St. Joseph - Pine Bluff

I decided last night that I wanted to go hiking in the swamp.  There's a swamp near Pine Bluff and I was like cool I'll go to Church there.  Except I couldn't remember which church I went to.  I looked at their pics online and am like I recognize neither.  I'll go to the one with the earlier Mass time and be back in time to get baklava and listen to Irish music at the Greek Fest.  (Jazz Music at the German Fest...Irish Music at the Greek Fest...Irish Music at the Jewish Fest...wonders what is played at the Irish Fest...)

I'm driving to Mass and I was like this look vaguely familiar.  Oh noes.  I recognize that dilapidated house...  Oh noes....  I've been to this church before.  Now in St. Louis, or any place really really Catholic, this is not a tragedy.  In the city at least, you just go like a mile in another direction and you hit a church.  Here in Arkansas that is fraught with issues.  Most towns only have 1 and they only have 1 Mass.  And it may or may not be on Sunday.  Luckily, Pine Bluff is bigger and has 3.... and I didn't miss Mass at one of them.

I attended the 11 am Mass at St. Joseph.  It's an older church.  The choir loft is really high.  It's so high I don't think I could stand in it.  Well, not with out a lot of extra praying.

Sometimes older churches smell really nice, like the incense and candles have soaked into the wood and stone.  St. Joseph had an odor..unfortunately, it wasn't incense.  (This will become important later on)

Music was supplied by the organ in the loft with a cantor.
Opening:  Festival Canticle
Offertory:  We Have Been Told
Communion:  Taste and See
Closing:  Sent Forth By God's Blessing

Today was the Graduation Mass, so all the graduates were there in their caps and gowns.  All were college students.  I won't ask where the grade schoolers or high schoolers were...

Father's homily started off with a story about a man named Matthew Henry who lived around 200 years ago.  He loved Jesus with all his heart and he knew his time was coming.  He knew his family and friends would be heartbroken when he died so he left them a letter.  Father read the letter.  To summarize the letter spoke of how the writer with Jesus in the Father's dwelling place and was perfect in holiness (Clearly this guy is a protestant...)  This letter is similar to today's Gospel.  Where I am you may also be.  For Jews, only God is the way.  Jesus says He is the way.  The Father and I are one.  This is a huge claim and why the Jews rejected Jesus.  The Father and I are equal.  What does it mean? Jesus is the visible manifestation...  and at this point I just started coughing and had to go outside for a moment.  and missed the rest of the homily :(

Father used Eucharistic Prayer III and there were bells at the Consecration.  Father also gave the graduates a special blessing at the end of Mass.

Pictures:

St. Joseph Pine Bluff

View From the Back Pew

Station VIII

 

I"m not sure...

St. John Vianney?

 

 

I got nothing on these two

Links:
St. Joseph - Pine Bluff

St. Joseph - Paris

Sorry this post is last.  I was exhausted from going hiking after Mass.  I climbed to the highest peak in Arkansas.  Then on Monday night I had softball.  I love getting walked!

On Sunday, May 11, I headed out to Paris, AR for the 9 am Mass at St. Joseph Church.  It is an old style church and was pretty.

Music was accompanied by an organ in the choir loft.
Opening:  Alleluia! Alleluia!
Offertory: Hail Mary: Gentle Woman
Communion:  Pan de Vida (instrumental), Let Us Break Bread Together (at a funeral pace)
Closing:  Jesus is Risen

The Gloria was not sung.  The congregation started saying it, got lost, and just kind of stopped.  Father made us redo it.

Why do churches put the cry room in the choir loft???

Homily:
The Deacon gave the homily.  Because it was Mother's Day, he asked for the Mom with the oldest child (odd) and the newest mom.  Something changes when girls have babies (yeah...their hips).  God knows what mothers need and gives them the tools to be good mothers (so bad moms didn't pick up the tools?)  You only appreciate your mother once you have kids of your own.  A mother is a mother for ever.  Mothering is out of pure love (no comment).  The history of mothers:  Eve, then Mary, then Mother church (and you missed some generations...).  The history of Mothers' Day goes back to when the early church had a day when you were to go back to the church you were baptized in, that was your mother church and the day was Mother's Day. (Uhm...he does realize that most people in the early church didn't tend to move all that far from the place they were born....it's not like they had planes or cars or anything... and on this bright note the Church I was baptized in is closed/suppressed.  Guess I don't have a mom church.  Excellent.)  Mothers' Day is not a liturgical holiday (but we are going to treat it like one)  To tie it into the Gospel, mothers are shepherds (oh this is a stretch).  Shepherds slept outside the gate to keep out the wolves.  The wolves would smell the human and go away.  In the morning, the shepherd would open the gate and the sheep would follow the call.  The image of Jesus carrying a sheep comes from when, in the old days, lambs were rambunctious and would run off.  The shepherd would break the lamb's leg and therefore would need to carry the lamb everywhere.  The lamb would then stay close to the shepherd when the lamb was healed in 2-3 weeks.  (*blink*  I don't even know where to begin on this fail.  Seriously. Other than to go stop reading wikipedia and talk to the ranchers/4H people in your parish....)  Now this doesn't mean you should break your rambunctious child's leg (I'm glad you added that qualifier there...)  We all need a hit upside the head to follow (Because when love doesn't work, violence is the answer..).  Mother wants to lead us to Church, to Jesus (that only works if your mom is a practicing Catholic and not a CAPE, C&E, or somebody died Catholic).  They do this completely out of love.  We hold mothers in high esteem (yet we trash stay at home moms).

