I’m on a road trip.
Hmmmm… usually these vans are following me.
Right now I am in Chicago, at St. John Cantius. Yesterday and today I gave some conferences on sacred liturgy. We have had two, count ’em two, Solemn Masses in the Extraordinary Form (what else). Tomorrow I another.
St. John’s in an amazing place. Everywhere you look, in every nook and cranny there is something amazing. I think that if there were a churchy version of that show about hoarders, it would be shot here.
First, the church is beautiful.
These are the vestments we get to use tomorrow. They have scheduled an “external” celebration of the Feast the Holy Rosary.
Only the best for the most beautiful thing we have.
I should mention all the wonderful people I have met on this trip. Many people who are readers here introduced themselves. It is fun to meet you.
I also must mention a couple things that struck my fancy. First, the canons here (Canons Regular of St. John Cantius) invented a game for the kids to play in the large grassy lot behind the church. It is a combination of something that looks like competitive frisbee and team hand ball. It is called “Canon-ball”.
And then, in the rectory I spotted this. What rectory is complete without something like this?
This stupid drinking bird gets to be a Monsignor, while I…. Oh well.
This is a great community of men with a fine, clean, happy spirit. They have a solid, directed life of prayer and works and they are going strong.
This is a great place. What a gift to Chicago!
Meanwhile, in this city, on the South side, you find what has become my favorite Chinese restaurant in these USA. (They don’t have Shanghai juicy buns to match one place in St. Paul, but they do have a few other things you wind up dreaming about.) A couple shots, just to tease.
Eggplant in garlic
Crispy shrimp in orange mayonaise
Lamb with cumin
“Tony’s Chicken”
Loading ...
Let us pray that St. John C’s survives the new regime at Holy Cross Cathedral.
“It is a combination of something that looks like competitive frisbee and team hand ball. It is called “Canon-ball”.”
Sounds like the Ultimate Frisbee we used to play in ROTC….
Let us pray that Holy Name Cathedral remains in Chicago and that Holy Cross Cathedral stays where it is, Boston.
We are so blessed to have St. John Cantius. I could go on about the church for paragraphs, but direct you all instead to its website: cantius.org, where you can explore endlessly. Numerous photographs reflect the joy and the solemnity in our parish. Activities and programs show how vibrant the faith life at our church is. This is my home, where I attended RCIA and converted to Catholicism just over two years ago. Some Sundays it is hard to get going, due to a painful chronic health problem that I have, and a drive of over an hour on the crazy expressway. Yet we go- if it were two hours we would go.
StnyPtGuy: Thank you for the prayers. We could use the prayers of all here, as the diocese is in transition. May our church be left whole, offering both the NO and the TLM, in an atmosphere of
mutual respect.
The little drinky-bird should be dipping his beak into a WDTPRS coffee mug!
dmwallace: How right you are!
St. John Cantius had been my home parish for 22 years. (Imagine my luck both with that and my new home parish, the Dome of Home in Liverpool.) I can share one insight. The Parish Pastor and Superior of the Canons is, as a Coventual Chaplain ad honorem, of a Polish branch of a storied and ancient chivalric order, entitled to wear purple and be styled monsignor (out of admirable humility he declines to be so styled.)
The bird is that priest.
Since I’ve never seen him with a drink in his hand, I can say with confidence that the cup in question must be meant to be the Chalice of Our Lord, and bird must be meant as a compliment to his devotion to the Eucharist.
Have you been to the Peking Gourmet Inn in Falls Church outside DC, Father? A very close friend of ours is the owner- he was in the Marine Corps with my husband.
Excellent eggplant there as well, and their crispy duck has to be experienced to be believed.
Drinking Bird: Well, the protocol now is that monsignors do not have a purple tassel on top unless he is a Apostolic Protonotary Supernumerary (rare).
Lao Szechuan?
We do have a wonderful elderly Protonotary Apostolic here who does have a purple thing on his biretta. I highly doubt he is much of a drinker. He is also a chaplain of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. Great, great priest who is shockingly adept at talking social justice and pro-life and pro-family all in one breath, why do so many have a hard time doing that?
Dwelling on the important things from this post…where’s the place in St. Paul that has the Shanghai soup buns? And if you’re still in Chicago, go into Chinatown and try the Little Three Happiness (not the big Three Happiness, which is right across the street)…best Chinese food EVER!
The Conference was amazing; the drive to/from, not so much =-p
For those interested, I’ve attempted a summary of the talks given here: http://jonhaines.com/2014/10/05/sacred-liturgy-conference-2014/
It is a very blessed parish indeed. When I was a freshman in college I heard about Cantius on this blog and decided if I ever happen to work in Chicago…
When art’s getting thrown out/sold off, hoarding seems to be the best option!
Funny enough, Fr. Anthony Rice from St. John’s is “filling in” for our Pastor/Rector this week while the priests in the diocese have their annual retreat.
St. John’s is awesome!
iPadre says: St. John’s is awesome!
It is indeed. I warmly recommend it even for a look at the church, if not also for Mass.
Shouldn’t that police vehicle be BEHIND yours?