Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Visitation

Today is the feast of the visitation, commemorating when the newly pregnant Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth who was pregnant with John the Baptist at that time. As a result I visited St Basil/Visitation church on the south side of Chicago.

The church is located in a poor neighborhood as evidenced by the fact that its front entrance has doors labeled “church” and “food pantry”:The view of Visitation/St Basic church. The door on the left is labeled “church,” the door on the right, “food pantry.” the main doors in the center are apparently not in use.

The service was in Spanish, but thanks to a worship aid, I was able to follow along reasonably well, although it wasn’t entirely clear about why there were two priests present—I think the second priest may have been visiting. 

Being a predominantly Latino parish, it tends to liturgical conservatism, with half a dozen altar servers (all boys) and lots of incense and bells.

A view of the sanctuary from the pews during Mass. The church is built in a gothic style and features a rather gorgeous painted ceiling which I didn’t get any pictures of. A surprisingly large number of people present for a Saturday evening weekend Mass.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.