Ha, who would have guessed that hidden among the backlog of catechist posts (which you should also read), Christian LeBlanc also has a little post with non-DMV-looking* churches. To give you ideas. Apparently when he isn’t teaching CCD, he gets to design buildings and stuff.
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Funny story about a certain space-cadet catechist:
So I was in Aiken, SC, Saturday afternoon and had an hour to spare before meeting a friend for dinner. I knew from their website that St. Mary’s was now holding weekend masses at the parish hall, but I thought I’d see if the old church building was open and I could just take a peek. Door was open, but when I looked through the windows in the vestibule doors into the nave of the church, there were evidently people gathered there for some kind of service. A handful of ladies in chapel veils in the pews, someone praying at the tabernacle, and a few more clustered along one of the walls. Very silent. Intent. Maybe they were praying the Stations of the Cross? I couldn’t see everything happening.
A cleric appeared out the sacristy, bowed at the altar, walked to the rear of the church and out of sight. No one else moved. Finally one of the ladies in the pew got up and left with a handful of children. I whispered, “Is there some kind of service going on?”
“Yes,” she answered. “Confession.” And of course encouraged me to go on in . . .
See all that blue and gold squiggly stuff on the ceiling up front? Here’s a flyer that tells you what it all is.
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Even cooler: After I was finished being amazed at how much more beautiful St. Mary’s is than I had remembered, back outside I overheard a church-mom telling a big kid, “I’m going to go into the adoration chapel for a few minutes.”
“Adoration?”
Yes indeed. I have no photo for you. But the little St. Clare chapel is everything an adoration chapel ought to be. If you are in Aiken, go. Go go go. Fabulous. Only open to the public during daylight hours.
*That’s the technical term. You might be more comfortable with the vernacular “Romanesque,” though of course that is just one of a multitude of non-DMV styles.
Hey I’ve never been to Aiken, but the church reminds me enough of St. Mary’s in Greenville that I wonder if they had the same architect.
Speaking further of Aiken, I just today received via ebay an obscure game about a Yankee invasion in 1862 whose goal was to destroy bridges along the Savannah-Charleston railroad.
The designer lives in Aiken.
Good question. I’ve never been to St. Mary’s Greenville. (My upstate parish looks like a DMV too. As does my beach parish. I see a disturbing trend.)
But wow, how fitting, re: the game. Aiken is the land of the modern-day Yankee invasion. How I got to this state, anyhow.
Frenchmen are about as common here now as Yankees were when I was a kid. Many of my St Mary’s classmates had exotic Northern names such as Abdalla, Shaluly, Chibbaro, van Giesen, Fantauzzi, and Farotto. With the last name of LeBlanc I was no less bizarre to the natives. Being from Louisiana, and thus technically Southern, didn’t outweigh being Catholic.
Interior of St Mary’s:
http://www.stmarysgvl.org/index.php?file=thumbpop&pic=8
Aikenesque.
You are right – what a resemblance!
Funny story re: Louisiana: I was listening to some cajun music. (New to me, though I had a Daniel Lanois tape years ago, so Acadien.) Child asks me, “What is that? Like French bluegrass?”
“Yes. Basically.”
Never occurred to me to connect the two. I guess it would swampgrass?
Haw!…most definitely not like music in the rest of the South.
Being Louisiana-bred, going to school in Italy in my 20s was less of a culture shock than moving to SC in 1965.
That I would not have predicted. Interesting.