about twenty-five minutes long, and it kind of felt like “Mass Lite.”

I understand that the weather may have thrown everyone off a little, but Mass today felt a little unfulfilling. Maybe I’ll give St. Ann another chance some day, but this morning it left me feeling as cold as the icy streets.

St. Ann Website

Pictures:
Snowball Fight in Dupont Circle (Saturday Afternoon)

St. Ann

Churches I've Been To So Far:

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St. Benedict the Moor Church

2010-01-31T19:47:00.007Z

I was looking at a map of the churches I’ve visited so far, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t really gone to any on the east side of D.C. I figured I needed to balance out the map a little bit, so I found St. Benedict the Moor Church in Southeast D.C. It’s about as far east as you go without crossing the Anacostia River, near RFK Stadium, former home of the Washington Nationals.

Oh, did I mention that D.C. got about three inches of snow yesterday? This is entirely a foreign experience to me, being from Southern California. I marveled at the snowy streets, fields, and parking lots all the way to church while my friend Loreto, from upstate New York, amused himself with my naivety.

St. Benedict the Moor is a small church, built in the mid-twentieth century. It looked a lot like a small version of St. Thomas the Apostle: a square, blunt building. Today was the men’s choir’s turn to perform. The choir consisted of six men, all wearing nearly identical black suits and light blue ties. The boys were a little flat this morning, but they really seemed to be enjoying themselves and it was pleasure to listen to them. I also have to give them credit for singing one of my favorite church songs, “Soon And Very Soon.”

The priest was a young Filipino man, who splits his time between two parishes, St. Benedict the Moor and St. Vincent de Paul. He gives an 8 AM Mass and a 12 PM Mass at St. Vincent de Paul and a 10 AM Mass at St. Benedict the Moor in between. Father Richard’s homily sounded more like a Sunday school lecture than the more abstract reflections on Scripture offered by other priests. I liked his style of preaching, because it was practical. He not only interpreted the readings, but told the congregation how to apply Scripture’s lessons to our everyday lives. He talked about leadership, and the obstacles that stand in the way of becoming a great leader. The first was FEAR. In the first reading, he said, the Lord told Jeremiah not to be afraid to be a prophet, and spread the word of God. The second was FAILURE. While fear prevents us from starting to be a leader, failure keeps us from continuing. Failing to be patient or forgiving, for example, can become an obstacle to success. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus refuses to perform great miracles for the people of Nazareth after he has performed miracles in Capernaum, and the people run him out of town. This, he said, is an example of another obstacle to leadership, FAVORITISM. When Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth, he refuses to grant special favors to the people there, because when you favor one person, you disfavor someone else. We should avoid the temptation to treat people unequally, Father Richard said. The Nazareans said to Jesus, “Hey man, we went to Nazareth Junior High together!” But Jesus’ response was, “Physician, cure yourself.”

I’ve been to two Black Catholic Churches now, and the most remarkable thing about both is the sense of community. There is an incredible connection between the members of the church, whether they are complaining about the snow in the parking lot or smiling and shaking hands after Mass. At the end of the Mass, they asked visitors to stand up and introduce themselves. I stood up, and told them about my project. After Mass, Loreto and I were given a dozen warm welcomes and invitations to return, as well as well-wishings for my project. By the time I left, I felt like I was part of the community too.

St. Benedict the Moor Website (For my Mommy)

Pictures:

RFK Stadium: This is where UCLA beat Temple in the EagleBank Bowl in December! Also home of D.C. United.

Churches I've Been To So Far:

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St. Joseph's Church on Capitol Hill

2010-01-24T20:02:00.009Z

Before I came to GW, I met a few people on Facebook who were incoming freshman like myself. In most cases, nothing really came out of these initial acquaintances. One of them, however, Dan, saw this blog and became interested in this project. We had previously discussed faith and politics, and he told me he’d like to come along for one of my visits some day. I told him to pick the church, and then we would go. He picked St. Joseph’s, just a few blocks away from the U.S. Capitol building. We had heard rumors that congressman and other government officials attended Mass there, and being political junkies, we couldn’t resist.

