Infant of Prague Shrine and Ft. Monroe

On the last dy of our vacation Rocky and I stopped at the Infant of Prague shrine in Wakefield, Virginia. It's a sweet county church with an antique three foot tall Infant and it's right across the street from Plantation nuts and the famous Virginia Diner. On Saturday we went to Fort Monroe to look at the Casemate museum. We went to vigil Mass at St. Joseph's which is less than a mile from the Fort. Mass was well, pretty much what you'd expect for the Richmond diocese. St. Joseph was a Redemptorist parish but yesterday was the order's last day in Tidewater Virginia. The Redemptorist parishes including the historic St. Mary's Star of the Sea, which is on the Fort have been given to the care of diocessan priests.

Father's homily was a farewell speech and that was fine-- the order has been in Virginia since 1860 afterall but he adlibbed for the rest of the Mass which seems to be a Redemptorist thing, or maybe its a generational thing because I don't recall meeting a Redemptorist under the age of 50 for ages now. Oh Father's please just stick to the missal. It's not your Mass, it's not your people's Mass, it's God's Mass. The Novus Ordo may not be pretty but when you add stuff to the liturgy or detract you are not doing a beneficial thing.

At any rate, the parishoners are nice people. They are used to strangers and go out of their way to be friendly. They get tourists and Army personel all the time. After Mass we went to Buckroe Beach and headed back to Williasmburg for dinner.