Church reports

Just as it was time to walk to the church for the afternoon Mass, the skies opened in a huge, high-wind downpour and great, rolling claps of thunder. As I walked the three blocks to St. Stephen's, I kept having to shift the direction of my umbrella to stay somewhat dry; as it was, everything below my knees was soaking wet once I arrived.

There was no keyboard player tonight, so the cantoress simply led one verse of a hymn a capella for the processional hymn and two verses of another for the the recessional hymn. They seemed quite short staffed tonight, since she not only had to lead those hymns, she also ended up reading the lessons and psalm. Otherwise, it was a low Mass with nothing being sung, the exception being that the celebrant decided to sing the Gospel Alleluia, though pitch and tone was not one of his gifts.

I never could figure out what the homily was about, and I kept thinking, "I need a quote," "I need a subject description," but I was at a loss.

There were three guys from Poland sitting in front of me. It was kind of obvious their were visitors, since they dashed up for communion instead of waiting in line and then they came back down the center aisle instead of walking around to the side aisle. I chatted with them after Mass and the two younger ones were here this week for some sort of engineering competition and the elder one was their adviser.

It was a calm walk home as a lull in the storm gave a brief respite from the rain (though not the droplets falling from the trees and buildings). Later, though, the thunder, lightening and rain continued. Things are quiet now, though. I hear these sorts of sneak storms are supposed to happen for the next couple of days. Will we get rained on during the fireworks?