"What on earth is he scheming now?"
began the murmurs from the audience. "It's not bad enough we
have to endure these pieces on Sundays and some holy days, but
now a weekday? And what does 'MM Tour' mean?"
Well, I finally convinced my boss that the time had come to take
a vacation, and he agreed that two weeks would be appropriate.
The only thing left was to decide where to go-- but where does a
fellow like me go on a vacation? A tourist trap? Theme park?
Cruise on a luxury liner? White-water rafting? Elk hunting?
Why, of course-- the obvious thing to do is just to drive around
the good ol' USA visiting churches. Thus, the birth of the
"What I did on Sunday Magical Mystery Tour" (for
Beatles fans), or perhaps the "WIDOS Millennium Tour"
(thanks to Leanna for that suggestion; "MM" of course,
is the Roman numeral for 2000).
We start by driving down I-81 through Virginia late Monday night.
The map doesn't show too many large cities, so the sensible thing
to do is to start looking in those that do cross my path. I
exited the highway and stopped at a pay phone to call
1-800-MASSTIM (http://www.masstimes.org) to find at least the
location of a church. One was right in this town, but the only
daily Mass was at 12:10 PM, and I didn't want to have to hang
around that town until after lunch. The next closest church was
twenty minutes away in the wrong direction, and the daily Mass
time was not given. I drove past the first church anyway just to
get a look; it was an old stone church that looked interesting,
but in the absence of a sign indicating an earlier Mass, I
decided to head for the next large city on I-81.
There, I stopped again to obtain the two nearest churches. The
first, again, was right in town, but the daily Mass schedule was
not given. The next, again, was twenty minutes in the wrong
direction with no schedule given for daily Mass. (Mass Times is a
bit weak on daily Mass schedules.) Hoping to find a sign, I drove
past the first church and managed to find the church despite the
garbled instructions of the synthesized voice, but the sign had
only the weekend schedule. Since it was about 11:30 PM, I decided
to stay anyway and take my chances.
I awakened at 5:50 AM and really didn't get back to sleep, so
after I was ready to leave, I just headed over to the church and
hoped I'd get lucky and find an 8:30 or 9:00 AM Mass. I got
slightly lost and made it there at just about 8:30; someone else
was entering, so that was a good sign. When I got inside, I saw a
reader sitting in the sanctuary, gifts were on a table in the
aisle, and about a dozen people were sitting in the pews. That
was another good sign, and believe it or not, the Mass started
right after that! I want everyone to remind me of this the next
time things don't go too well. I don't think I could have been
much more fortunate.
The church, which sits at the top of a hill, bears a dual
cornerstone reading "1850" on one corner and
"1895" on another. It has a stone exterior with
traditional, arched, stained-glass windows. To get to the only
entrance, one climbs a long flight of stone-lined steps with a
split in the middle for a bit of a garden. The inside has been
slightly renovated, but the original main altar and side altars
with reredos remain, and the tabernacle is still at the center of
the sanctuary in its original location. On the other hand, the
first five or six rows of pews were removed in order to pull the
freestanding altar forward; an organ and piano are at the left,
while about five rows of individual wooden seats are at the
right. The new, wooden altar is small and squarish. The wooden
ambo is at the left, while a tiny cantor's lectern is at the far
right, to the right of the celebrant's chair. Over the original
domed sanctuary hangs a huge, traditional, painted, ceramic
crucifix, and the sanctuary lamp hangs from that. The Stations of
the Cross are painted sculptures in square frames. The ceiling is
full of smaller arcs which end in what in some churches would
become columns that fall into the pews, but these just hang a
bit. The wooden pews are upholstered and comfortable; the
kneelers are among the heaviest I've ever lifted. A choir loft
with a huge pipe organ remains, but with the music section at the
front, I'm not sure the loft sees much use. Racks in the pews
hold the GIA Worship/Gather II combination along with
paperback copies of the St. Joseph Sunday Missal, and a few
copies of the Paluch Seasonal Missalette were stacked by the
center aisle, probably for daily Mass.
The Mass was fairly straightforward; the priest handled things by
himself with no servers. He led us in the antiphons and the
seldom-used Form B of the penitential rite; he gave no homily.
During the Prayer of the Faithful, several people offered their
own intentions. The priest offered the second Eucharistic Prayer.
Two people (probably a husband and wife) joined hands at the Our
Father-- the rest of us were probably too scattered. The priest
distributed Holy Communion on his own using that tiny
chalice/paten combination whose name I now forget but which I'd
like to see used more often as it provides a decent way to
distribute by intinction. After Communion, a woman's children
marred the silence by running around the back of the church,
talking, and otherwise making noise. After the final blessing and
dismissal, the priest led the recitation of the St. Michael
prayer.
Afterward, I was even able to find a lone bulletin stuffed in a
kneeler in a small chapel underneath the choir loft, despite all
the other bulletins' apparently having been removed. God was
really looking after me today for some reason. Then when I looked
in the bulletin, it said over this week's Mass intentions that
this week's schedule is different than usual-- and the usual one
shows only a 5:30 PM Mass on Tuesday. Also, this week, on Monday
and Wednesday, the parish had no daily Mass at all! I often joke
about people making changes just for me, even though nobody knows
I'm coming-- but then again, Somebody always knows, I guess.
The only dark spot is that Fr. Benedict Groeschel is giving a
parish mission at this parish starting Saturday. It looks like a
big event too-- parking lots closed, visitors from neighboring
parishes, and so on. Now, I'd just love to see him-- but it's
time to leave. I can't stay too long in one place!