Roamin' Catholics: Body and Soul

Continuing with our dual perspectives of the evening we present Week 12 of Roamin' Catholics: Body and Soul... HERS: This week's Roamin' Catholics was truly a delightful experience; I don't think it was due to the church we attended or the restaurant where we dined, but it was because of our special guest... but more about her later... the blog title might be a bit of a give away. Our church selection was based on our guest. She lives in Virginia, so we knew that we would be crossing state lines from Maryland into Virginia this week. Is it embarrassing to admit we chose the church based on our restaurant selection? It is what it is, as they say. Lou suggested that we eat at an Italian Restaurant in Alexandria, VA named Landini Brothers that he has frequented for work on many occasions. With our dinner destination chosen, I quickly got to work to find a nearby church and landed squarely on The Basilica of St. Mary's a few blocks away from the restaurant. There w...

One mass... one dinner... two viewpoints... HIS: Are you a prisoner or a parishioner?  This is the question to ponder this week.  More on this later, first a bit of background.  Roamin’ Catholics Body and Soul traveled to the Archdiocese of Hartford in the Nutmeg State.  For those who don’t know which state that is, that’s my home state of Connecticut.  We traveled to the Constitution State (another nickname) for a quick visit with Mama Sitnik.  When in the area we also try to get together with dear ole Uncle Ed.  This is what brought us to this week’s stop on our journey, St. Dunstan’s in Glastonbury, Connecticut, my Uncle’s home parish.  This was also the first week we shared our experience (in the flesh) with someone else.  Glastonbury is just across the Connecticut River from my home town and where my Mom lives, Wethersfield.  This would be a good segue to say that both Wethersfield and Glastonbury are place names in Great B...

HIS VIEW: Another break from routine in this week’s episode of Roamin’ Catholics.  We didn’t attend mass on Saturday evening.  We didn’t attend Mass on Sunday morning.  We attended mass on Sunday evening!  It has been a long time since we did this and it turned out to be another epiphany moment.  Let’s begin by explaining why we waited until 7 on Sunday evening to continue our weekly spiritual journey.  You may have heard that we switched our clocks AHEAD one hour yesterday  morning.  If you hadn’t heard, then you were probably late for something yesterday…This day in the calendar, more than the corresponding one in the fall, always throws me off.  The day seems to fly by so fast and it is so exhausting.  It kinda feels like you lose two or three hours, not just one!  On Saturday night, we had some people over our house and we were both up late.  The adjusted time that we finally got to bed was two A.M. so you can see why w...

Welcome to this week's Roamin' Catholics: Body and Soul. One church. One restaurant. Two views.  HIS VIEW: Wow!  This is the word of the day!  We ventured up to Baltimore for this week’s installment of Roamin’ Catholics and it was a wonderful experience.  Adding a little variety, we attended the 8 AM mass at St Casimir’s church in the Canton section of Charm City.  Built in the 1920’s, the structure is quite imposing set among the tightly packed row houses of east Baltimore.  Clad in limestone and containing twine spires, this IS your grand daddy’s Catholic church!  Built in a neo-renaissance style, it is much more traditional than the churches we have been going to in recent weeks.  The parish was original formed to meet the needs of the burgeoning Polish population in Fells Point and Canton.  Originally it was a mission of St. Stanislaus but quickly became a faith community in its own right.  Canton and nearby Fells Point were c...