Another upcoming Church tour March 18

For those interested in Polish culture and Churches in Detroit, this is one for you. I saw a blurb in the church bulletin, and I thought I should share it with the internet.

Here is the schedule for March 18, 2012:

11:00-12:10- Mass at St. Hyacinth (Priest Janusz Iwan)(St. Joseph’s Day)*
12:10-12:30- Tour of St. Hyacinth -(Dennis Orlowski painting included)
12:30-1:00- Box Lunch at St. Hyacinth (call Stewart before tour with your choice of four types of Subway sandwiches—EAT HEALTHY!!)
1:00- Board Motor Coach and drive to St. Albertus (Terrific Driver is Henry)
1:10- 1:50- Tour St. Albertus with Teri -(Oldest Polish Church in Michigan)
2:00-2:45- Tour Sweetest Heart of Mary with Geri- (Detroit’s most beautiful church)(one of three Polish churches in a row on Canfield —The three churches include St. Albertus, “Sweetest Heart”, & St. Josephat.
3:00-3:50- Tour St. Florian Church In Hamtramck with Greg Kowalski
4:00-4:40- Shop at Srodek’s and Polish Art Center (possibly longer)
4:55-6:05- Dinner at the fantastic Polonia Restaurant in Hamtramck**
6:45- We should be back at St Hyacinth by 6:45 .

Check out the website for further information. All of these churches have been featured here before. Click on the labels to find the posts.

Mr. McMillin has some other interesting tours planned. Check out the rest of his offerings.

St. Joseph's Oktoberfest 2011 (and other upcoming events)

I'd like to let you all know about an upcoming event which promises to be fun and will help support historic St. Joseph in Detroit: Oktoberfest 2011

What can you do at Oktoberfest?

Enjoy delicious German food (various sausages, saur kraut, pickled beets, strudel, etc), beer, and wine. There will also be pop and cake and other delights.

Enjoy diverse styles of music.

• Brazil and Beyond http://www.brazilandbeyond.com/
• 60's pop hits performed by the Liras.
• German Accordian music (and some Polkas too) by Herb Langegger
• German Folk Dancing (Carpathia Dance Ensemble)
• Choral Festival in the Church featuring Renaissance Voices, Assumption Grotto Choir, and the St. Joseph's Men's Schola.
• David Zakria Band

Tour the church and/or go to Holy Mass

• 10am Sunday Mass in German
• 12pm Sunday Mass in English
• 5pm Saturday and Sunday Guided tours of the church
• 

There is also a raffle with some nice prizes including an Autographed Miguel Cabrera Jersey and dinner for 2 at any Restaurant in the area! Tickets are $1 or 6 got $5. Ask a parishioner if you would like to buy some.

And now, more bullets and links!

• Facebook event for Oktoberfest. Invite your friends!
• While you are in Detroit you can go to Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form at St. Hyacinth (FB event) on Sunday at 1pm.
• St. Joseph Blog posts from Oktoberfest 2010.
• THIS Sunday the 18th of September there is an EF Mass at St. Albertus.
  

Notes and News 3/16/2011

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in a while. I started a new job on February 28 and I am still working on the whole work/life balance. I have some activities that are finishing up so I should have more time for blogging soon.

I want to bring to your attention 2 events for this weekend:

• St. Joseph Day of Prayer at Historic St. Joseph in Detroit: There is a full day of Mass, music and devotions on Saturday March 19th for the Solemnity of St. Joseph. See the full schedule on the parish website.
• Monthly Mass at Historic St. Albertus: Mass will be celebrated in the Extraordinary form at Noon this Sunday March 20th. See the full mass schedule for 2011 here.

If there are any other special things going on at your parish or a Church you like to visit, send me an e-mail at 313churchblog @ gmail or put a note in the comments.

Virtual Tour from the Detroit News

I came across this virtual tour from this past summer on detnews.com. John T. Greilick and Michael Hodges take us to 12 churches around the city, 6 of them are Catholic and have been featured on this here blog previously

This Screen capture shows the format. The video itself is a narrated slide show with interesting information on the history, architecture, and art.


Featured Churches (with links to my posts when applicable):

• New Light Baptist
• Ebeneezer African Methodist Episcopal
• Pilgrim Church
• Messiah Church
• Christ Church of Detroit
• SS Peter and Paul Jesuit
• St. Aloysius
• Ste. Anne
• St. Albertus
• St. Josaphat
• Sweetest Heart of Mary
• First Congregational

Check it out if you so desire!

Return to St. Albertus

The second stop of the Church tour was St. Albertus. I have already posted on St. Abertus twice, but I have some more detailed photos and a few more tidbits to share. St. Albertus is a gothic Church in a medieval style full of color with its several painted plaster features including the stations of which one is shown here:

The church seats an astonishing 2500, but the pews have walls in the middle so you can't get from aisle to aisle through the pews except at the front or the back. This is because that is where the steam pipes run. ~3/4 of the Church has no basement or crawlspace so they couldn't go underneath.