St. Joseph’s is very similar in look and feel to the other Downtown Catholic Churches (St. Dominic and St. Patrick, for example). I might even go so far as to say that it’s really a prototype for the other churches in the area and in the district as a whole. The church was built in a neo-Gothic (I’m not sure if that’s the proper term, but what I mean is that it has many of the same architectural features of a Gothic Cathedral) style, incorporating columns, arches and stained glass. Lying around in the pews were the church’s brochures, which touted their heritage, dating back to the Civil War, and asked for help in a multi-million dollar campaign to renovate their facilities.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus goes to Galilee and proclaims that he has arrived to fulfill the prophecy of the Old Testament. In his homily, Msgr. Charles discussed Jesus’s proclamation of the “good news” of salvation, and how happy the people must have been to hear this news (Actually, after Jesus proclaims that he is fulfilling the prophecy, the people of the synagogue try to run him out of town and throw him down a mountain, but I understand what he was getting at). He talked about how we still see examples of acts that build up God’s kingdom and proclaim the good news of salvation, for example, by helping the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

At the end of the Mass, a nun from the Little Sisters of the Poor came and asked for help. She and the other Little Sisters are part of a worldwide organization that provides shelter and care for the elderly poor at their many residences. She shared a story about a man who they almost took into their residence who passed away. He had no friends or relatives, but they held a funeral for him anyway. They buried him in the only grave plot they owned, and after they did so, they received unsolicited donations for over a dozen graves. I'll take a nun over a politician any day.

Links:
St. Joseph's Website
Little Sisters of the Poor, Washington, D.C.

Pictures:

Churches I've Been To So Far

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Shrine of the Sacred Heart (Santuario del Sagrado Corazon)

2010-01-17T21:27:00.010Z

Well, this was a sad week, as the Catholics of the world turned their attention to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. With that in mind, I planned to attend Mass at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in the evening, because they offer a Mass in Haitian Creole. During the week, however, I read in the Washington Post that the priest who leads the Mass, Fr. Arsene Jasmin, had left for Haiti on Monday, and had not been heard from since then. I wasn’t sure if they were still going to have the Creole Mass, so I decided to go to one of the morning masses, delivered in Spanish. My suitemate, Loreto, and I headed out early for the 8 AM Mass. (At the beginning of the Mass, the priest discussed Haiti and Fr. Jasmin. My Spanish is not perfect, but I believe he said that they had heard from Fr. Jasmin and that he was all right.)

Shrine of the Sacred Heart is located in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, in North-Central Washington, D.C. Columbia Heights is named after the Columbian College, which was located in the neighborhood in the 1800’s. Columbian College later moved to Foggy Bottom and became The George Washington University. Sacred Heart is located on a stretch of 16th Street famous for its many Protestant churches. Legend says that the Protestants tried to keep the Catholics away from the main drag for many years. Sacred Heart was built in the early twentieth century and caters to the large Hispanic population in Columbia Heights.

I’ll be honest. I didn’t think this Church would be much. I had seen pictures of the building, but I wasn’t that impressed. Upon arrival, I realized that the church was a lot larger and more elaborate than I expected it to be. The building itself was massive, with a central focus on an elaborate housing for the crucifix located behind the altar. The building was capped by a large dome, and the altar was flanked by shrines dedicated to Jesus and the Virgin Mary. It reminded me a lot of a miniature version of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Great Shrines think alike.

Once again, I was challenged to listen to Mass in another language. I took Spanish in high school, so I could understand this service a little better than the Italian Mass at Holy Rosary. The priest’s opening remarks touched on the earthquake in Haiti, and the coming Martin Luther King holiday. He called on the congregation to remember the changes that Dr. King brought to the United States.

