Melanie and I took off this past weekend for one of our last opportunities to get away before the baby arrives in May. In fact, it was our first time away together, alone, since our honeymoon last August. So we drove down to Cape Cod on Saturday without much of a plan except to find someplace to stay when it got late. We ended up in Chatham, which is at the Cape’s “elbow”, and stayed at a very nice inn in a room with a king-size bed and a fireplace.
Sunday morning, we went to Mass at the local parish (found with the help of MassTimes), Holy Redeemer Parish. I always have a little trepidation when I go to Mass at an unfamiliar parish. You never know what you will encounter. It’s a sad era when you wonder whether the Mass will be licit and valid.
The church itself is a pretty little building that I would guess seats about 150-200, in the familiar gray-shingled style of the Cape. The pews were hard wood with kneelers. The was a Sacred Heart altar on one side, an icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and even a veil over the tabernacle. And when I saw the priest come in wearing a black cassock I knew we were in good shape.
Indeed, we were. It’s not that the Mass was particularly sublime. It was just right. The music wasn’t Palestrina, but it was good. Not a single hymn informed God of how lucky He is to have people like us to praise Him. And the homily was top-notch, informing of us the effects of sin and the need for frequent Confession, even admonishing us for not going enough. I couldn’t tell exactly what the priest’s accent was, but I think he was English, although Melanie thinks there was a faint Irish brogue in there.
So when you go to an unfamiliar parish, what are the signs that tell you that you’re in a good parish?
My grandafther was one of the benefactors of that Church building. If you look to your right inside thr front door, you will see a plaque with his name on it.
Regardless, the priest you heard is a retired priest from the Archdiocese of New york and is Scottish, Father Nielson. He says the Classical Latin Mass at Our Lady of Grace Chapel in South Chatham every Sunday and helps out with the Masses at Holy Redeemer. He also brings Holy Communion to my step-Grandmother’s mother every week. The Sacred Heart Fathers built the parish and staffed it until the early 90’s.
Holy Redeemer has had a long connection with my family. I burried my grandfather from there a year ago last January. My grandmother was burried from there in the late 70’s. My step-grandmother belongs to the parish today. And Chatham is my place of refuge when I take my day off.
I grew up at Holy Trinty, a town over, in Harwich. That parish has a perpetual adoration chapel. Next time you are down there, stop by the chapel because it is one of the most beautiful adoration chapels that I have ever seen.
I’m glad you enjoyed your visit to Olde Cape Cod. It will always be my home. Maybe my good Bishop will send me down there some day.
Thanks, Father Ethan. I should have asked for your recommendations before we left. Next time we’ll be sure to stop by Holy Trinity.
I don’t have to play Catholic Treasure Hunt.
Kneelers.
The church looks like a Catholic church – at least on the inside.
The congregation shows up, kneels, and prays before sitting to await Mass. They don’t show up to socialize – loudly.
I’m not forced to shake hands with everyone I can reach before Mass starts.
I’d like to add that the cantor did a lovely job with the psalm… one of the things that drives me crazy at our own parish is that they seem to need to find musical arrangements that “sound pretty”—even at the sacrifice sometimes of half the Biblical text and most of the meaning! This of course really distracts me during mass I don’t understand why the cantor feels free to fiddle with the words of scripture just so they sound prettier.
The cantor at Holy Redeemer just sang the verses in a sort of plain chant. Lovely. THe focus was on the words not her voice.
My feelings exactly, Melanie! During the winter months my wife and I attend Mass at a nearby parish as our regular parish drops the early Sunday Mass from October to April. The parish is pretty orthodox (Adoration twice a week, Stations of the Cross in Lent, Mass every weekday morning) and the pastor is very devout, gives good homilies and doesn’t take too many liberties with the rubrics.
The problem is the organist/cantor/choir director/Mistress of Ceremonies (!)… She has a beautiful voice, but one gets the impression that the choice of music is tailored to her abilities rather than to communal singing. She also wears one of those mouthpiece microphone thingys which ensures that her voice will drown out everyone else’s. And she doesn’t ‘chant’ the responsorial psalm – rather it is a solo coloratura performance…
But at least she has stopped (just recently) inviting the congregation to “rise and greet your neighbors” at the beginning of Mass. We are thankful for small mercies!
