Photo: One of the churches Chiles visited. Credit: BBC
Adrian Chiles, a British Catholic, undertook an unusual Lenten discipline: he vowed to attend church every day for 46 days, and never the same church twice. What he planned to be a struggle surprised him as a positive, uplifting experience instead.
He related the joys and realizations he had–for instance, that some priests are better at worship than others–to the BBC.
From the magazine:
Spiritually, if I’m to really “connect” at Mass, I need a good priest to help me. And by good I mean, first and foremost, that they should look pleased to be there and pleased that we’re there. Often they speak of great “joy” while looking as bored as swimming pool attendants.
Secondly, with the liturgy – essentially the same script which they do day in, day out – the best of them find a way of making it sound fresh. As the inestimable Father Paul Addison of Our Lady of Delours in Kersal put it to me: “The clue’s in the word; communion is all about communicating.” And the same is obviously true of the sermon. One of the beauties of daily Mass is, frankly, its brevity – invariably less than half an hour. Sometimes the sermon is dispensed with altogether, but often it just takes the form of a thought or two, which I find much easier to get my head round than one of Sunday’s lengthy orations.
Have you ever taken up a similar discipline for Lent? Does his story intrigue you enough to make you want to try?
Posted by David Streever