While I expected more traditional music in such an elaborate space, the band sounded a lot like a Spanish light-rock band. The cantor had a good, steady voice, and was accompanied by acoustic guitar, keyboard, percussion, and background vocalists. I think it is an interesting choice of music, one that brings new energy into what seems like an ancient place of worship.

I couldn’t really understand the readings, but I figured out what the Gospel reading was during the deacon’s homily. I heard him talking about Jesus being “presented” at a “wedding,” so I figured it was the story of the feast at Cana. It is his first miracle: when all the wine at the wedding feast has been finished, Jesus tells the servants to fetch him some water, which transforms into wine. I heard the priest talking about “San Juan,” referring to John the Baptist, an “angel” and Jesus’ mother, so he was focusing on the first events of the New Testament. The homily turned into a discussion of the importance of family. Though a young person may just want to talk to their boyfriend or girlfriend all the time, he said, family should still come first. Then, he started making a food analogy that I could not comprehend. He started talking about “tortillas” and “mais (corn).” I’m not sure what he was trying to say, but I seem to think it was along the lines of, “If the tortilla is no good, don’t blame the corn.” Whether that’s correct, and what exactly that means is beyond me.

This was a pretty early Mass, and Loreto and I were both pretty tired. Apparently not as tired as the priest, though. The deacon was giving what appeared to be an engaging sermon. He was making broad gestures, varying his vocal tone to emphasize important points, and eliciting responses from the audience. About half way through the speech, I looked over at the priest, and he appeared to be looking down and squinting at something. When I looked again, I noticed him drifting a little more to the side, and I realized that he was SLEEPING!! Now, I’ll confess that over the years, I’ve had some struggles to stay awake during Mass, but I wasn’t up in front of everyone! A little embarassing for him, but I will judge not, that I may not be judged. It was an early Mass, and even priests sometimes don’t get enough sleep. A college student should be the last person to mock someone else for having abnormal sleep patterns.

Altogether, quite a surprising Mass. I didn’t expect such a large, beautiful church, and I didn’t expect such an impressive turnout for an 8AM Mass. I’m also glad I had a chance to explore Columbia Heights a little bit.

I’d love to see some comments. Let me know what you think about my project! Do I write too much? Too little? Anywhere you’d like me to go? And who exactly reads this anyway?

Statue of James Cardinal Gibbons (1834-1921) Archbishop of Baltimore, the second American ever to be declared a Cardinal. First Chancellor of Catholic University of America.

This is a map of all the churches I've visited so far. Click on the blue markers to see which church is located at that point.

View Churches I've Been To So Far in a larger map

St. Thomas Apostle Church

2010-01-11T05:45:00.006Z

On Saturday evening, I returned to Washington from an enjoyable three weeks off from school. So naturally, on Sunday morning, I was right back in the swing of things, strolling through the deserted streets of downtown Washington, D.C. in search of another unknown Catholic parish. Oh, and by the way, it’s 30 degrees outside.

I figured I’d venture a little bit out of the core of the city, to St. Thomas Apostle Church, in the Woodley Park neighborhood. It’s a few miles north of the downtown area, about a block from the Woodley Park Metro stop (Red Line). It’s also not far from the National Zoo. (As I was walking through the neighborhood, a mother with children in tow asked me how to get to the zoo. I pointed her in the right direction, but why anyone would want to walk around all day in freezing temperatures to see a bunch of lazy pandas and monkeys is beyond me.)

St. Thomas Apostle isn’t a very large church, and it isn’t built in the pseudo-Gothic style that many of the other churches in the city are built in. My guess is that it was built in the 1950’s or 1960’s. Aesthetically, it looked like a mix between an office building and my aunt Mayme’s house. Check out my pictures for details.

