The Grand Adventure: Part 7

But will it play in Peoria?

Yesterday morning we started in Peoria, IL. The night before I was tasked with finding a Catholic Church to attend, and after I realized that Peoria was its own diocese I opted for the cathedral on principle.

To say that the decision was fortuitous would be to vastly understate the situation. It turns out that we happened to stumble into the 90th anniversary celebration of Archbishop Fulton Sheen‘s ordination to the priesthood. We were shocked at the Mass. That is to say, it wildly exceeded our expectations in every possible way.

The bishop of Peoria celebrated an astoundingly beautiful Mass. The organ music was accompanied by horns as ancient music filled the church with a choir singing from a third-story level loft.  The processions were elaborate and the affair called for the now very rare Master of Ceremonies, as priests, acolytes, and countless altar servers filled the cathedral, flanked by Knights of Columbus with drawn swords.

What followed was what seemed like a very long drive through Iowa, and I was glad that my wife’s GPS-designated route took us through Minnesota, as I hadn’t initially anticipated that. Our original plan had been to make it to Rapid City, but that proved impossible, as we didn’t leave Peoria until mid-afternoon due to meeting up with a friend of mine (hi Doitle!) and the longer than expected Mass.

Unfortunately, I didn’t quite get what would have been the most interesting picture to date on the first day of our journey as we were in Pennsylvania. You can’t quite tell, but following the old truck on the overpass, is an Amish carriage. You can, sadly, only see the horse: