Chicago Bus Tour Report

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News (January 13, 2013):

For the second year in a row, the Christmas week bus tour of historic churches in Chicago was an inspiration to all who participated. Every church toured was architecturally suited for hosting the Tridentine Mass, and in fact, two of them did!


Immaculate Conception Chapel, Mundelein Seminary
As expected, the liturgical highlight of the trip was the Tridentine High Mass at the glorious St. Mary of the Angels Church, photos of which have appeared in earlier editions of this column. Vespers was offered at the modest, modern Residence Chapel at Mundelein Seminary. A Tridentine Low Mass was offered on Friday morning at the left side altar in Mundelein’s main Immaculate Conception Chapel (above photo by Kyle Lee).

Additional architectural highlights included Marytown’s main chapel (pictured at left) and Sorrowful Mother Chapel; the art deco-ish Queen of All Saints Basilica (see below, first photo); St. Hyacinth Basilica; and of course St. John Cantius Church.

A particularly impressive site was Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica (see below, middle photo), a cavernous church with a barrel-vaulted ceiling best known as the site of the black-and-white video of a Solemn High Mass narrated by Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Our Lady of Sorrows sports an enormous High Altar, seemingly even wider than the one at Detroit’s St. Albertus Church, along with an incredible thirteen Side Altars. Two of those Side Altars are sizable ones against the left and right transept walls, almost as large as the High Altar; the others are contained in individual, themed chapels intended for the celebration of private Masses (see below, last photo).


Queen of All Saints Basilica


Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica


Side chapels inside Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica
If you would like to see some of these remarkable edifices yourself, set aside the week between Christmas and New Year’s for the 2013 edition of this tour.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 01/14 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (St. Hilary, Bishop, Confessor, & Doctor)
• Tue. 01/15 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Assumption-Windsor (St. Paul the First Hermit)
• Sat. 01/19 Noon: High Mass at St. Albertus (Wedding of Rich Kowalewski & Iwona Kur – All are invited)
• Sun. 01/20 Noon: High Mass at St. Albertus (Second Sunday After Epiphany)

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat (Detroit) and Assumption (Windsor) bulletin inserts for January 13, 2013. Hat tip to A.B., author of the column.]