The priest, Father Charles, was a black man who had recently immigrated to the United States. Judging by his accent, he was probably from somewhere in Africa. He was a little bit hard to understand sometimes, but for the most part I knew what he was saying (Though I giggled a little when he pronounced “humanity” “’oo-manity”). He was very animated, using broad, emphatic gestures to help articulate his message. His homily was both a discussion of the reading and a call to action. Today’s reading discussed the work of John the Baptist, who baptized people with water as a sort of “certification” of being a member of God’s chosen people, in preparation for the coming of Jesus. Father Charles said that now, our “certification” as members of the assembly of God is taking up the mission of evangelization. He said that he was disappointed when he heard that only 10% of D.C. residents were Catholic. He called upon the congregation to allow others to “see Christ in them,” and bring them into the Catholic Church.

Pictures (click to enlarge):

Here’s something I should have posted before. This is the Google Maps page that I’ve compiled with every Church that I plan to visit. Click on the (+) and (-) signs to zoom in and out. Click on the markers to see which church is located at the marked location.

View Catholic Churches in Washington, D.C. in a larger map

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Church (Valencia, CA)

2010-01-11T02:19:00.004Z

As I've mentioned before, my home parish, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, recently finished construction on a new church building. I attended Christmas Mass, here's a few photos.

St. Augustine Church

2009-12-09T06:47:00.006Z

First, a quick apology. I visited St. Augustine on Sunday, but I didn’t get the opportunity to post a write-up until today because I was working on an essay all night Sunday night, and I needed to sleep last night. Also, this was such an incredible experience that I didn’t want to rush through it with a quick post.

But first, a quick digression. I left my dorm around 11:45 to get to St. Augustine’s for 12:30 Mass. I took the Orange Line Metro to Metro Center, hoping to transfer to the Red Line for one stop, to Gallery Place/Chinatown, and then transfer again to the Green/Yellow Line to get to U St./Cardozo. (For those not familiar with the area, here’s a map: http://www.wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm) When I got to Metro Center, however, I saw that the next Red Line train was arriving in sixteen minutes. It was 12:00. That would be cutting things awful close, because I still had to ride to Gallery Place, make another transfer to the Green/Yellow, ride to U St., and then walk two blocks to the church. So I made a pretty sneaky move. I left the Metro Center station, and walked five blocks to Gallery Place/Chinatown. I beat the Red Line train there by eight minutes, and I made it to Church with time to spare. I paid an extra $1.35, but that’s a small price to pay to avoid the “walk of shame” into a Church that you’ve never been to before. Sorry if this was a boring story. Coming from an L.A. perspective, I guess it’s the equivalent of taking the 210 freeway instead of the 5 and beating the rush hour traffic.

I was interested in St. Augustine because it describes itself as the “Mother Church of Black Catholics,” and is located in a traditionally African-American neighborhood, around U Street. I was very curious as to what this church would be like. It’s certainly not a stretch to say that there aren’t a lot of black Catholics, according to statistics, only 4% of American Catholics are black. According to their website, the 12:30 Mass featured a gospel choir, with both traditional and African-American hymns. I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Would this be a totally different service than I was used to? Or would it be just like the other D.C. Masses that I had attended?

The answer was a little bit of both. On the surface, the church looked just like many of the other churches in D.C. There were two large towers in the front, an organ, a colonnade leading up to the altar, and rows and rows of wooden pews. On two of the frontmost columns were purple banners with the messages “THE ULTIMATE GIFT/HOPE” and “THE ULTIMATE GIFT/PEACE.” Mass was very well-attended, and the crowd was lively before Mass. I got the feeling that the Church was used to visitors; before the Mass started, the choir director told everyone not to take pictures during the service.

The first interesting thing I noticed was the presentation of the second candle of Advent. A woman wearing no shoes carried the candle rigidly out in front of her and brought it down the aisle. She seemed almost like a ballerina, with careful foot movements and a balanced posture.
Oh, did I mention the Gospel choir? This was something that I had typically associated with a number of Protestant churches, but certainly not Catholics. Watching two dozen singers, both black and white, singing with such tremendous spirit and enthusiasm for their faith was refreshing and entertaining. They were accompanied by a full band, including drums, guitars, and saxophones. There was one band member who was playing a different instrument every time I looked at him: first alto saxophone, then soprano saxophone and then the flute.

