Mass in Nantucket

This is the Catholic Church in Nantucket, three blocks from where we are staying. It didn't take more than a few seconds to notice that every building, even the Church, is sided in shingles that are allowed to gray naturally, in keeping with the historic bylaws of the island.

Just look at this house, and you will see that it, too, is sided with shingles that give it that natural aged look, so sought after by the locals.

Gotta try really hard not to use buildings for landmarks here, because they are all the same colour! Actually, they allow seven different colours for trim and clapboard siding, but most people just seem to prefer shingles.

Now here is a sign I can relate to! This is posted right inside the church, in the doors of the main entrance.


The back of the church has several statues. I'm not familiar with which saint this one depicts.

The Church has a choir loft, but I'm not sure if it is used any more. There is a choir area to the left of the sanctuary, in keeping with true Vatican II style.

The Tabernacle is off to the side of the sanctuary, but at least it's at the front of the Church, and not shoved off into a side chapel somewhere. Still, though it made me think that poor Jesus is relegated to second place, especially when I saw that the EMHC were used to offer the Eucharist to the people while one of the two priests gave out the Precious Blood. True, there were probably eighty people at daily Mass, more than I have ever seen, with two EMHC serving alongside of two priests, but is that really an extraordinary situation? Not having the EMHC may have delayed Mass by about two minutes, and since most people here are on vacation with no schedules, I found it difficult to rationalize their use at all.

We used the dreaded OCP hymnals called "Breaking Bread," something we don't see in my neck of the woods in Canada. Now that I have been exposed to these mundane songs that don't really qualify as hymns, I can really sympathize with those who have to suffer through them. It's very tempting to just close the hymnal and pray for better use of liturgical music, and in fact, I did just that.

One good thiing is that the church is open until 7 PM at night, for anyone who wants to go in and pray before the Tabernacle. I plan on doing just that for every day I am here.