Rebuilding:
A Dream Parish or Chapel
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All right now...
I'm going to just dream aloud here: Imagine a parish. Since I'm
dreaming big, let's place this parish near the ocean, name it after Our
Lady, and call it something beautiful, like "Star of the Sea." Because
I'm Italian American, I'll place this parish in an Italian American
Catholic
neighborhood, but if you prefer a neghborhood that's ethnically Irish,
German, Mexican, African-American, French, or what have you, feel free
to dream this
dream your way.
The East-facing church building is beautiful. Make it Gothic or
Romanesque at your pleasure (oh OK, or Baroque if you must), but fill
it with stained glass, dark wood, just the right number of statues and
other icons. That it smells of beeswax and incense goes without saying.
Make sure there are
at least six bells in the bell towers, and let's give those bells names
-- names with which the parishioners are fondly familiar. They'll toll
for Mass, to ring the Angelus, to mourn the
dead, and will sound
especially glorious at the Easter Vigil.
As you enter the narthex, to the right you see a large vessel, with a
spigot, filled with holy water that the parishioners can tap at will.
Next to it is a barrel full of blessed salt and a scoop to use to fill
containers with the sacramental so the people can take some home.
Nearby is a bulletin board for notices from parishioner to
parishioner, and underneath is a shelf on which people leave books and
other things for others to take as they need.
In the church
proper, a holy water font can be found on one side of each door, and
they're never filled with sand. There are pews,
kneelers, an altar rail, and, on either side of the high altar, votive
candles burning before statues of Our Lady and St. Joseph. In the back
of the nave are statues of St. Anthony and St. Michael, each with their
own votive candles. On either side of SS Anthony and Michael, the walls
are covered by ex voto offerings
left by the people to thank God. Stations of
the Cross line the nave, and they look
to date
to the early 19th c. You see three dark wood confessionals which are
populated by priests ready to hear confessions
at least 45 minutes
before each of the two Sunday Masses, and for at least a half hour
every Wednesday, Friday,
and
Saturday evening. The tabernacle is front and center, as it should be,
and over it a sanctuary lamp burns
perpetually. Christ is adored
here
24/7, around the clock; the Adoration Society makes sure of it.
The Novus Ordo is never offered here; it's traditional Latin Mass
only, with three gorgeous Solemn High Masses on Sundays. Nothing but
pure masculine voices
offer the responses, but hymns are sung by all, accompanied by the
giant pipe organ. All of the sacramental rites are offered only in the
traditional
way. Sermons are interesting, inspiring, and consistent with authentic
Catholic teaching. There are numerous altar boys (never altar girls),
and at least two of them at the moment dream of growing up to become
priests.
The liturgical year is alive here in the deepest ways. There are: a
Eucharistic procession on Corpus Christi; a Marian
procession on the Assumption;
a palm procession on Palm Sunday; the
Way of the Cross on Good Friday;
the beating of the bounds on Rogation
Days; bonfires on St.
John's Eve and St. Lucy's day;
old school May Crownings, with
little girls dressed in blue, and little boys in their little suits;
St. Joseph's tables on St. Joseph's Day,
and a big Italian festival on St. Anthony's Day. They
came up with a "new tradition," too: on St.
Barbara's day, they place cherry branches in two vases, setting one
in front of the Church's statue of Our Lady, for the women, and the
other in front of St. Joseph, for the men. Whichever sex's branches
blossom first is the winner, and the other sex has to spoil them all
day long the following Sunday.
Behind the church is the rectory, where the priests live. It takes four
priests to serve this busy parish, and it takes an older Italian
woman to tend to and feed them. Old Mrs. Corrado has her quarters
there, too, and is much beloved, especially for her sauce and
cannoli. Like the other buildings on this property, the rectory is
beautiful, built in the 19th century, with lots of dark wood. It's
comfortable, and done up interiorly in a style that manages to blend
Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, and Deco aesthetics. The parishioners
tend to spoil the
priests (and Mrs. Corrado), but know when to leave them alone, too.
To the right of the church as you face its entry -- to its South -- is
a huge, walled-in courtyard. On the East side of this yard, toward the
back end of the church, is a beautiful Mary garden with a lovely koi
pond dotted by water lilies. On the West side of the courtyard, toward
the front of the church, divided from the Mary garden by a low iron
fence, is a mosaic-paved plaza. Toward the front of this plaza is a
fountain, the basin of which is encircled by symbols of the zodiac to symbolize the cosmos. Figures
representing the theological virtues -- Faith, Hope, and Charity --
stand at the center, pouring water into the basin from urns they hold.
Grace flowing out into the universe. In between the Mary Garden and
fountain is an area outfitted with benches, tables (two with
heavy outdoor chess sets that are always ready to be played with), and
a bocce court. Ornamental trees cast lovely shadows during the day,
inviting people to hang out there.
To the right of the courtyard is the parish community building --
a huge building built in
the same style as the rectory, and decorated inside in the same way.
From the courtyard are two entries to this building: the first -- a set
of sliding French double doors -- opens to a 20X40' room that's set up
as an informal gathering spot -- a place the people call "Marta's."
