We dropped into the Roman Catholic Church (bet you can't guess its name!), and it was absolutely beautiful. Even though its main altar had been rendered free-standing there seemed precious other little monkey business with the building. The best of old Roman Catholic design, if you take my meaning.We were unable to get into historic Holy Cross Lutheran Church, but it looked like it had an interesting, if much more humble, interior. Ah well, perhaps next time. It's funny, I couldn't find a sign identifying it as LCMS, but the board outside announced the schedule for "Divine Service" and I told Cindi: "That's LCMS." Funny how "Divine Service" has become an identifying term - the old Gottesdienst made a revival under LW and now LSB.
4 comments:
The pastor of Holy Cross, Ste. Genevieve, MO is my friend and the man who followed me as vicar at Faith, Tullahoma, TN, Rev. Lawrence Bradt.
He'll be sad to know you missed him. The interior of Holy Cross is stunning. They have the old chancel furniture from St. John, Chester, IL, after Chester did a remodeling many years ago.
Every time I pass a church,
I stop and make a visit.
So that when I'm carried in,
The Lord won't say "Who is it?"
Endnotes.
1. A little pre-conciliar ditty, taught to us in grade school by a priest who later died in a car accident amid rumours of drunk driving.
2. A "visit" isn't just stopping by. It's short for a Visit to Our Lord in the Holy Sacrament -- time outside of Mass in church before the Eucharistic Presence in the tabernacle in prayer or meditation.
3. Many years ago I dated for a while a girl from the "Norwegian Lutheran" church, who said her grandmother told her as a kid never to idle around a Catholic church as the priest will come out and get kids who will never be seen again.
4. Saying ditties like that could lead to being hauled before the Diocesan Tribunal for the Spirit of Vatican II, and if it persists the Pontifical Intergalactic Commission for the Spirit of Vatican II in Rome.
5. I take chewable Pepto-Bismol along for those unavoidable times when I must be in an RC church, such as marriages, funerals and baptisms. It helps.
5. Making a visit lead to my first exposure to Lutheran worship books. During a drive back to grad school at the time of the conclave after the death of John Paul I (which would give John Paul II) I was in one of my periodic attempts to convince myself there still was a Roman Catholic Church (rumour has it this will be classified as a personality disorder in future DSMs) and stopped at each church I passed. Somewhere in Iowa, one of them turned out to be a Lutheran church and, there being no Sacrament reserved in the tabernacle to visit, I pulled out the green hymnal I now know to be LBW and read through it, after which thinking if this is Lutheranism I might as well pack it in, have a frontal lobotomy and be a good post conciliar "Roman Catholic". I would not seriously consider Lutheranism again until I met Nancy years later.
St. Pointy Spire?
D.P.
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