I’m with Lilo—size it up early so you can make for the door before the mayhem starts. This doesn’t necessarily guarantee a good parish, but it does prevent much teeth-gritting later.
The bulletin, bulletin inserts, and literature in the vestibule/back of the church are all solid with no heterodox bombs mixed in. (Some of the best pastors I know constantly go through vestibule and throw out the “trash.”)
The band/orchestra/whatever isn’t setting up the sound equipment in the sanctuary as you walk in.
Father hasn’t placed his guitar by the altar where it will be handy.
The sacred vessels and altar linens are per instruction (no stoneware, burlap, etc.)
The missalette contains the approved translations of scripture and not some inclusivized/politically correct rendition.
The hymnals contain mostly, if not exclusively, traditional Catholic hymns as opposed to a lot of folksy modern vaguely-Christian ditties.
+2 points if the male altar-server lighting the candles is wearing a surplice and cassock.
I’ll second Father Ethan’s recommendation of Holy Trinity in Harwich. In fact, last year I attended a Sunday Mass while on vacation and happily, Father Ethan was the priest saying the Mass (he was filling in)! Music there is more traditional than the modern Haugen type stuff and the choir is in the back of the church so they sound wonderful. I’ve been to Holy Redeemer as well and it is lovely.
This is a kind of sweeping generalization but in my experience the parishes of the Fall River diocese (where I live both the Arch of Boston and the FR diocese are equidistant to my home) are pretty much ‘obedient in the small things’ as well as the big things. My daughter attends HS in the diocese of FR and while some stuff is born by gritting teeth, the school recently incorporated “Our Moral Life In Christ: The Didache High School Textbook Series” which is excellent – no fluffy stuff and extremely faithful to the Magisterium.
Greetings, all,
I am put off by sterility of the interior. If I feel that something is lacking, it bothers me throughout the Mass. However, I will stay and make the obligation. I have come to this parish out of my love for God. I cannot help what occurs.
Sometimes, though I have opted not to receive as I have been angered by the “liturgy.”
So when you go to an unfamiliar parish, what are the signs that tell you that you’re in a good parish?
1. That I can find the Tabernacle without a GPS system.
2. No Catholic Digest, St. Anthony Messenger, etc in the handout section.
3. No piano in the sanctuary.
4. No gabbing before Mass, people actually praying.
5. That after seeing the interior that I don’t have to double-check that I might have walked into a Protestant church inadvertanly.
6. Adoramus hymnal or anything but the standard OCP/GIA fair.
7. Crucifix in the sanctuary.
8. No rainbow drapes in the sanctuary.
9. Looking at the bulletin the schedule for Masses doesn’t include the names for 500 EEMs. The bulletin makes no allusions to worship space or faith community.
So when you go to an unfamiliar parish, what are the signs that tell you that you’re in a good parish?
-Confessionals
-People lined up using them
-People genuflecting, not bowing to or ignoring the Blessed Sacrament
-The words “faith community never mentioned
-Silence, before and after Mass, and not a lot of noise during Mass.
-priests in cassocks
-priests that don’t look and act like they could be running flower shops during the week
-priests who make an act of thanksgiving after Mass instead of glad handling the parishioners
-altar boys and yes, even altar girls making an act of thanksgiving after Mass also
This thread has probably fallen off the radar, but nonetheless, I am feeling guilty that I have come off as too curmudgeonly.
In fact, I have been blessed by finding a beautiful and solid parish in San Francisco, Sts. Peter and Paul. I recommend it if you are visiting; just be sure to pick out the appropriate Mass since there are Masses in Chinese, Italian, family Mass (the Salesians run a grammar school), etc. It has almost all of the suggested “signs” on this thread.
My negative comments are a result of my experiences at most of the other churches in San Francisco. God works all things to the good; I wouldn’t be nearly as grateful as I am for this parish had I not been to the others.