I’ve often heard it said that an academic takes a simple idea and makes it complicated, but a communicator takes something complicated and makes it simple. The priest at St. Augustine was definitely a communicator. Father Patrick’s homily was down-to-earth, and easy to understand. He had a great connection with his audience. Whenever he made a good point, the congregation would respond with a chorus of Hmm-mm’s or Amens. This was another tradition that I have never seen in a Roman Catholic Mass. Father Patrick delivered a poignant message, that we pray to God because we have hope that he can lead us through our troubles. He described people in the Old Testament as oppressed, and that while the Bible mentions “big names” like Tiberius Caesar and Herod, the people come to John the Baptist for salvation because he speaks for God. It was because people had hope that God would deliver them from oppression. There is always suffering, he said, but God gives us hope, just like John the Baptist did. During advent, we light candles in the face of darkness. I thought it was very interesting when he pointed out that there are a lot of lights up this time of year, but we can’t appreciate them during the day. We can only appreciate the hope that God gives us when we realize that we face great struggles and suffering.

Father Patrick had a lot of great messages in his sermon, which I won’t take the time to post on here. It was a very long homily. I didn’t time it, but I’d guess that it was probably 30-45 minutes- much longer than the 15 minute homilies that I’m used to.

During the collection, a man on acoustic guitar took the lead in singing a hymn, with the choir backing him up. Towards the end of the song, he started a chorus of “There’s no God like Jehovah” that got everyone up on their feet. The choir was clapping and swaying side to side, and the congregation joined along. There was a lot of energy in that crowd. I don’t like to use the word amazing, but it was amazing.

The sign of peace gave me an indication of what an tight-knit community this Church was. People were walking around, hugging their friends, family members, and acquaintances. Some folks were just walking up and down the aisles, hugging and shaking hands with anyone in their path. I thought it was really sweet. The choir sang a beautiful song towards the end of the Mass telling us that “there is hope for the world,” and the priest jokingly admonished them for summing his entire homily up in one hymn.

St. Augustine has a lot of visitors, and they do a good job of making them feel welcome. At the end of the Mass, Father Patrick asked first-time visitors to stand up. The altar servers brought microphones to those who stood, and we announced where we were from. “Hi, I’m Michael Salgarolo, from George Washington University, originally from Los Angeles, California.” Some of the other visitors were from France and Brazil.

Mass at St. Augustine was inspiring. I was amazed that they were able to take many of the traditions of black Protestant churches and fuse them into the Roman Catholic Mass. What was even more inspiring, and what should other Catholic Churches should take to heart, was the tremendous, indescribable sense of energy and community. They have developed a community based on love and faith, and their unique Mass is a source of pride and comfort. When the two people behind me encouraged me to adopt St. Augustine as my new parish, I explained my mission to them. “Well,” one man said, “go to another church in the morning, but come to 12:30 Mass here.” I don’t know if I’ll have the time for that, but I’ll certainly keep them on my mind.

Feel free to comment, I'd love to hear what you have to say.

St. Patrick "In The City" Church

2009-11-08T22:27:00.007Z

I went to another church downtown this week, St. Patrick. Founded in 1794, it claims to be the oldest Roman Catholic Parish in the District of Columbia. Located at the intersection of 10th and G Street, it’s a short Metro ride away, walking distance from Metro Center.

The church’s design is very similar to the other ones I’ve visited. Columns flank the pews, leading up to the altar. It’s a medium sized worship space, not as wide as St. Dominic, but longer than the cramped Holy Rosary. Even though the church was plenty long, the first thing I noticed was the crammed pews. As I sat down, I barely had enough room to put my legs out, and the back of the seat seemed extraordinarily stiff. I must admit, I was pretty tired, and the uncomfortable pews made it impossible for me to doze off during the Mass. Maybe that’s the point.

