After yesterday evening's Holy Thursday service, our parish had Eucharistic Adoration until midnight. Around here, there is a tradition among certain folks - perhaps certain ethnicities? I've never quite pinned down who all does it - to travel around from church to church during that time of that particular evening; they pray before the Eucharist at each one. So it's common to see individuals and families, strangers to our community, but of course they're welcome, trickling in and out throughout the evening.
Last night, it was taken to the next level: a tour bus, presumably with flat screens and WiFi, because it looked like that kind of a rig, pulled up, disgorged at least 25 people, and waited in the parking lot. The folks who disembarked gathered around a statue of Mary, taking pictures with their cell phones, while a leader said things to them - it looked like a tour group at a museum. Then they all trooped inside. We were on our way out so that's all I can report.
I guess, if you're going to take part in that tradition, you might as well get it organized and travel in comfort.
At any rate, it was a beautiful service for us. I sang in the bass section. Today I'm "on": already led Morning Prayer, am leading Stations at noon, will be there for one of my kids who is doing teen Living Stations later this afternoon, and then will be deacon for the Good Friday service this evening. A most blessed and prayerful Triduum to all of us.
Yep! Did it in my Chicago childhood (mixed ethnicity). So did a lot of others--to and from surrounding parishes. Never seen it in NYC.
ReplyDeleteThe pilgrimage thing isn't a custom here, probably easier to do in cities. It reminds me of a fad that was around a few years ago, the "progressive dinner". You went to one friend's house for salad, someone else hosted the main course, someone else the dessert, etc. I don't hear of it much anymore. Probably because one never got to "be" any place.
ReplyDeleteKatherine- my wife was describing the custom to one of our college-age children, who immediately termed it a "church crawl" :-)
DeleteIn retrospect, I think there may have been a circumspect degree of competition between parishes. These were rather elaborate ceremonial constructions: arches, valances, and tons of flowers. We certainly drove home discussing which was the number 1 altar of repose.
ReplyDeleteOne year I was in San Miguel de Allende (Mexico) for Santa Semana and this was a common practice on Good Friday. There are 7 churches in the parish of SMA and during the day the people pay visit to and in each church building. It was quite impressive as it was a family thing: abuela(o)s, madres, padres y hijos.
ReplyDelete" ... nearly all agree on the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sakes."
ReplyDeleteI always like Fr. Wintz. He manages to breathe new life into these big feasts that can sometimes feel rote and tired. Yes. Jesus did something for us today, and likely we will not truly understand the extent of it--and perhaps the inability of humans to truly express it--until we are shut of these frail bodies and the burdens they weigh us down with.
I like the idea of spending Good Friday "church crawling" and contemplating the Mystery. Instead, I spent the afternoon at the doc's contemplating the mystery of my sudden hypertension and why my chemo isn't working. A lot of people hanging on their crosses down there today.
I thought visiting srven churches was only a custom for us real gen-yoo-ine polish-american catholics. Nice to know some of the near Catholics pitch in. Just kidding, of course. I love all you guys, in spite of your non-Polish handicap. Truth be told, I just had one of the suckiest days of my life. You wouldn't believe it. But it pays to have good friends. MaryAnn, the world's worst backseat driver, came through in spades, despite my backing my truck into her car after my mother drove me effing crazy. And thank God for wine, too. I just deep sixed a whole bottle of it. So, Happy Blessed Easter, my cyberspace but real friends. Your a good lot, all of ye.
ReplyDeleteGlad the wine worked out!
DeleteSorry to hear about the fender bender, Stanley. Glad no one was hurt.
DeleteStanley: Was this the same Polish ethos that had the Felician nuns in Chicago declare that Polish children should go to Polish parochial schools (of which there were many) because God spoke Polish.
ReplyDeleteEveryone knew that God did not speak English, the language of the Irish.
Ah, yes, Peggy, the Felicians! Never saw one (like velociraptors), but I heard they were plenty nasty. My mother and aunts were under their tender care. Something about European ethnic orders. I remember an engineer acquaintance, German-American, still a practicing Catholic, who absolutely hated the German sourced nuns who taught him. Luckily, I had the I.H.M. sisters. Bells of Saint Mary's-ville. So I love them. I fork up for the retired nuns fund.
DeleteMy acquaintance was from Chicago. Maybe Jim Pauwels could shed some light on the possible identity of the order, or you, Peggy. I have a fellow retiree (age 87) who went to, I believe, Loyola Prep with Bob Newhart.
