Monday, July 6, 2015

Third Worship Time
Yesterday, July 5, Hannah, Lucy and I met our friends the Roush's at the church that they attend, "Our Lady of Victory" - a Roman Catholic Church in Marblecliffe - one of the "Tri-villages" with Upper Arlington and Grandview Heights. Our Lady of Victory is a lovely stone building, very welcoming and warm. Not like a lot of huge Catholic churches, this one was a little smaller. I know one of the priests that is that, Monsignor Tony Missimi, since he used to serve at Immaculate Conception, right around the corner from Clinton Heights on N. Broadway. Our friends had told him that we were hoping to worship there and that I am on my sabbatical this summer, and Tony went out of his way to welcome us.
When we arrived, we were looking for the Roush's red van. Lucy didn't want to go in before we spotted them, so we waited until about five minutes before mass was to start before we entered. It turned out that they were already there, sitting toward the front and looking for us. We squeezed into a pew that was a row behind a large stone pillar, which was my view for the duration of mass.
It was a typical Catholic mass, which I have experienced numerous times and was very comfortable with. I thought it was funny that the Gospel for the day was about Jesus returning to his hometown in Mark's Gospel, a place where he could do no miracles and whose people questioned him about his ability to preach. The line, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown" comes from this passage. Also in the passage is the line about Jesus' sisters being present. I was wondering if Mnsr. Missimi might touch on that point, since the official RC teaching is that Mary remained a virgin her whole life, and this is one of those passages that seems to dispute that belief. He didn't though.
Instead it was a rather patriotic sermon, being that it was Independence Day Weekend and all. His theme focused on how being a Christian matches up with our three-fold rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as was laid out by our founding fathers. Not too challenging, but a nice holiday message none-the-less.
We did not go up for Communion, wanting to respect the local customs and not put anyone in an awkward position. We really didn't talk with anyone else besides the Roush's and Tony. The passing of the peace was quick and not too sincere - much unlike Lord of Life last week where it took a good five minutes for everyone to greet others around them, and a few pews back, and a few pews forward, etc!
Later in the day I took Hannah to Camp Mowana for her week there with Iris Woodward. Pat and I took the girls and made a few stops on the way home to explore some places we have either been to or wanted to go to. We also talked about plans for when he comes out to join me in the Denver area next week. I am really looking forward to that leg of the sabbatical.

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