The cross behind the altar was strange, but beautiful once I figured it out. It was marble, and depicted two figures on the cross. One was Christ, with hands outstretched. Christ was inside a larger figure, carved into the cross. The larger figure looked like an imprint that you make when you lie down in sand. Why was Christ inside this looming figure? Well, here’s the conclusion I came to. The larger figure’s arms were extended outwards, with hands pointing downward, seemingly limp. I realized that this was the outline of Christ suffering on the crucifix, the image generally depicted on decorative crosses. Upon second look, the smaller Christ figure had his arms pointed upwards, and he looked up towards heaven. The cross was commenting on the dual nature of the crucifixion. While we often look at the crucifixion as an event of sadness and suffering, it was also a moment of beauty and hope, because Christ sacrificed himself to bring salvation to his people on earth. The larger figure represents the suffering of the crucifixion, while the smaller figure is a reminder that it was also a moment of hope and salvation. (If I didn't describe it well enough, see the third or fourth picture below, and click to enlarge it.)

I was twenty minutes early for 12:00 Mass, and the church was almost empty. It seemed pretty empty up until about two minutes before, when large groups started pouring in. This Mass was more crowded than the others I’ve been to so far. This might have been because of the parish, or it may have been because this was the first noon Mass I’ve been to. I’d put my money on the noon factor: I figure most DC Catholics have just as hard a time as I do waking up early on a Sunday.

As the Mass’s one singer welcomed the congregation, a large family paraded through the church, taking up the first two rows of pews. I noticed that there were a lot of families in the congregation, surprising because the parish is so old, and the priests and deacon were certainly advanced in years.

The clergymen may have been elderly, but they were certainly not past their prime. The priest who gave the homily presented some interesting observations explaining why we need to have Christ in our lives. He said that temptation was really just a “scam,” like the scams we hear about in the news, to make us think we can be satisfied without following God. He told a story about a fudge sundae that he ate, and compared it to the nature of sin. He said that while it initially satisfied him, the more he ate, the less he was satisfied. Similarly, he said, pursuing anything other than God to achieve satisfaction was “destined to fail.”

The homily was nicely accompanied by the small children seated throughout the church, whose crying and shouting echoed cacophonously throughout the entire Mass. The priest finished his remarks just as the little boy behind me finished his third recitation of “Old MacDonald Had A Farm.”

I’m having a lot of fun with this project, hope you guys are enjoying reading it. Leave me a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say!

Pictures (click to enlarge):

Holy Rosary Church

2009-10-25T22:43:00.007Z

I was unsure about which church I wanted to visit this week when my roommate Loreto invited me to come to mass with him, his father who was visiting from New York, and some family friends. Of course, I accepted.

We went to Holy Rosary Church, in Downtown Washington, near the Judiciary Square Metro station (Red Line). Loreto explained to me that Holy Rosary is an Italian parish, and warned me that the Mass would probably in Italian. Always up for a new experience, we dressed in our Sunday best for the 10:30 Mass.

Holy Rosary is not a very big church, but it has a very powerful spiritual vibe. White marble dominates the space. Lining the way up to the altar was a series of intimidating white marble columns. The altar space was also covered in marble, with beautiful white angel statues on both sides. The flanks of the altar had candles and detailed statues of Christ and the saints.

The choir was sitting in the rear of the church, in the same loft as the organist. When Loreto and I first walked in, a prayer book fell from above, landing on the rearmost pew. Thinking it was a sign from God, I looked up, only to find the choir directly above me. Sometimes divine providence turns out to be a clumsy chorus member.

Mass in another language is quite an interesting experience. Though I am of partial Italian descent, I know absolutely no Italian. It was like watching your favorite movie in another language. It was a test of how well I knew the procedures and rituals of Mass: I didn’t know what they were saying, but I knew what they were doing. I caught on very quickly, reciting the penitential rite (“I confess to Almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters…”) in English while the rest of the parish recited in Italian.