DeleteStanley, sorry don't have anything immediately helpful regarding the German order of religious sisters. I'll let Peggy weigh in, Steinfels sounds like the kind of name that might have belonged to a German-heritage parish at one time so she may be able to consult someone close to her?
DeleteRegarding Loyola Prep: it was an all-boys school, may still be, and was staffed by (male) Jesuits in the days when your friend would have been there, I think. I knew Newhart went to Loyola U (possibly their most famous alum, he was when I was an undergrad), did not realize he also had gone to Loyola Prep.
The Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict staffed a lot of schools around here. They originated in Germany, and many came from the "old country". Some still have German accents.
DeleteStanley: not just Bob Newhart, Bill Murray!
DeleteStanley, btw, I also was taught by IHM's when I was growing up in Jackson, MI. They were a rather stern bunch on the whole, but nothing sadistic. But you should here my dad tell stories - he went to the same parish grade school I did, during the WWII era. Those sisters were some tough cookies. His cousin joined the order. She's still alive and kicking, believe she's over 90 now.
ReplyDeleteJim: "Steinfels sounds like the kind of name that might have belonged to a German-heritage parish at one time."
ReplyDeleteSounds like...but is Jewish...Peter's grandfather. Between our four grandparents, we are Steinfels, Hollohan, Steinbach and O'Brien. Steinbach did belong to a Chicago German parish, St. Alphonsus, pastored by Redemptorists. My mother and her sibs went to the parish school, but I don't know the nuns, possibly Franciscans, but possibly not.
St. Ita, my father's childhood parish and mine had diocesan clergy and RSMs.
I am coming to think that most parishes had some elaborate altar of repose, and that it was pan-ethnic and it was the Altar and Rosary plus the Holy Name Society that pulled them together with the help of the local florist and the resident stage designer.
But I bet there's a doctoral dissertation in there somewhere. Write Bob Orsi.
DeleteMargaret - and Stanley and anyone else interested - I had the opportunity to speak with a German-speaking priest this evening - in fact, he's celebrating Easter mass tomorrow in German at St. Alphonsus, the parish Margaret mentioned in her first comment of 2:07 pm. He said that he knew of two German-speaking religious women's orders that had been in Chicago. One, confirming what Margaret recalled, was the School Sisters of St. Francis. The other was the Sisters of Christian Charity. He stated that the latter order had taught at Mallencrodt College (not sure I have that spelled exactly right), which I believe was a women's college in Wilmette or thereabouts - it was acquired by Loyola some 20 or so years ago, and for a while Loyola maintained a campus there, but I haven't heard that they still do - in fact I just checked with a Loyola student in our household, who had never heard of it before. But Wilmette is the same general neighborhood as Loyola Academy, so my money is on the Sisters of Christian Charity.
DeleteMy grandparents were Pauwels (Flemish) and Wolfe (English), with the distaff sides of those families being Crowley (Irish) and Baur (German) respectively. My wife's family heritage brings in German, probably French, and Slovak. For good or ill, virtually none of the ethnic heritages has trickled down to our children (and, truth be told, barely to me).
DeleteSchool Sisters of St. Francis were the ones who staffed our parish school previously. That was before we moved here; the staff is lay teachers now. It was the Polish ethnic parish back in the day. The Benedictines were more latecomers to the area; 1930s I think.
DeleteKatherine, re: School Sisters of St. Francis: those were the nuns who taught at my high school, too, but most of them seemed Italian! Which was a big ethnic group in that particular town. I guess they're a multinational order.
DeleteI'm going with the School Sisters of St. Francis where the Steinbachs had an aunt, and I had a great-aunt, Sister Mary Corona, OSF. She visited Chicago very summer from Joliet where she taught music at St. Francis College. She was a tough cookie. She always came with Sister Mary Eileen, Irish from Minnesota, she was a lovely cookie.
DeleteFollowing up on an earlier comment regarding Mallinckrodt College (believe I now have the spelling correct):
DeleteHere is an article from 1991, announcing Loyola's acquisition of the college from the Sisters of Christian Charity. Optimism all around.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-04-03/news/9101300545_1_campus-private-colleges-enrollment
... and another article, from eleven years later, describing Loyola's sale of the parcel of land, as the college was in the financial doldrums, with subsequent conflict between the developer, a community organization and the local suburb. Undeveloped real estate in that lakeshore community would have been a prize for any developer. I don't know what the ultimate outcome was, but I expect that new tracts of McMansions figured prominently in it.
https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/how-could-they/Content?oid=907945