This weekend, my wife and I were at a little town on a river in eastern Virginia. The parish church probably sat 200 people and had only one Mass on Sunday morning because the priest has to say Mass at a mission parish early in the day.
Here's some highlights:
Mass was packed and had people standing in the lobby. We arrived about 15 minutes early and made it just in time to find two seats in the choir loft (no choir in the loft - just additional seating.)
Mass was 35 minutes long with full music.
About 50% of the attendees were over 70.
There's a bunch of devotional groups at this parish. There's a glass-encased Infant of Prague outside, there's a Marian group, among others. It was nice to see that even though Mass was brief, the parish seems to have a strong devotional life.
The inscription on base of the Infant of Prague statue read "Get this silly outfit off me!"
The organ had full tremolo on. I turned to my wife and said "Hot dog!" and she said "Where are my roller skates?"
There were many, many Bush/Cheney stickers on cars in the lot.
There were big signs in the lobby area that said "You can't be Pro-Choice and Catholic!"
Hey John you got an email address anymore?
that church sounds awesome, i'd love to visit it.