Shortly after, the crowd began to recite a prayer which had the cadence of the Nicene Creed. I was utterly confused, because the Nicene Creed is supposed to come after the homily. I thought this was a strange Italian tradition, until I realized later that they were reciting the Gloria (“Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth…”). This completely threw me off, because the Gloria is usually sung. Later, a man came up to the podium, read for a minute, initiated a call-and-response sequence, and then did some more reading. I didn’t realize what was going on, but once the deacon came up to read the gospel, I figured it out. The first man had read the first reading, led the responsorial psalm, and then read the second reading. Most of the confusion I experienced was caused by a combination of atypical procedures and the obvious language barrier.

The most fun part of the Mass, from my perspective, was trying to interpret the priest’s homily. Through my limited knowledge of Spanish, (I took three years in high school, I know enough to ask where the bathroom is) and my intuition, I was able to pick up a few bits and pieces. In the beginning, I picked up “luminare” and “speranza,” which mean “to light” and “hope.” “Gesu Cristo” was pretty obvious, and in context I figured that “Signore” was “God,” though it turns out that it really translates to “Lord.” Today’s Gospel Reading talked about Jesus healing the blind man Bartimeo in Jericho (Mark 10:46-52). Before the Lord gives Bartimeo his sight, he says to him, “Go your way, your faith has saved you.” Some of the priest’s lecture touched on the reading, I understood that he was talking about salvation, and he referenced Jericho and Jerusalem. I heard phrases like “paso a paso,” “camino,” and “Gerusalemme” (Jerusalem), which made me believe he was talking about walking down the path to salvation step by step, just as Jesus took the path to Jerusalem after giving sight to Bartimeo.

The music was very good, the choir was backed by a beautiful organ, as I discussed early. I didn’t recognize many of the hymns, but one that I found remarkable was set to the tune of “Kumbaya,” performed during the offering.

I was in an awkward position during the offering of peace. I don’t usually think much about shaking my neighbor’s hand and saying “Peace be with you,” but here I wasn’t sure whether to say “Peace” or use the Italian word “Pace” (pronounced “pa-chey”). I ended up just saying “peace.” I don’t think I offended anyone.

The most remarkable thing about Holy Rosary was the tremendous sense of community. After the Mass ended and we walked out of the church, the socializing had already begun. Loreto’s uncle Enzo was laughing and chatting with some friends, and gladly introduced us. The Italian Mass is a way for these families to stay connected with each other to their ethnic and spiritual heritage. It is a fusion of Old and New World, a way for the generations of the past to connect with their modern descendants. It’s a nice tradition, and I hope that it lives on.

If anyone has any input on my interpretation of the Italian, please feel free to post a comment. In fact, if you have anything you'd like to share, feel free to leave a comment.

St. Dominic Church

2009-10-11T17:36:00.010+01:00

The mission has begun, and so far, is going well. Today I went to St. Dominic's Catholic Church in Southwest Washington D.C. I wanted to start with a church that was close to campus, but far enough to be exciting. St. Dominic's is located about a block from the L'Enfant Plaza Metro stop, which is a few stops from Foggy Bottom.

Looking on its website, the parish is over 100 years old, and is run by friars of the Dominican order. I don't know much about the Dominican order, but it doesn't appear that they have an overbearing influence at St. Dominics. The stained glass windows depict events in the life of St. Dominic, but if I didn't know that, I would have appreciated them just the same. Similarly, if I didn't know that the church was run by Dominicans before I got there, I wouldn't have figured it out during Mass.

The church was built in a very traditional style. Stained glass windows are on all sides of the church, as described before. A large stone bell tower flanks the main building. The inside of the Church is very beautiful. Large columns extend all the way to the high ceiling, leading from entrance to altar. The cross, which is usually a fixture on the wall, was suspended in mid-air from the ceiling by big metal wires. I've posted some pictures below.