The Deacon then gave a special blessing to all the mothers.  There were about 5 adult women who did not get to stand for the blessing.  One woman looked very very unhappy.  Then all the mothers got to come up and get a rose.  Here's a tip:  over buy your roses.  There is nothing worse than running out before all the moms get one and then having to go raid flowers in the sacristy....

One of the petitions were for Mothers who gave some quality to Earth ( I have no idea)

Father used Eucharistic Prayer II.  There were bells at the Consecration.  The Our Father was sung.

Pictures:

I guess the Holy Spirit got tired of flying...

Or it's a chicken...

 

Where's Pope?

You can tell this a Pre Vatican II window..

 

 

Link:
St. Joseph - Paris

St. Joseph - Conway

I wanted to see eagles so I headed west along the Arkansas River.  I was told a place called "Toad Suck" had a flock (it didn't and it sucked :p) which led me to St. Joseph in Conway.  I went to the 8 am Mass.

It was bound to happen sooner or later.  Some one was going to throw a wobbly over me being in their Church and then taking pictures.  Usually the wobbly starts after I start taking pictures, not when I walk in the door.  Usually the wobbly is diffused when I explain what I'm doing and that I won't take pictures during Mass (usually...bizarreness is an exception)

As usual with any church built after 1965, entrance doors to the church can be tricky to find.  I follow some people in and am in an old church where the side wall has been knocked down.  I'm standing there in a big gathering space of what used to be the nave of a church built in 1925.  A classic old baptismal font is in the center.  I see the old choir loft and the old windows.  There's glass doors leading to a much smaller church which is apparently a Eucharistic Adoration Chapel (at this point I'm not sure.) I'm standing there trying to determine what on Earth they have done to this church.  It looked so pretty from the outside..

A woman comes up to me and asks me in a not friendly tone if she can help me with anything.  I'm immediately on guard.  I respond I'm just looking.  She notices the camera (which is a dSLR with a decent size lens) and starts telling me I can't take pictures here, there, in there, over there and there.  I think she might have asked if I have permission.  (I can't remember because I'm paying attention to where she's pointing) I can try to take some over there after Mass but there's another Mass (in a tone that makes it sound like there's only 10 minutes between Masses).  She's wearing a sweatshirt, jeans and a tennis shoes so I figure she is just a nosy parishoner.  She has no name tag, cross necklace, nothing that would associate her with any kind of leadership role in this parish.  I take some pictures in the gathering space and take some pictures through the glass into the chapel (I didn't go in ;) ).

I go into the Church proper (a giant square), also known as the nave.  I'm in the way back and there's a good 5-6 feet between the wall and the back row of pews.  Some would consider this a vestibule.  I take a quick shot of the interior.  A man claiming to be an usher runs up to me and starts telling me I can't take pictures because I'm disturbing everyone.  (Because making a scene isn't disturbing...).  I roll my eyes and am like whatever.