According to the pamphlet they had in the church, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla was the main celebrant for a Mass on August 12 1976. 2 years, 2 months, and 4 days later he would be elected Pope. Here is the Stand-alone Altar (at which Wojtyla would have said mass) and the Main Altar/Reredos:

When the parish closed in 1990, the statue of St. Hedwig was sent to a St. Hedwig in Toledo. Apparently the statue in repose creeped out some of the parishioners down there and the Polish American Historical Site Association (PAHSA) was able to get her back. Here she lies underneath the Marian altar:

Your next opportunity to visit St Albertus is January 23rd at noon. Mass will be said in the Extraordinary Form by Fr. Borkowski. See the full Mass and event schedule here.

There are manifold other things I could say and pictures I could post, but I don't want to go on too long. I will make an attempt at organizing these and additional photos with informative captions in my Picasa album. This project will continue to develop, but we will see where this goes.

Quick Links:

• St Albertus/PAHSA official site: http://www.stalbertusdetroit.org/
• Masses and Events at St. Albertus in 2011
• My previous posts about St. Albertus: 1 2

Celebrate Christmas in the D!

UPDATED 12-24. See note for midnight Mass at the Cathedral with Apostolic Blessing. Note also that Midnight mass at St. Albertus will be in the ordinary form in English.

Many of the beautiful Churches in Detroit will be celebrating Holy Mass for Christmas. Maybe you could start a new tradition of visiting one of these beautiful Churches.

Christmas Midnight Masses:
St. Joseph: Midnight Mass in the Extraordinary Form (Tridentine Latin) *I will be at this one

Missa Brevis in G by W. A. Mozart
Ave Verum Corpus by William Byrd
sung and performed by the St. Joseph Cappella, Soloists, and Chamber Orchestra
(preludes begin at 11:30)

Old St. Mary's: Midnight Mass in the Ordinary Form (Novus Ordo)

Masses at 5:30 p.m. and 12:00 Midnight.

Music for Midnight Mass begins at 11:00 pm.

Carol Procession & Blessing of the Crib -11:40 p.m.

UPDATE: St. Albertus: Midnight Mass in the Ordinary Form (English) ( Not EF as originally reported. Thanks to AlexB for the tip.)

December 24 2010 - Pasterka - Midnight Mass doors open at 11:00pm

Assumption Grotto: Midnight Mass in the Extraordinary Form (Tridentine Latin)

12:00 midnight Tridentine Solemn orchestral Mass. (The 4:00p.m. and Midnight Masses do fulfill the obligation for Christmas). The Midnight Mass will feature Mozart’s Missa Longa and CPE Bach’s Magnificat.

Sacred Heart (Detroit) will have a 10:30 "Christmas Musical" and Midnight Mass. It says 11:30, I am not sure if that is when mass starts or if there is more music/carols at 11:30 with an actual mass start at 12.

I will update this post with more Midnight Mass opportunities during the week. If you have an suggestions or tips, leave them in the comments.

So I never really updated. Sorry, but here is a BIG one!

After Midnight Mass at the Cathedral, Archbishop Vigneron will impart the Apostolic Blessing!
The Michigan Catholic has the details. We're talking a plenary indulgence here folks, a great opportunity. Remember that the usual conditions apply. It's all in the article.

Church Tour January 7th!

Cyril and Methodius Slovak Catholic Church (Sterling Heights) is running a Detroit Church Tour on January 7th to benefit their Youth Choir. It features many churches about which I have written. I have added the links to the posts to their blurb below.

From saintcyrils.org:

JANUARY 7 * TOUR OF DETROIT AREA HISTORIC CHURCHES
On Friday, January 7th, we will spend a full day traveling to and visiting historic Churches in the Detroit area with our Youth Choir. All of the Churches will especially be decorated for the Christmas Season. The motorcoach will depart from the Shrine Of The Little Flower Parking Lot, located at the intersection of Woodward Avenue and 12 Mile Rd. in Royal Oak, at 10:00AM and return to Shrine Of The Little Flower at 9:00PM. Planned Churches to visit include Shrine Of the Little Flower, St. Albertus, Sweetest Heart Of Mary, St. Joseph, Old St. Mary, Holy Cross Hungarian, Holy Redeemer, St. Anne, St. Hedwig, and Assumption Grotto. There will be the opportunity to attend Holy Mass. Entire cost of the trip including a delicious lunch buffet in Mexican town is $35 per person. Reservation deadline is December 21. For reservations and more information, please call: Michael Semaan at (248) 250-6005.

I picked up a flier after mass today, and on that the deadline is written as December 29th, so you may have more time than written above. Of the 4 churches for which I haven't written a post, I haven't been to Hedwig (came close) or Holy Cross, so I am looking forward to getting to those.

If you can give up a whole Friday, this is a wonderful opportunity to see some of the History and Beauty for yourself up close. Plus, these Churches will all still be decked out in their Christmastide splendor. (Including St Joseph which I helped decorate :D) Consider attending!

St. Albertus Pictures

My friend DC took some pictures at St. Albertus. Here they are.

Holy Mass being celebrated in the Extraordinary form by Fr. Lee Acervo.


Here I stand in front of this fine edifice.