St. Joseph’s

For Church Sunday, today I offer St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Ellinwood (Barton County.) In my late teens and early 20s, I attended this church often with a boy from Ellinwood.

I grew up in a Mennonite Church where simple and plain was the rule. The backdrop behind our minister was a simple cross (no crucified Jesus), which was set out an inch from the wall with a red light glowing behind it.

So, I was a little freaked out, stepping into the Catholic Church with all the statues of Mary and Joseph and Jesus and everyone else and all the color and the gold and paintings and stained glass and Stations of the Cross. Catholics know how to dress up a church.

And wine? For our twice-a-year communion, Mennonites sipped grape juice and ate one-inch squares of Wonder bread.

Once I got over the initial culture shock, I liked going into St. Joseph’s on winter Saturday evenings, when the world was dark and the church was lit, but chilly. At night the pews creaked and every sound echoed.

Before the evening mass, the women knelt at the pews, praying:

Hail Mary, full of grace.
Our Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.