Roamin' Catholics: Body and Soul

HERS: This week's mass was the 5:30 Saturday night mass at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Kensington, MD. Constructed in the 1960's the first thing I noticed once inside the church was the structure above the altar. The church was beautiful and open with stained glass windows in soft pastel colors and seating surrounding three sides of the altar. Today is the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist, so the Gospel reading was about the announcement to Zechariah and Elizabeth that they would have a son named John. Both Zechariah and Elizabeth were up there in years and the gospel referred to Elizabeth as "barren". And yet, through God, they would have a son. Yeah, that is pretty amazing. John's mission would be to prepare people for Jesus' coming. The celebrant, Fr. Ryan Pineda touched upon this is his homily. What is God's plan or purpose for us? I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around this one. Sure, if you're called to become a pries...

HIS: Happy Father’s day from Roamin’ Catholics to all those Fathers, Grandfathers, Godfathers, father like figures, dearly departed fathers and spiritual fathers out there.  Thank you for all you do in guiding all of us in our paths.  This week was a bit of a homecoming for me as we visited Christ the King parish in Silver Spring, MD.  Christ the King is around the corner from where I lived when I first moved to the Washington, DC area and where I regularly attended mass.  I haven’t been back here in a very long time.  While I don’t remember everything about the church from nearly 30 years ago, it appears not much changed.  A plaque on the outside of the church indicates the first mass was celebrated here in 1961.  The architecture of the building is plain and simple.  So simple that I think the church almost looks like an Episcopal church rather than Catholic.  In reviewing the bulletin and website, it appears there is a very active Hispa...

HERS: I l ove the inside of St. Jane Frances de Chantel Church in Bethesda, MD where we attended the 5:00 mass on Saturday. It is light and airy, with a soaring ceiling, gleaming floors, cheery stained glass windows, and lots of other windows. This is another church that had windows behind the altar that let the outdoors in (see last week’s blog). Lou provided an accurate description of mass this week at St. Jane's… it was vanilla. And due to the vanilla nature of this mass, I have decided not to spend time on the church part of “Body and Soul”. Sometimes mass provides inspiration for living and sometimes God’s inspiration is found elsewhere. Let me tell you something… inspiration hit us like a bolt of lightning at dinner after mass. We went to a little Italian restaurant in Bethesda called Trattoria Sorrento. C’mon, who wouldn’t find some sort of inspiration at an Italian restaurant? There is something religious about Italian food. Lol. The restaurant felt Italian...

HIS: Our Lady of the Visitation parish in Darnestown, MD was the location for mass in this week’s installment of Roamin’ Catholics.  OLV as I will call it, is another post Second Vatican Council church design as it appears most are in the Gaithersburg vicinity.  This parish is one that we have actually seen grow from its founding in the early 1990s.  Mary and I have attended mass at this parish previously before there was even a church building.  Upon its founding, masses were held in a Methodist church, an elementary school and other Catholic churches in the Darnestown/Gaithersburg area.   The building itself did not hold its first celebration of the eucharist until the first Sunday of Advent in 2000.  From an architectural stand point in general, the designs that appeal to me most are ones that emphasize moldings.  The interior of this church fits that bill.  The design is simple, light filled and elegant.  As regular rea...