Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Edna

Since today was the feast day of St Edna, I trekked up to Arlington Heights for a vigil Mass at St Edna parish.

The exterior of St Edna parish, a mid-century modern-styled chruch with lots of horizontal lines and low peaks in its design

The Mass was reasonably well attended for a vigil Mass and had music provided by a cantor, pianist and bass guitarist. A covered drum kit behind them gave evidence that this is a parish that does a lot of contemporary styled music.

The view of the sanctuary from the back of the church, A pair of flat-screen TVs serve to provide lyrics for songs. There are decorative balconies on either side of the church (the roof is too los to allow these to be habitable and the church is clearly post-Vatican II in its design.

They had the list of hymn numbers posted at the front of the church on an old-style number board and I, foolishly, failed to check what was planned, not realizing that the closing hymn was to be “America the Beautiful.” I have a strong objection to patriotic music at Mass (I feel it’s even worse than having an American flag in the sanctuary which is another common sin I encounter) and normally I would discretely leave early when this sort of thing is done, but since I only realized it when communion was over and I was boxed in in the middle of my pew, there was no escape.


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