Thank God for the Catholic Church!
Back when I was Baptist, travel carried with it a certain kind of pain. You would leave your own comfortable church home and venture into new territory, missing for the time you were away the Pastor's ruminations on the Letter to the Romans (a seventeen week series) and joining momentarily reflections on Isaiah's messianic prophesies--if you chose to go to church in your temporary abode. Many times I simply preferred not to because nothing seemed to be standard. Everything seemed different, even if there were certain constants--"altar call" and the monthly "Lord's Supper" outside of regular service.
Here I am and the Catholic Church is here and it is like stepping right back into the home routine. I go to Church, and here rather than Morning Prayer we have a Rosary and Novena, but the Mass is the same. I know the parts and the readings join me to the pulse of the universal Church.
I was impressed this morning with the wonderful Novena at "Our Lady of the Angels." I'm going to ask for a copy for home. It was a Novena based on the beattitudes, and I had never encountered it before. I don't know if it is acceptable for private devotion, but my assumption is anything okay for public recitation must be okay for private reflection. Isn't it normally interdicted the other way round?
Anyway, in addition to all these marvels--they have 24 hour perpetual adoration except for an appropriate period from Saturday at 5:00 pm to Sunday at 7:00pm (vigil to final Sunday Mass). What a treasure!
Since I'm in the area it would be great if I could attend a Latin Mass (there is no Latin Mass (not even Novus Ordo) anywhere within a hundred and fifty miles of home. I'm hoping that in this more cosmopolitan area I might encounter at least the possibility.
More later, but I am in constant prayer of thanksgiving to the gracious God who gives us the gift of the Church!
