Church

I don't know what it is about the new churches that makes me hesitant to go there, but inside I don't feel the same as in an old one. The mass is the same, the same things are said but they are so plain, with little history, without statues. I would rather sit in an old church, even when it's cold, without heat. Maybe it's because in my formative years we lived next to such an old cathedral in the U.S. and it was like an extension of my grandparents house. We spent many hours there and the priest and nuns were our neighbors. I remember, in particular, one nun who I called Sister Vanilla because I couldn't pronounce her name and she would come over often to visit with my grandparents.

My own aunt, Sister Redempta, was in the Order of St. Joseph but she only visited every 3 or 5 years. Each time she would visit us she would come with cousin Sister Illuminata and it was always a happy occasion. In those days they wore the full "habit" and I was amazed at how coarse the material felt. Later in years her clothing changed to the more modern time and it always seemed strange not to see her in her old clothing. She died in 1976 and cousin, Sister Illuminata, in 1977. It was from an old address that she had in her address book that my search for relatives in Poland began. I wonder now what the two of them would say to me, now that I have returned to the land of our ancestors.

Maybe the old churches remind me of them, my grandparents, my mother, aunts, uncles and the times we spent in church together. In my first trip to Poland, to Golina where my grandfather came from I sat in the same pew as my grandfather and great grandmother and I felt I belolnged there. It's a wooden church and is still used for mass once each Sunday. There is a new church in Golina but it doesn't have the same feeling for me.. I prefer the old church.