Worshiping on the road; this was a first

When my wife and I travel I often like to post stories about our worship experiences.  From our recent vacation in June in both N. Carolina and Alabama all experiences were very good.  I love the fact that our Catholic faith places us in the Mass which mostly looks the same from place to place and since the implementation of the New Roman Missal, it certainly sounds the same.  Today, as we continue to marvel in the celebration of the birth of our new grandson, Wendy and I certainly wanted to attend Mass and give thanks for the blessing of Calvin.  We found a church about 10 miles from the hotel so off we went.  You may also recall that finding a Catholic Church in these parts, while not overly difficult, they are not usually right next door.

Because of the direction this post is about to go, I'm not going to elaborate on where or what the name of the Church is.  Suffice to say it is a beautiful Church, majestically constructed with awesome stained glass windows.  It also had a great choir.  My wife and I soon found out that the parish is also kicking off a parish mission in the week ahead so there was some mention of an introduction to the retreat at Mass today.

I have heard of this before but have honestly not witnessed this until today.  The presider, after brief remarks, gave up the ambo to the person directing the retreat.  I will just say she was introduced as a nun who looked far like anything that resembles a nun.  I am refering to manner of dress.  Now the Deacon/liturgist in me is already thinking, well, it is indeed important to get the retreat off to a great start so ok.  But I immediately recognized the nun as preaching on today's Gospel.  Yep, she made some attempt to tie it to the retreat but she was in full blown exegesis using life imagery with implications for our day.  Before you label me as a liturgy Nazi, it is clear in Canon Law and the rubrics of the Mass that a nun, and in this case in professional business attire, is not to preach.  Yes, reflections are allowed where necessary, like if there is no Priest and a communion service is necessary, but here we have a Presider, a Priest, who only mentioned very few words about the Gospel.

Just to be clear; the purpose of this post is to affirm many of you who tell me here and on FB, email, etc. that this stuff goes on.  I have never really witnessed it.  And let me be even more crystal clear; I do not suspect anything evil in what I witnessed; in fact I would say all intentions are more than sincere.  I sincerely want everyone out there to recognize that no, nuns or lay people or anyone other than a Bishop, Priest and a Deacon can deliver a homily.  Period.  Stop.

Because this unnamed Church was so beautiful and the people so friendly and participatory in the worship, I wish them only the most richest of God's blessings. And I truly trust that the upcoming parish mission bears much fruit.