Mass starts.  I'm aggravated because they have wrecked this church and there are no windows into the nave.  I'm also short on sleep and not feeling well.  The woman and the man start talking right behind me in that space between the wall and the pews.  I turn around and tsk at them ( a little louder than I should have I admit)  (Oh I just pour fuel onto fires...) The woman flies up to me, asks me what the problem is and I'm like you are disturbing my prayer.  (you know people don't like it when they get their justifications thrown back at them...) She announces that she is the sacristan and she can talk to the usher in the back because that's her job (gathering space all full up?  Sacristy all full up?  Secondary cry room?).  If I have a problem with it I can leave or find another pew.  (Tempted...so tempted...but I'm like what are they trying to hide?)  She then proceeds to ask me who I am and who I am with and if I have permission.  I'm Tina.  She's like who are you with.  Uh the Catholic Church?  No.  Who are you with?  Who's camera is that?  I'm with myself and it's my camera.  Are you with Arkansas Catholic?  Uh..no? (I don't know what that is...) You can't take pictures any more.  You can't take pictures in the sanctuary.  (Honey, I'm not in the sanctuary which makes me question your sacristan credentials.  I almost always stay out the sanctuary esp. if there is a Communion Rail.)    She and the usher proceed to stand behind me and watch me throughout the Mass.  (I feel special...)  Now I tend to want to take pictures before Mass because the lights are on and I'm not being rushed by people trying to lock up the Church.  And as I suspected the lights were turned off 5 minutes after Mass.  Also I like taking pictures before Mass so I can retake any bad shots after Mass.

This all could have been avoided if she had introduced herself and I had put the camera in my backpack when I came in.  If she would have identified herself as Hi/Good Morning I'm Mary the Sacristan/Greeter/Founding Parish Member/Parish Gopher Welcome to St. Joseph.  You don't look familiar, are you new/visiting?  And then I would have given her my bit about going around taking pictures.  and it would have all worked out (at least that is what 20+ hours of training at work is telling me...)  I did apologize to Father after Mass.  He wanted me to apologize to her.  Yeah.  no.  Let's not fan the flames.  (I'm also sure part of the problem is that I don't belong to the socio-economic class of the parishoners...$50 for an all you can eat fish fry dinner..(no mention of alcohol...).  with raffle tickets to win guns..sweet Lord...the South...)

As the new Church is a square with an arch in the center, there's no choir loft.  The choir and organ were on the ambo side.  There was a small choir.
Opening:  When Jesus Comes to be Baptized
Offertory:  Come to the Water and Abba! Father (if necessary)
Communion:  Bread of Life and Let Us Break Bread Together (if necessary)
Closing:  Sing of the Lord's Goodness

Because it is the Feast of the Lord's Baptism, Father had us renew our Baptismal Promises (just the first 3...rejecting Satan and all that bad stuff and believing in God) and sprinkled us all with holy water.  (this was unexpected...pleasantly unexpected.  It's so refreshing when a Catholic church does something well...Catholic)

The homily was given by the Deacon.
Where has Jesus been all this time? The last time we hear from Jesus he is 12 and in the Temple.  We assume that for 18 years he has been in Nazareth being obedient, being a carpenter.  John is teaching repentance and baptizing.  When Jesus comes, John wants him to baptize him.  But Jesus insists on John baptizing him.  Why does Jesus want to be baptized?  Mom (Mary) wanted it.  (I'm having flashbacks to grade school....)  The Jewish recognize Baptism.  (Uh...) They recognize that it is not for them because they are the Chosen People and have no sin to wash away.  Jesus is baptized as a way to identify with the very people he was meant to save.  Pope Francis recently said to a group of priests that a shepherd should have the smell of his sheep (please not Axe...)  Today we know the Trinity is in full bloom.  The Jews recognize that they are looking at the Messiah.  The throne is the cross.  Jesus is our Savior and our Suffering Servant.  Our baptism cleansed us of original sin.  We are now part of the Body of Christ and receive the Holy Spirit.  We are anointed with the Chrism of Salvation.  Most of us were baptized as infants.  We didn't ask to be baptized.  Our parents chose that and are responsible for raising their children in the Faith.  During the Rite, we ask the parents and the godparents many times if they are sure and if they are going to take on the responsibility (Uhm...I need to check on mine...).  As parents, we have to know our Faith.  At Baptism, we begin our journey.  We die to self.  That sounds very Christianese...let me put it another way.  We are faithful to the Mission.  Deacon gave various examples.  He is amazed at the love of this parish (no I can't...it's just too easy...)

At the offertory, Father got out a big basket and all the children came up and donated.  Father used Eucharistic Prayer III and there were bells.  There was the Liturgy of Announcements and the Liturgy of Thanking.

One last thought.  Elizabeth Scalia mentions how Catholics "do not throw people away"  But sometimes we treat them so badly...

Pictures:  As you can imagine, these are not my best effort.

St. Joseph - Conway

This is the old entrance.

The next 6 pictures, the windows, are all found in the large gathering space.  Not in the Church Nave.

 

  

These were outside the doors to the restroom.  

That's why they are keystoned so badly.

 

It's not really blue...it's the mixed lighting.

My camera can't handle it.  

 Link:
St. Joseph - Conway