Marta's acts as an unstaffed communal cafe, family-sized kitchen, and
parlor, and is equipped with a refrigerator, coffee making necessities,
a stove/oven range, a sink, a dishwasher, family-sized sets of cookware
and bakeware, dishes, flatware, drinkware, a few teapots, trays, decks
of cards, and ashtrays, all set behind a counter. There are also hooks
on the wall from which hang parishioners' personal mugs which they've
brought in for themselves and keep there. On the other side of the
counter are a number of 4-top and 6-top tables, and two large, long
ones with benches on either side. The tables are covered with oilcloth
to make things feel homey. In two of the corners are arranged small
couches, chairs, and coffee tables, forming conversation areas. People
bring their own pastries, snacks, and drinks or prepare some on the
spot, and baked goods are sold there on the honor system: take six
amaretti cookies and a coffee, leave $2 in the box, rinse off the
plates and cups you use, and put them into the dishwasher yourself;
when it's full, someone will run it. Someone donated a DVD/MP3 player
to Marta's, and it's usually 1940s Big Band music or Caruso that can be
heard while visiting. The unwritten rule is that the oldest person
present gets to control the music that plays, if any plays at all.
During the day, it's mostly older folks who come to hang out at Marta's
and the plaza its wide doors are always open onto. They socialize,
maybe play some bocce or chess or cards, or just read the newspaper and
complain about politics. When someone brings a bottle and they make
their coffee "cofffee royale," they might complain a tad more loudly,
but it's all in good fun. People gather here after Mass, too. The
priests' cats often drop by, as do strays, who always seem to get fed
by someone while visiting. Maybe they're attracted by the catnip -- er,
Mary's Nettle -- growing in the Mary Garden...
The other door leads to a small foyer with doors to restrooms and a
utility closet, and to a hall from which can be accessed the building's
beautiful and more formal reception rooms -- one very large,
high-ceilinged
room, and two smaller
ones -- for wedding receptions, wakes, teas, meet-and-greets with
visiting lecturers and Monsignori, and other such gatherings. In
between
those
rooms, and accessible to each, is a large, restaurant-style kitchen
that's used to prepare food for
those who attend those affairs. It's used, too, by the Funeral
Ministry to prepare food for a few weeks for those in mourning. A new
ministry is starting up that wants to use the kitchen to make food to
take to the elderly, poor, and those who are homebound with sickness.
At Christmastime, the kitchen's busy with women who make lots of
Christmas cookies together to trade with each other for their families.
The kitchen is used, as well, to make food for the parish's big Italian
festival.
The community center building also contains a theater used by
guest
speakers for lecture series, by the school and Church choirs for shows,
for one-off events like school or parish talent shows, for programs put
on by the parish's schoolchildren, and for plays put on and
by the parish theater group. The theater group puts on not just
medieval Mystery, Morality, and Miracle Plays,
but plays that two
literary night-owl parishioners have written themselves. These plays
are usually directed by a fabulously talented, creative man -- a
homosexual who is openly and unashamedly who he is, and very dedicated
to a life of chastity. He is loved and respected by all, and considered
an Uncle by most of the parish's children.
A large part of the huge basement of the community center building acts
as a
big rumpus room where teenagers can hang out. It's got a pool table,
ping-pong table, dart boards, tons of board games, tables, couches,
cozy chairs, a stereo system, and a large screen TV and DVD player for
movie nights, but
which are usually kept off at other times. Phones aren't allowed to be
on
when in this room, either, and most of the kids are very relieved at
that rule. The young people have lots of fun playing games, getting
creative, making music, just talking, dancing, having informal rap
battles, and whatever other wholesome things come to their teenaged
minds (most of the older folks don't like that rap battle business, but
the kids are doing no harm. And you think it's easy to throw down some
rhymes? You try it!). The organized youth group meets here and plans
group
activities, too. This year, the kids, among other things, had a few
cook-outs and bonfires,
went horseback riding, visited a planetarium, visited a local "living
history" reenactment village, went to an amusement park, cleaned up a
local city park, organized a Gregorian chant flash mob, made a scary
haunted house for the younger kids at
Hallowe'en, went caroling at Christmas, set up elaborate "alternate
reality games" that covered the entire parish's territory, and
volunteered to do yard work
for 3 elderly widows, 2 young widows, and 2 shut-in widowers. The old
bus that's
used to pick up people who live farther out and don't have
transportation to Mass on Sundays
serves its purpose well here, too, in getting the kids around. (The
young folks don't know it yet, but ten of their group will be married
to each other within a decade. It, of course, goes without saying that
five of those ten will be men, the other five will be women, and that
they will be married as couples, not as throuples or in any other
configuration, doesn't it?)
Also in the basement is a rumpus room for adults. This is
where the Bingo nights and poker tournaments happen, and socializing
less formal and more raucous than those that take place in the fancier,
upstairs reception rooms.
The basement also has a laundry room where (mostly) women get
together to do their families' clothes, hanging out in the adult rumpus
room while they wait. Families in the parish don't have to buy washers
and dryers, and they also don't have to buy many of the things families
use for brief periods of time because next to the laundry room is a
storage
room with donated cribs, high chairs, play pens, bassinets, car seats,
diaper bags, childrens' toys and
clothing, first communion dresses, boys' suits -- things that are
borrowed as needed for a time, cleaned, and returned so other
families can use them later. Next door to the storage room is a library
filled with donated books, movies, and board games that families can
check out.
