I’m visiting Calgary, Alberta this week for a work-related purpose.  Since I had to travel early Sunday morning, I missed the Mass that I normally attend with my family.  Fortunately, sites like masstimes.org make it easy to find a Mass to attend in another location, even if that location is in another country!  During my web search for a church, I noticed that Calgary has a cathedral, and a Mass relatively late on Sunday evening.  Perfect!  Well, it was a nice building, and the people were nice enough, but it definitely wasn’t perfect.

Maybe I’m just spoiled, but I’m accustomed to a fair amount of reverence.  The pianist, although a very good musician, sounded like he was playing show tunes.  It was difficult to pay attention to the Mass during musical pieces.  But the most frustrating part of Mass at this Canadian church was the lack of reverence shown to Jesus himself.  People crossed the altar back and forth at will without even a nod, and passed in front of the tabernacle without even giving it a second glance.  Most people seemed shocked when I knelt after the Holy, Holy, Holy, and remained there until the great Amen.  Immediately after the Lamb of God, people sat down and waited until time to get up for communion.

I know that each diocese has its own idiosyncrasies, but from what I saw, this one is just plain irreverent.  Perhaps I shouldn’t paint all Calgary Catholics with the same brush, but it seems unlikely that the Masses held at the cathedral where the bishop resides are less reverent than the Masses in the suburbs.

On a positive note, it’s nice to be Catholic, and to be able to go to church anywhere in the world and hear the same readings.  While I felt a little uncomfortable, I still felt at home.  And Calgary is actually a very nice city.  There’s great Indian food to be had!