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The National Mall Covered in Snow
Washington Monument in Center |
My previous post ended on Monday night, when we got into
Washington DC having had a wonderful drive from Indianapolis, listening to good
talks, getting work done, being squished
together in such a way as to have to spend solid time talking with each
other, and enjoying an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Anyway, I had the blessing of getting a good night’s sleep (which, I
heard, wasn’t the case with everybody), but woke up the next morning to find
that DC was expected to get hit with several inches of snow and all the museums
and places of interest were going to be closed because of this wintery
precipitate. I was bummed because we had
almost the entire day to see the city, which, though I had seen some of it
before, I wanted to experience again because it is such a cool, historic,
interesting, and stunning place. As it
turned out, the museums hadn’t closed yet, so some of us took the 10 minute
shuttle, to the metro, where we spent an hour shooting into downtown DC, and
then wandered over to the national mall (where many of the Smithsonian’s are
located). Some of the other guys in our
4 or 5 person group wanted to go to the Air and Space Museum, which I had seen
before, but knew would be cool, so off we went.
It was cold, snowing a bit (nothing like the disaster that everyone was
expecting though), so we walked quickly to cover the half-mile or so to the
museum, stopping to look at some of the cool buildings (old post office,
national archives, and most of the other old government buildings there) along
the way.
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National Air and Space Museum
Voyager, The Spirit of St. Louis, Space Ship One, and X-15 visible |
We ran into a group of pro-life tourists on our way into the
museum (who was immediately recognizable because they were all wearing the same
bright sweatshirts, except the religious sister, who was wearing her habit),
which was pretty cool and then we had the opportunity to meet up with some
other guys from Bruté. We wandered
around the different exhibits, pretty much noting that all the people who flew
these things for the first time were crazy.
That guy who strapped himself into the wood and linen contraption that
was supposed to fly and then jumped off a mountain to see if it would. That guy who built a motorcycle, bolted a v8
to it, and then proceeded to see how fast he could go without dying (he made it
up to 127 mph, and this was back in the early 1900s). Or those guys who strapped themselves into a
tin can, floated for a week through space, and then landed on the moon in a
foil contraption, hoping that it would lift off, be able to connect up to the
capsule that was hopefully in orbit correctly, that could hopefully fire its
engine, and hopefully hit the atmosphere correctly, so that hopefully its heat
shield would work, so that hopefully its parachutes would open, and hopefully
it would be found out in the middle of the ocean… I am jesting here a bit; it was really cool
to see all the amazing aircraft/spacecraft – humans are awesome!
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| Somewhere in Catholic University of America |
After the Air and Space museum, the several of us went back
to another metro station and swept off to Union Station, where we found some
food (it was now about 1 PM). Four of us
went to this Italian sandwich place, where we got some (pretty tasty) sandwiches, warm chips (pretty typical), and cold gelato (which was also
tasty). Funny side note: I didn’t buy a
drink because I was cheap (and they weren’t) and I was hoping to find a
water-fountain someplace. Well, there
wasn’t any free H2O to be found, so I went without liquid and after
wandering around the station for a little while longer (mostly clothing shops
actually, which was pretty boring), we got back on the Metro and shot off
towards the National Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. The vigil Mass for life, which we would be
participating in later, wasn’t going to happen for several more hours, so we
went on a short tour of the Theological College (a seminary which is there on
the campus of Catholic University of America), which was pretty cool – sorry no
pictures, it wasn’t cool enough, at least the parts I saw, for me to be the
dorky tourist guy and whip out my camera… After hanging out over there for a short period of time, we went back over to the Basilica around 4 PM.
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| National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception |
We had to be down in the crypt to vest/process by 5:30, so I had some
time to wander around, which, of course, I did.
