A Year-Long Trip to Experience Catholicism Across America
I’m not going to lie. I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited for the Lenten season than I am this year. And, based on attendance at Ash Wednesday Mass at St. John the Evangelist a few hours ago, I don’t think I’m alone.
Lent has begun. Rejoice.
This is probably only meaningful to me, but yesterday marked an interesting milestone. I attended Mass in Phoenix, which marked the last state for me to attend a Roman Catholic liturgy.
As book readers might remember, my trip to Phoenix included attending Holy Qurbana at Holy Family Church. Holy Family is a Syro-Malabar Church, one of two Eastern Churches I visited during the 14-month stretch. The other was Divine Liturgy at the Melkite Church in Atlanta. Since I’ve attended other Masses in Atlanta since then, on work trips and a family vacation to Savannah, Arizona remained the last state to go to a Roman Catholic Mass.
I almost didn’t make it. Using the invaluable but imperfect Catholic Mass Times website, I discovered St. Catherine of Siena parish was near where I was staying and offered a convenient daily Mass. But when I pulled up, the parking lot was empty, even though the sign out front indicated I was in the right place at the right time.
Fortunately, a kindly man pulled up beside me and asked if I was going to Mass. I said that was my hope, and he informed me that daily Mass had been moved a few blocks south of there to St. John Bosco. He had seen me from the road and decided to pull in and check to see if I was lost. So I followed him a few blocks where I joined other folks from this traditional, bilingual parish for Mass.
Thanks Fernando.
One of the most satisfying things about actually making the trip, rather than just working from home through phone calls and emails, was the unexpected surprises that only came from being there in person.
One such example was St. Benedict the Moor, the sister parish to St. Augustine Cathedral in the Florida city of the same name. Before I left for the Sunshine State, the secretary at St. Augustine asked me if I was also going to attend Mass at St. Benedict the Moor, which I wasn’t familiar with beforehand. But what a blessing it was to discover it.
St. Benedict the Moor was the historically black parish in the city, a sad reality for all Catholic churches in the pre-Civil Rights South. But it was also a significant location in that battle for equality. One day after civil rights leaders left St. Augustine after a lengthy campaign there, one marked by violent opposition, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law.
While in St. Augustine, Martin Luther King Jr., who we honor today, was housed by a parishioner from St. Benedict the Moor. Another giant from the Civil Rights movement, Ralph Abernath, stayed at the home of a wonderful friend I met during my visit to St. Augustine, Donna Hughes.
Readers of 52 Masses may remember my visit to St. John Paul II Mission Church in Rutledge, Tennessee, where the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic made a stop. SJP II is a mission church of the Glenmary Home Missioners, a wonderful group that brings the faith to areas of the U.S. where it hasn’t been before.
When Kem and I relocated to the Cincinnati area, we happened to become near-neighbors with the Glenmarians, which I’ve taken full advantage of. I’ve been there numerous times for Mass over the past year. I really admire their mission.
During the course of getting to know some of the staff, I was asked if I would be interested in writing for the Glenmary Challenge magazine. I happened to be traveling to Atlanta for work, so I did a one-day detour to Blakely, Georgia, to write about Franciscan Sisters Imelda Ngwitu and Ancilla Abonyo, who have come from their native Kenya to assist the Glenmarians in their mission in Georgia.
If you would like to read about the sisters and their work, you can follow find it on the Glenmary site at this address:
52 Masses 