Category: Catholic nerd pilgrimage

Today is the feast of St Benedict, the founder of the monastic order which bears his name. The archdiocese has two St Benedict churches, but one has a name at least partially subsumed by the new parish name (they have multiple worship sites, so it’s still St Benedict Church but it’s St Mary Magdalene Parish).…

Today, being the feast of Saint Maria Goretti, I trekked to the parish of Holy Virgin Martyrs formed by the merger of the legacy parishes of Saint Maria Goretti and Saint Beatrice. The parish uses the former Saint Beatrice church for worship under the combined patronage of both saints. The Mass was generally fine, with…

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

Today is the feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, so I headed down to Hyde Park. Unfortunately, traffic was such that I ended up arriving fifteen minutes late which had me arrive in the middle of the consecration.  Hyde Park is a notably integrated and liberal neighborhood in Chicago, anchored by the University of Chicago.…

Today being the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, I had a variety of options for where to go, but I opted for Saint Paul’s church in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. I just checked the website to make sure that I wasn’t mistaken, and there was nothing there to indicate what I discovered when…

The feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus takes place on the Friday after the feast of the Holy Trinity which makes it one of those movable feasts in the Catholic liturgical calendar (most of these are based on the date of Easter, with the only exceptions I’m aware of being Christ the King and…

Back to a domestic church visit, today I went to the Saint William parish in the Mont Clare neighborhood of Chicago. The church building is a 1959 building with a very mid-century modern aesthetic to it. the tinterior, meanwhile, reflects the final days of pre-Vatican II architecture with side chapels and a sanctuary surrounded by…

Looking at Catholic churches in London, there were two churches named “Holy Trinity” (or something close to that). I picked the one that was more accessible by public transport and dragged my kids to the 6p Mass, which, it turned out, was the shortest Sunday Mass I’ve ever attended at 37 minutes long, thanks, largely,…

Another Parisian parish for my project, it is, of course, on the opposite side of Paris from my hotel, but a relatively quick trip by Metro (my hot tip for travelers—don’t bother with surface transport in Paris. Metro is always faster, often by disconcerting amounts). In the morning, they had a lauds service before the…