I unfortunately had forgotten to bring a book, other than my breviary,
to read during times when I didn’t have anything to do, so I didn’t have
anything better to do. Anyway, it wasn’t
by any means boring, the Basilica is gorgeous and has tons of little beautiful
side chapels, which, and this was even cooler, were filling with young guys and
ladies, who were staking out a spot for the Mass that evening. Some of them had been camping out since noon
or earlier to get a decent spot, but I thought it was just cool to crowd scan
and see if I recognized anybody. Of
course, I didn’t recognize very many people, but it was still kind of fun to
glance around and smile/wave at people who had made the same mistake and didn’t
have anything else to do but sit there (it doesn’t matter how awesome of a time
you are having, after sitting on a marble - beautiful marble of course, but
still marble - floor for several hours, you get a bit bored and sore). Well, I wandered back towards the entrance of
the lower level and spend a few minutes perusing the store, full of different
Catholic pictures, cds, t-shirts, statues, and other such things. I didn’t really expect to buy anything, but,
you know, being a seminarian you get interested into that sort of thing, so
there I was. Well, I stepped out of the
small, packed, shop, and just about literally ran into my aunt.
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| Inside the Basilica before Mass |
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| National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception |
I knew that my aunt, uncle, and cousins were going on the March
and assumed that they would be at the vigil Mass that evening, but I didn’t
really expect to see them amid the milling crowds. Anyway, despite my doubts, I was lucky enough
to run into her and got to chat for a few minutes while the crowds swamped
past. She asked if I had heard from the
pope yet (meaning, did I get accepted to the PNAC yet?, to which I said no),
and we got to joke around a little bit before I had to take off again. There was another guy tagging along with me,
and I was going to show him up-stairs (the main Church) before we had to get
back down stairs. Anyway, she told me
where the rest of their group was seated up there, so we headed up the (skinny,
but thankfully not too packed) staircase and found that the church wasn’t as
crazy as I thought it would be. In years
past the aisles have been absolutely clogged with people, but they were doing a
pretty good job of getting people to stay out of the aisles, so while the pews
were full, it wasn’t impossible to move around or anything. Well, to make a long story short, I spend a
few minutes talking with my cousins (who thought it was pretty cool to see me
there), and was very glad to have been able to see them. Funny story: during the 5 minutes that I was
standing there, I was told at least twice to get off the aisle and into my
pew. I didn’t quite get the explanation
out that I wouldn’t be in a pew because I was processing in later, so they kept
going by “reminding” me to get into a pew…
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| Seminarians assembled in the Crypt Church before Mass |
Wow, this is becoming quite the long-winded post, but
there’s a lot to say about what we were up to, so I guess I should expect
that. After going back down-stairs to
the crypt, where I was going to get my cassock/surplice on (which, hopefully,
had been brought down from the hotel since I had last been through there a few
hours previous). Well, as you might
expect, I ran into someone else that I knew, this time not quite as well
because they were friends of Willies, but either way we chatted for several
minutes before we really had to get back to vest. I quickly outfitted myself in
cassock/surplice – quickly because all the other several-hundred seminarians
smashed into the back of this crypt were decked out already (in all manner of
different surplices, boring, fancy, cool, “lacy”, pleated, wrinkled, etc.) and
were listening to the instructions on how to process in. I thought that things were about to get
going, but, alas, that wasn’t meant to be.
As 6:20, and 6:30, and 6:40 rolled past, I wondered when things would
finally get going. And then, the
glorious moment, the organ started rumbling through the massive, arched, stone
ceiling and a female cantor started singing.
The organ swelled and the woman chanted away with a spectacular voice –
all these crazy guys called seminarians started grinning – and the line started
forming. Here we go!
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| Seminarians at the rear of the Basilica after Mass |
There were a few tv
screens, showing what was happening up above, down in the crypt and I was
stunned to see that the seminarians had reached the altar when I started moving
down the line. That line of seminarians
– 2 by 2 – stretched from the crypt, through the reasonably large chapel down
there, twisted up the staircase to the main basilica, crept down the stairs,
through the Basilica, wound through the crowd, and back towards the main
altar. Of course, that is the route that
I slowly made my way along over the next
20 minutes or so, and, as last year, it was a magnificent moment. I don’t know why it is so cool, but it is
wonderful to be processing up that beautiful basilica, grinning along with the
organ/choir which was roaring out Crown Him with Many Crowns. Everything was spectacular as we climbed up
the stairs, reverenced the altar, and wrapped through the sanctuary to our
seats which were apparently off to the side.
