Sunday, August 16, 2009

Blessed Sacrament Church, Stowe, VT

After a pretty flawless journey yesterday, here I am with Father Benedict, the very pro-Pope-of-the-same-name pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church here in Stowe.




Last night we went to an Italian restaurant owned by some parishioners so a plug is in order: Trattoria la festa. It was lovely to see a packed Italian restaurant with a great atmosphere and such friendly hosts who were delighted to have their parish priest and his friend.

Here's the church set up for Mass (very few people in the photo, but by the time Mass started it was standing room only, with lots of holidaymakers - sorry, vacationers - in attendance):

Here it's 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time rather than Assumption which was transferred to today in England & Wales. Here the feast was kept on 15th but the obligation is lifted when it falls on a Saturday.

So Father Ben had the opportunity to preach again on the Eucharist, and did so with great eloquence and fervour. He called to mind the reply of Billy Graham who, when asked what he would do if Jesus appeared before him now, replied that he would fall to his knees and worship. And so we should avoid all over-familiarity with the Lord truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, to which the parish here in Stowe is dedicated.

The Church is built on the site of a farm where the companion of Blessed Damien of Molakai (to be canonised this October), Ira Dutton who became Brother Joseph, was born. The outside of the church is decorated with frescoes commemorating the missionary work of these two holy men in Molakai, Hawaii. Here you can see depictions of the Holy Mass and hearing confessions.




Finally, here's the presbytery. In America, patriotism is seen as a good thing. So the flag flies proudly.


More later...

4 comments:

  1. How naughty of Fr. Benedict :-D not to post pics of those murals before. I distinctly remember saying something to him regards Br. Joseph at the time he got posted to Stowe.

    NOOOOOOOOOOO....it took his good friend, Fr. Stretch, to come all the way from England to take them.

    Ira Dutton is mentioned in one of Maria von Trapp's books. When the Trapps first came to Stowe an "old timer," who knew Br. Dutton personally told her about him. How cool that Fr. Ben's church is built on the site of his farm!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fr Ben responds: he doesn't have a camera! Incredible as it may seem.

    ReplyDelete
  3. DOESN'T HAVE A CAMERA?! DOESN'T HAVE A CAMERA?! I thought by now every Tom, Dick, and Harry had a camera! At least everyone will know what to get him for Christmas. [Geez, the little vivitar I got a few years ago on sale for 100 bucks (reg. price @140) 6 megapixels WITH video clip capability does just fine for my purposes. Geez, he could gets some real bargains next time he goes to NYC. Please tell me his computer doesn't run CP/M still.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Enjoy your holiday. Hope you have good rest and look forward to hearing more from you when you return.

    ReplyDelete

Please avoid being 'anonymous' if at all possible.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...