I had a wonderful time this past weekend in Chicago. I lived in Chicago until I was 12 years old. I feel such a strong spiritual connection to that city, a connection I don’t feel very strongly to southern California, where I grew up as a teenager. This past weekend was the first time I have celebrated mass in Chicago as a priest. What a wonderful treat it was being in the historic parish of St Stanislaus Kotska, whose iconic towers great commuters on the Kennedy expressway as they approach the downtown area of Chicago. In fact, it shocked me to be eating lunch in the dining room of the rectory to find that I was looking out directly on the cars on the expressway just a few yards away. Father Anthony Bus and the staff at St Stanislaus were incredibly welcoming to me as I preached the homily at five masses there this past weekend: two in Spanish and three in English. I even met a very kind lady at one of the masses who lived in the same neighborhood where I grew up. We spoke of Indian Boundary Park and in the historic Victorian homes that lined Lunt Avenue in Rogers Park. And it felt so wonderful praying for Cardinal Francis George, the great archbishop of Chicago, in the Eucharistic prayer. I did not have a very long stay in Chicago this time, but I will remember this visit and will treasure those masses I had at St Stanislaus. Hearing the stories of the Polish immigrants who founded St Stanislaus made me think of my German and Swedish ancestors who immigrated to Chicago in the late nineteenth century. It is good to feel connected in this world, isn’t it? So, even though I arrived in Chicago on the Greyhound bus at around noon on Saturday and was back on the Greyhound by 9:00 pm on Sunday (and that is after 5 masses in between!), all-in-all I had a great time in the Windy City.
Blue Line Subway tracks
Bicycles lined up ready to be used - outside subway station on Division Street
Spire of St Stansilaus Kotska Catholic Church from a distance
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