Category: religion
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Catholic Nerd Pilgrimage: St John the Evangelist (one day late)
I tend to feel like anything much past Harlem Avenue is Iowa so Streamwood is a suburb that I would not have been able to place on a map before heading out to St John the Evangelist yesterday. I have a new candidate for newest church building in the archdiocese with this one which was…
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Catholic Nerd Pilgrimge: Nativity of the Lord (a bit late)
Driving east on 37th Street, I saw the bell tower of Nativity of Our Lord Parish looming over the houses and 2 and 3-flats that populate Bridgeport east of new Comiskey,¹ a strong reminder of the days when a home parish was a key marker of self-identity in Chicago. But only once I was inside…
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Catholic Nerd Pilgrimage: Saint John Cantius
There are certain parishes in the archdiocese where knowing that’s where someone goes to Mass regularly tells you a whole lot about them. Saint Sabina, Old Saint Pat’s and Saint John Cantius are three which spring immediately to mind. The last one on this list is the hyper-traditionalist parish. When I attended Mass at Holy…
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Catholic Nerd Pilgrimage: St John of the Cross (one day late)
St John of the Cross parish has a Sunday evening Mass, a practice which has a sentimental attachment for me. Arriving at the church in the darkness of December, the first thing I noticed was a collection of handicapped spaces that rivals the size of some parishes’ entire parking lots. The liturgy itself was solidly…
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Catholic Nerd Pilgrimage: Shrine of Our Lady of Guadupe (three days late)
I’ve been trying to give priority to shrines when they’re an option, so for Our Lady of Guadalupe, I drove up to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe which claimed on its website that it would be holding a 7p Mass. As near as I could discover on arrival, there was no Mass taking…
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Eternity
A week ago I saw a screening of the new movie, Eternity, which was a decent enough romantic comedy set in the afterlife.¹ I’m not going to write a review of the film itself, but instead there were two aspects of the afterlife as presented in the film that really captured my attention: First, the idea…
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Catholic Nerd Pilgrimage: Saint Columbanus (Saint Moses the Black)
Today is the feast of St Columbanus (albeit superseded by the feast of Christ the King). A number of options today, including an actual Christ the King parish, but I went with St Moses the Black (whose building was originally St Columbanus) because I really needed some Black church in my life. And while the…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: The National Shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
The shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini was built in response to pilgrimages of people coming to visit the room at Columbus Hospital in Chicago where she worked for a time during her lifetime. The hospital was closed and demolished in 2002 to be replaced with high rise luxury housing, but the shrine was left…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: St Elizabeth of the Trinity (three days late)
Saturday, I went to Mass at St Elizabeth of the Trinity, the new name of St Tarcissus church after the parish was merged with St Cornelius and St Thecla. All the Masses of the weekend celebrated the saint and used the readings for her feast rather than the regular ordinary time readings for the Mass.…