I was pretty hopeful as I saw that the section that I was going to was
almost full, yes, thought I, I’ll get a seat in the front of the crowd where I
can see! The guys in front of me moved
along into this section, and then they gently pointed me to go to the outside
of this area, about as far as you could get from the front of the crowd of
guys, about as fat as you could get from being able to see anything (TV or
altar), behind a pillar, and without a chair.
Bummer thought I, can’t see, can’t sit…
I guess I thought I was tough, so I just stood there, singing away
(having pulled the worship-aid out of my sleeve), and thinking that I would
outlast the rest of the guys standing there.
Well, my legs/feet started hurting much more quickly than I was hoping,
and I began to hope that they would move us over to the section where there
were still empty seats. Thankfully, that
is exactly what they did, and thankfully, though I was in the back of this
section, it turned out alright because the guy in front of me was short and so
I could see the TV (and the back-side of the high altar). I couldn’t see anything first-hand, but I
could see it on the screen pretty well, and I could hear everything. So, to make a long story short, the
procession was fantastic, the music beautiful, the seating better than last
year, and overall everything worked out pretty well.
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| View of the rear of the high altar in the Basilica after Mass |
Of course, Mass continued.
The music continued to be beautiful with the choir chanting at the
appropriate places adding splendor and glory to the Mass. But, I think I should also mention the
homily, which was also pretty amazing.
The Gospel for that Mass was the adulterous woman whom the Pharisees
brought to Jesus and asked if they should stone her. Of course, Jesus tells them that whichever
one of them hasn’t sinned themselves could throw the first stone. Well, they are all sinners, so off they go,
unable to stone the woman, and Jesus, the only sinless one present, tells the
woman that He won’t persecute her either but that she should sin no more. I wondered at the time how Sean Cardinal O'Malley would work this Gospel into
his homily. Well, he didn’t have to work
too hard because this is exactly, as I failed to notice, what Pope Francis has
been telling us ever since he was elected.
To fix the atrocities of our culture we have to fix the entire culture. We can’t just run out into the world
lambasting the evil that is abortion without fixing the problems that lead to
many of them. Abortion, as the cardinal explained, happens much of the
time because some poor girl has made a bad decision and is stuck in a position
where she is pregnant, but doesn’t see any way to have the baby. She’s poor, or on her own, or having been
deserted by the man who should be taking care of her, and she doesn’t see any
other option. I really hadn’t thought
about abortion this way before: I’m more of the stand out in the cold, yelling
“hey, hey, ho, ho – Row-v-Wade has got to go!”, kind of guy. But here it finally hit me what Pope Francis
has been trying to tell the world. The
faith must permeate our entire lives, it must cause us to do more than protest
the evils that are present in our culture, but to actively try to fix them, to
help the people that feel like they are forced to do what they are doing. Yes, we must stand up against abortion; we
can’t forget to tell people that it is evil, but we must also live out our
faith, and love and forgive those who are in that field. Don’t think my verve to eliminate abortion
has lessened one bit, but my view has been enlargened, the faith has to force
us to do crazy things, including forgive our enemies. Forgiveness doesn’t mean saying that sin
isn’t sin, but it does mean showing sinners love not hate. Hmmm… Pope Francis continues to hit hard. (Probably, you'd be better off listening to the homily in the video embedded below rather than listening to my sad summary of it...)
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| View looking up from my seat in the Basilica - yeah, awesome! |
Anyway, Mass continued spectacularly, but I wanted to let
you guys know how it was a pretty awesome learning experience as well as just
an awesome experience in general. I got
to talk about it with the other guys, and talk some more about that
homily. Pretty cool! Anyway, Tuesday ended with the long ride back
to our hotel, the short trip back to our hotel (during which, being the
smallest guy in the van, I volunteered to sit on the floor because we ran out
of room), and then some pizza/soda. Good
times!
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| Crowds in the Basilica after Mass |
Yours truly is visible at 11:36 and 17:15 (if you are interested in that sort of thing) and the homily begins at 57:50 (you should be interested in that sort of thing).
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