Only if an item is lost, damaged, or returned late is there any charge.
None of the rooms in any of the parish's buildings use fluorescent
lighting; everything is lit up in a warm, incandescent way, which fits
the decor perfectly. Even the basement rooms are made to be beautiful,
with dark wood and gorgeous art prints making them so.
To the East of the Community Building, and separated from it by a large
group of trees, are the two schools attended by the parish's children
all
the way from kindergarten to senior high. From the 6th grade on, the
sexes are taught separately. Both schools are staffed by religious
sisters and brothers (who wear traditional habits, of course), and by
very talented, very Catholic lay people. The curricula are rigorous,
but kids are also given lots of time to play and to pursue their own
unique interests and projects. They're taught to read using phonics in
kindergarten, and by first grade they've memorized their multiplication
tables all the way up to 12X12. By second grade they're doing long
division and fractions. They're exposed to the great art and music of
Western civilization all throughout their years in school, and are
taught in such a way as to give them an appreciation for the lessons of
history and to sense themselves as being a part of something much
bigger than themselves. And, of course, all along, they're taught their
catechism and instructed on how to
live lives marked by the cardinal
virtues.
In grades 9-12, kids can opt to take classes that prepare them for work
in the trades, computer technology, and homemaking. The older kids are
encouraged, too, to tutor younger children who need extra help -- as
are the parish's retired seniors whose skills are put to good use.
The school's gym is used after school and on weekends by parishioners
wanting to get a basketball game going. The school is also equipped
with a workout room designed to help people engage in strength training
and do general workouts. This workout room has its own entrance, and is
available to all in the parish at certain times of the day all
throughout the year -- at times allotted by sex. That entrance is
locked during school hours, of course.
The kids wear school uniforms of black shoes, black socks, white,
button-down shirts, black ties, and skirts or trousers made of what
looks to be a sort of Black Watch plaid. Black berets are a part of
their uniform, and they express their individuality by pinning pins and
brooches onto them (only one at a time, per school rules).
Across from the school and hidden by trees are the two convents for the
religious who teach at the school: one for the male religious, and one
for the female. Some of the male religous also make caskets which they
make available at low cost to the people of the parish. Some of the
female religious make confections to sell locally; their specialties
are marzipan and macarons.
The yearly 3-day Italian festival centered on St. Anthony's Day is a
big money-maker for the parish. Everyone pitches in, and folks come
from all over the State to partake of the Italian foods, Italian music,
marionette shows, grape-stomping, carnival rides, and other such
things. A Mass and Marian procession take place during these
festivities, which have caught the attention of people who'd never
before seen such things. After the Mass and procession, pamphlets are
made available to teach visitors about traditional Catholicism and the
parish. Many over the years have converted because of the outreach that
takes place during the festival. Outreach is also made outside of the
festival by teams of catechists who pass out information, go out of
their way to talk to others about Christ, make invitations to Bible
studies, and other like endeavors. People also learn about Christ and
this particular church of His through the corporal
acts of mercy offered to the entire city by people in various
ministries the church has set up.
Most people who attend Mass at Star of the Sea live near the parish,
and walk to church. Others drive in, and some are picked up by the
parish bus mentioned earlier -- the one the youth group uses to make
excursions. Though some parishioners are introverts who keep to
themselves, most do a lot of socializing with each other. Families get
together for parties and cook-outs. Block Rosaries are prayed. A parish
directory with addresses, phone, and email contact information ensures
that everyone who wants to not be alone has a way of meeting others and
is kept apprised of parish goings-on.
Feelings of isolation are rare here; for stay at home mothers, other
homemakers are usually right next door or across the street. Older
women whose children have left the nest are almost always available to
babysit and help overwhelmed young mothers as well, and those mothers
often get together at each others' houses while their children play
together. Because the women have a shared vision of the good life,
their kids run around outside together, with their parents as assured
as one can be in this world that no one will be teaching their children
to hate what they've been taught at home and otherwise harming their
souls.
The men get together with each other, too. Camping and fishing trips,
ball games, pub outings -- they have their fun and buoy each other up.
Some of the men run a scout group for young boys, who are taught to
treasure and sharpen their masculinity, to be proud of being
men-in-the-making. They've especially invited into the group, and take
extra care of, the boys of two young widows in the parish. Those boys
will grow up to be fine.
Star of the Sea parish isn't Utopia. Sin, sickness, death, emotional
problems, addiction, gossip, spiritual struggles, and teenage angst and
rebellion exist here as they do everywhere. But no one is alone with
those problems unless he wants to be. The priests are attuned to the
community, and talk a lot about tolerance and the problems of "toxic traddism," "purity spirals,"
gossip, and rash judgment. And if something in particular needs
addressing, they have a way of pulling people aside privately and
coming up with sermons that smooth things over and keep the place
generally content and happy. And that's pretty much the best we can
hope for this side of the veil.
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