52 Masses

The last weekend of October took me to Vermont, ostensibly to move my daughter into her apartment there as she begins work on her first post-college job that doesn’t double as a sweatshop. Naturally, this was the perfect time to make my Mass visit in the Green Mountain State.

My Vermont trip took me to Stowe, one of Vermont’s premier getaway locations, prized by skiers, leaf peepers and maple syrup aficionados. That fact is evident in the typical Mass gathering at Blessed Sacrament, with out-of-towners making up more than half the congregation on some weekends.

But visitors have found Blessed Sacrament to be more than just a convenient spot to attend Mass. It’s become a destination in its own right, with Catholics drawn to the parish due to its thoroughly unique artwork, which you’ll find below.

All of the art in the church was done by a single Frenchman, Andre Girard. His arrival in Stowe is part of the absolutely fascinating history of the small parish, though you’ll have to read the book to learn it all. (Or, I suppose, y’all could Google it, but that’s cheating).

* The title to the book written by Josephine Belloso about the artwork at Blessed Sacrament.

A long weekend in Wisconsin kept me quite busy, with five church visits during the daylight hours as well as a couple of nights in a hunting lodge (that’s the focus of the profile).

It started at St. Norbert’s, home to the National Shrine of St. Joseph, a parish run by the Norbertines located just outside Green Bay. It’s also the home parish of my publisher, who I met for the first time in person.

Saturday night took me to St. Jude the Apostle in Oshkosh, followed by Sunday Masses at the Kaukauna Catholic Parishes, a tri-parish community. I attended the liturgy at Holy Cross and St. Katharine Drexel-St. Mary, while sneaking over to St. Katharine-St. Francis just to check it out.

As you’ll see below, all of the locations I visited are pretty darn beautiful. I’ve been home for a few weeks, but I’ll head back out on the road this weekend for Advent Masses in Maryland and Virginia.

One of the bonus treats of my trip is the chance to visit a type of place I’ve never gone before. Winnebago, Nebraska was just such a place.

While I had driven through Indian reservations before, this was my first stop on one. I was there to attend the school Mass at St. Augustine Indian School, one of the many schools for Native Americans founded by Saint Katharine Drexel.

The school serves both the Winnebago and neighboring Omaha tribes, with almost all of the students either children who live on one of the reservations or kids with Native American ancestry. It was an enlightening experience, and I want to thank Deacon Don Blackbird, the school principal and a member of the Omaha Tribe, for his time and hospitality.

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This one was extra special.

The day before I attended Mass at St. John the Baptist in Laughlin, Nevada, I was in Bakersfield, Calif., for two Saturday Masses at Our Lady of Guadalupe. Attending two Masses at the church is not a difficult chore, given the parish conducts 11 Sunday Masses – six in Spanish and five in English – at two separate facilities. This parish community of Mexican Americans is tremendously devout. But it was what the parish is doing in service of the faith that will stick with me, long after my traveling is done.

The parish’s full name is Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Copatroness of the Unborn. And its secondary facility is an outdoor pavilion church that sits adjacent to the Memorial to the Unborn, a site where children who have been lost to miscarriage can forever be remembered.

I spent much of the day Friday and the following Saturday meeting with men and women of the parish, and I couldn’t have been more impressed. I was particularly in awe of three women who are truly doings God’s work serving the families who have been dealt the painful blow of miscarriage, a tragedy for would-be moms that too often gets overlooked by society.

I don’t know if I’ll be more moved by a group of people in the next 30 or so visits than I was by Father Larry and the parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe. But, to be fair, I didn’t know it was possible to meet such inspiring human beings in the first place.

I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that my most unpredictable trip to date would take place in Nevada.

My visit on Oct. 10 took me to Laughlin, Nevada, the southernmost city in the Silver State. And it started out in a typical fashion, with an 8 a.m. Mass at the little church upland from the Colorado River.The next two Masses of the day were not held there, but in Don’s Celebrity Theatre at the Riverside Casino. Yup, it was Mass in a gambling den.

In the 1990s, the community had no Catholic Church, and the nearest facility in the state was 80 miles away, so the community persuaded the Diocese of Las Vegas to grant them a priest to serve its needs. With no building suitable to hold services, the casino opened its theater doors to the parish. And since at any given time there are far more people in the casinos than living in Laughlin, the parish still holds several Masses there each weekend.

But worshiping where Elvis impersonators and ventriloquists normally perform was not even the most unusual part. On Sunday, the parish was holding a dedication ceremony for its new Garces Center, a community building next to the church that is named for Father Francisco Garces.

In 1776, Father Garces became the first Catholic priest to arrive in Nevada, crossing the river to reach Laughlin. Father Garces is also sometimes credited with naming the Colorado River. The center became the first building in Nevada named in his honor, and a canonization effort is possibly under way.

Father Charlie Urnick, pastor at St. John the Baptist and strong supporter of Father Garces’s canonization, invited me to join the other speakers to address the assembled crowd about the book, which I was happy to do. But it was quite the shock when I learned that among the crowd of guests I would be addressing would be the Bishop of Las Vegas, George Leo Thomas, and Steve Sisolak, the governor of Nevada.

The governor departed immediately after my remarks, quite coincidentally I hope, but I did share a few words with the bishop, who was very supportive of my efforts.

Father Charlie at St. John the Baptist in Laughlin.

Father Charlie greets Mass goers just inside Don’s Celebrity Theatre.

Only in Nevada is a poker chip found in the collection box.