52 Masses

After setting aside some time for Holy Week, I’m returning to my trip across the Pacific Northwest, this time in downtown Seattle.

Christ Our Hope is only 10 years old. It’s a unique parish, set inside the historic former New Washington Hotel, which had already been converted to a 240-room residence building for low-income men and women. The apartments are run by Catholic Housing Services, which is how the parish eventually came to be. The worship space is the old dining room for the New Washington Hotel.

The parish is very much a part of the downtown community, which I saw firsthand when I joined three regulars with the Sacred Encounters Ministry, walking the streets of downtown and passing out sandwiches, water and other essentials to the city’s significant homeless population. Their commitment, patience and good cheer in this ministry was inspiring, and I was blessed to have been invited to accompany them.

The first stop on my trip to the Pacific Northwest was in Portland and St. Peter. I was there to experience the Mass in American Sign Language and learn of the experiences of the deaf community.

I can’t link video here, but there’s a shot of Father Raul signing on my Facebook page, which you can find by searching for 52 Masses (I hope). As you can imagine, this is highly appreciated by the members of the deaf community there.

Portland kicked off a whirlwind trek around the top left corner of the country, a beautiful area I had never visited before. Now, the only state remaining on my lifetime U.S. checklist is Alaska, which I’ll hit in a few months’ time.

I’m down to just 16 Mass visits remaining. Thanks for following along.

On Nov. 1, 1963, President John F. Kennedy and wife Jackie attended Mass at Holy Trinity. It was the last Mass the nation’s first Catholic president would ever attend.

Throughout its 225-year history, Holy Trinity has been the Catholic home for Washington elite, with many Beltway Catholics worshipping there. Abe Lincoln once attended a funeral at Holy Trinity, and was reportedly chastised for wearing his hat indoors. In 2008, while they competed to become the country’s 44th president, Barack Obama and John McCain sat side-by-side at Holy Trinity for journalist Tim Russert’s funeral.

But while this Jesuit church remains the parish for many prominent Catholics in the nation’s capital, it has never relented in its mission to serve the poor, the marginalized and others in most need of Christian love. And as a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul back home in the Chicago suburbs, I like that in a parish community.

A recent update put me in Gesu Church, the oldest in Miami. But that wasn’t my formal stop in Florida. Rather, in the Sunshine State, I went to Mass in the oldest church in the United States.

St. Augustine, Fla., is home to America’s First Parish, now the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine. As you can see below, it’s a beautiful church building, one that attracts scads of tourists, not just me.

The cathedral is located not far from the site where Spanish explorers landed in the New World and immediately conducted Mass. That ground was dubbed America’s Most Sacred Acre by former President John F. Kennedy, four days before he was assassinated.

The parish also includes the mission church St. Benedict the Moor, which was once the Catholic Church for the African American community in St. Augustine but today is just a diverse neighborhood parish. St. Benedict the Moor has its own slice of history, as Dr. Martin Luther King visited there in 1964.

There was not much need to travel to my most recent visit. I spent Sunday at St. Christina on the south side of Chicago, not far from our home in the southwest suburbs.

I chose this past weekend due to its placement on the calendar. Sunday was the date of the South Side Irish Parade, and St. Christina is a traditional Irish parish. My mom, dad and the entire Markham and Hogan clans going back as far as we can figure would have been delighted by my choice.

It was my first parade, and the first one in the city in three years, since the last two events were COVID casualties. And, if you follow the photos below, you’ll see this year’s parade included a special guest.

I’m heading out to the nation’s capital this weekend, then off to the Pacific Northwest the following weekend. “May the road rise up to meet me and the price of gas drop down to please me.” I believe that’s the modern update on the old Irish blessing, or at least the one I’ll be reciting.