Catholic Mass in Russia

Hey everyone, I might to post yesterday, but the internet was unfortunately slow that day and I just ran out of time. But don't worry I've got plenty today.

I wanted to do a nice post on the Mass I attended last Sunday here in Vladimir. I wrote down many things in my journal, which I forgot today, so 'I'll my best to remember.

The first thing I want to say is that this Church is Awesome! I mean if you had brought me there blindfolded I would have thought we were in Rome. It was Catholic down to the later and very enjoyable. To start off the Church itself is beautiful, its not too big or very extravagant, its just beautiful. Its all stone and the pews have these very high backs, so you can only see the heads of the people in front of you (which I thought was strange). Walking in the door, you automatically notice the Tabernacle, mainly because its right in the center of the Church behind the altar(awesome). You have a statue of Mary on the left and one of Christ on the right. (To the people from Maryland, the statue of Mary is the same as the one in our apartment, crown and all, so that was cool). When I walked in for Mass everyone was saying the rosary, that was great, so I joined in as best I could (I had forgotten my prayer sheet). Next, before Mass started, they handed out the hymnal, which to my delight was filled with Latin! I'm talking, the Our Father, the Creed, and even the Pangae Lingua, all the good stuff (In Russian as well).

The Mass began with the Priest, his Deacons, and altar boys preceding in, with thurabel (pardon my spelling, you know the incense thing) The Mass was great, the Liturgy was sung and although I couldn't understand the homily I definitely heard the word love several times. What else ... Well the thurabel was used throughout the whole Mass, we sung the Our Father, oh and everyone received Communion on the tongue and the Deacon held the plate underneath you to protect the Host. Then at the end we sang the Salve Regina. So all in all it was great.

I'm also told by my host Babushka, that the Priest speaks English, which makes me happy, since I don't have to worry about wondering how I would talk to him, especially about important stuff.