ST. MARY’S, NEW HAVEN: Next weekend, I’ll be returning to New Haven, CT, where I spent many a dawn hour arguing about consequentialism and agrarianism and how it stands with Being. New Haven is also where I was baptized and confirmed. I love returning to St. Mary’s Church, and reading Amy Welborn this afternoon brought home to me how much I owe those tireless Dominicans.
St. Mary’s isn’t what I’d call a beautiful church. A friend called it “the church where Snow White got married.” But the statues are simple and colorful, the Stations of the Cross are easily understood, the Eucharist is right up front, and in general, everything about the church’s architecture and decoration focuses your mind on Christ. The hymns include truly lovely songs like “Comfort, Comfort Ye My People,” “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken,” and “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent.” The preaching is direct and clear, colored with scholarship, respectful of the congregation’s intelligence, and motivated by love of the Gospel. There’s no sugarcoating, no apologies, no talk of “relationships,” no exhortations to be nice. Homilies mostly focus closely on the day’s readings; sometimes there’s a down-to-earth moral example, but often you just get an explanation of some basic Christian concept, like the Trinity or the importance of loving one’s enemies.
One moment sums up St. Mary’s for me. I’d come in late, and was lurking at the back of the church trying to figure out where I could grab a seat. But that meant I got an up-close-and-personal look at the young priest leading the procession to the altar. The look on his face was astounded and grateful and happy–“I get to be a priest!”
I just spent a few minutes pacing back and forth in my office, angry and sad that so many Catholics attend churches that do little to nurture their faith, churches empty of the joy and fervent love of the Gospel that animate St. Mary’s. I should also be grateful that so many Catholics maintain their faith despite apathetic priests, flabby preaching, sprawling architecture, and fluffy music. Not to mention hideous scandal. Amid all the elements of everyday church life that point away from Christ, most people still find Him.
I guess today I’ll pray that all priests sustain or rediscover the joy in their vocations. And that joy is: Christ.