The Basilica of Mary, Queen of the Universe

Sunday morning was mainly taken up by my visit to the local Church to DisneyWorld - The Basilica of Mary, Queen of the Universe. This church is unusual in that it is not a Parish Church, but was specially set-up to accommodate the Catholic tourists who visit Disney and the other parks and sites around Orlando.

The Sanctuary at Mary, Queen of the Universe

Travelling to Mass

After breakfast Drew headed back to the room and I went straight down to the ground floor of the hotel and out the front door. The valet service there was ready to call a taxi immediately and we were on route straight away. The drive was just over 10 miles and is marked on the map below:

This early on a Sunday morning the roads were not busy, so having left at 8.30am I got to the church at 8.45am.

Outside the Basilica

The Basilica and the grounds are quite remarkable. It has the biggest church car park I have ever seen. The area includes two lovely fountains, there was me not thinking about their beauty but about who has to keep them clean and tidy when the basilica is not a parish church! It is hard enough to get people to help in the church grounds when they are small!

 The grounds include a large Gift Shop with the biggest selection of religious books and ornaments you could imagine. Including some huge Lawn and Garden religious ornaments! 

Next to the shop is the Museum with art and memorials about the Shrine, including the vestments Pope St. John Paul the Second who gave them to the shrine when he was made patron of its development. 

The next building has this lovely sign:

clearly something every parish could enjoy, free coffee and doughnuts (my fingers won't let me type the US spelling) for after Mass.


Next to the Hall where the coffee and doughnuts would be later is a lovely rosary walk, which is peaceful and prayerful. In addition their is an external Stations of the Cross. So the Church compound was full of people praying long before Mass began. 



The entrance to the Church depicts Jesus as the Good Shepherd carrying the lost sheep over his shoulders. It is an image I love as it reminds me of my own need to put my trust in Jesus who will bring me back safely to his Father.

Mass

Having gone into the Church and prayed for half an hour before Mass it was a delight to see the Church filling up with people from many races and cultures. The Church could seat 750 and at the 9.30am Mass there were at least 500 in attendance, maybe more. There had been an earlier Mass (7.30am) and were to be two more later in the day. Clearly the ministry to tourists is thriving. 

Mass began with the rousing singing of a hymn with words to the tune of the European National Anthem (The ode to joy). Seemed strange to be singing a song to this tune in the US when my own country is planning to exit the European Union!! 

The opening prayer of the Mass said:

Show favour, O Lord, to your servants
and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace,
that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity,
they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands.

So here I am having a relaxing break and being reminded that at every moment, wherever I am the Lord is loving me into his grace, helping me to turn again and renew my commitment and love to him, thank you Lord.

As ever when here in the US I note the difference between the readings in the US translation and that of the translation with which I grew up being familiar. Today, the second reading was from St Paul's Letter to the Romans (Romans 8:26-27) and we heard:

Brothers and sisters: The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the holy ones according to God's will.

Whereas I would have expected:

The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.

It is interesting how aid and help, two words being used to translate the same bit of Greek, mean very different things for me. The latter with a far more positive context. I ask help from a friend, I ask aid from a government or charity. And so I reflect that I am here in silence before the Lord and: "the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words". It is thus with confidence that I come to the end of Mass knowing that God is doing his work in me and I am here to respond in faith and truth, and it is he who will do all good things in me.

It was nice as we left Mass to have the time to greet fellow worshippers, a Brazilian couple set next to me and introduced themselves after Mass, behind me were a family from Oregon, so the community of worshippers had really come from far and wide.

Returning to the Grand Floridian

Another thing the Basilica provided which is not common in my experience of churches elsewhere in this country or Europe - was its own Taxi Rank. This had five taxis lined up and ready. So that those going to the car park, picture below, could head off

while others, like me were able to get a taxi back to my hotel. 

The journey from the church took longer than the travel there, about 45 minutes, as the streets were now full of traffic, but Luis, my Puerto Rican driver was able to give me chance to practice my Spanish, a language I have been learning since retirement. He told me about his seven children and his three grandchildren. Luckily the course I had been following spent a long time on family links including grandfather (abulelo) and their grandchildren (nietos).

I was greeted by one of the welcomers, who looked well in his dress suit and plus fours.

Back at the Grand Floridian

While I had been away Drew had gone to the fitness centre in the resort complex. This replaced his normal Sunday practice of running up to Penrhos Cutting and back. 

Drew returned from his run just about when I returned from Mass - he was slightly warm, so showered and dressed before we headed out again - but that is for another blog post.