As I entered the church, I was greeted by the priest. A very friendly man, he asked everyone who entered if they were a "regular" or not. I told him where I was from, and what I was doing there. I got the feeling that this was a church that was very used to visitors. After all, they were in the middle of Washington, D.C., near a good deal of hotels and tourist attractions. He made several remarks throughout the Mass about visitors; at first I thought he might be referring to visitors coming for the National Equality March on the mall today, either protesters or counter-protesters, but judging by the crowd, I didn't think this was the case. It appeared that "visitors" were a regular part of life at St. Dominic, the parish bulletin addresses issues concerning "regular parishioners" as well as "tourists" and "visitors." This may seem uninviting, but it is not inconsistent with the other Catholic Churches I have visited in other tourist areas, such as Newport Beach and Palm Springs.

About halfway through the first reading, I came across a phenomenon universal to Sunday morning church-going: the Cryin' Baby. It was not a huge disruption, and the reader didn't take offense. At home, if there's a Cryin' Baby during the homily, our priest will stop talking until the guilty parent brings the child outside. There is no crying room at home, and none at St. Dominic, apparently, they've been banned by the church.

I came on a special day for St. Dominic parish, it was the ninetieth anniversary of the consecration of their church building. As the priest explained during the homily, the parish was founded initially by Catholic immigrants (mostly Irish, I saw traces of this influence in the second reader, who had an Irish accent) in the 1850's. Their first church burned down in a fire, but they persisted, building their current church in 1919. The priest emphasized the importance of having a "holy space" in which to conduct religous ceremonies and to become closer to God. In today's reading, Jesus calls Zaccheus down from the sycamore tree, and goes to Zaccheus' home to bring him salvation. For the parishioners of St. Dominic, the father said, God calls them into their consecrated church, their "holy space," to bring them salvation. For this reason, he said, this consecrated church is "more than just the stones that make up the building."

St. Dominic's website touts the church's excellent acoustics. The band and choir, made up of about eight people, was certainly an interesting combination. There were about five singers, two acoustic guitar players, a flutist, and a pianist. The hymns were mostly familiar, and the singers were quite good. At St. Dominic, music is almost constant. The priest sang almost the entire consecration of the host. He would talk/sing through a prayer, often followed up by a chorus/hymn by the choir. I couldn't figure out what the musical style reminded me of, but at this point, I realized that it sounded a little like musical theater. This is not a complaint, the priest had a nice voice, and it made consecration less dry than usual.

Altogether, the Mass was very nice. I'm glad I chose St. Dominic as the first church, and I look forward to going to another church next week.

Pictures:

Introduction

2009-10-10T03:11:00.002+01:00

Hi, my name is Michael. I am a freshman at the George Washington University, and I am a practicing Roman Catholic. I moved to Washington, D.C. a little over a month ago, and I love it here. I am happy to report that I found a very welcoming Catholic community at the GW Newman Center, and have been attending the masses that the Newman Center holds at St. Stephen Martyr Church, near campus.

I am overjoyed at some news I received from my hometown. My parish, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, in Valencia, California, has just completed the new church building that we have spent over a decade building. From what I am told, it is a beautiful building, and I'm excited to see it when I get home.

I have begun to think about the different ways that Catholics worship. Some parishes sing prayers, some recite them. Some priests may emphasize certain themes in their sermons, while others will find completely different narratives. Some churches have been around for hundreds of years, some are brand new. Parishes themselves vary in size, culture, race, and socioeconomic status. Despite these differences, the fundamentals of the celebration of Mass remains the same. I find these differences fascinating. I've decided to embark on an ambitious new project for the next two years or so: to attend Mass at every Catholic Church in the District of Columbia.

The goal of this project is not merely curiousity, or boredom, but to help me determine what it means to be Catholic in America. I also hope to gain a greater appreciation for the diversity and unique history of Washington, D.C. My goal is to update this page every week with a report on a different Church where I have attended Mass. There are approximately 50 Catholic Churches in the District. This should be a great challenge, and hopefully a lot of fun.