Attending Mass on Vacation: Our Five Most Memorable Experiences

Vacation is often a time when Catholic families forego attending weekly Mass due to inconvenience or lack of familiarity.  However, we make a point of attending Mass when traveling and have had some pretty amazing experiences along the way – even when the service isn’t even in English.  By attending Mass, we have the opportunity to see how Catholics around the world are united by this weekly ritual, which is not something you can generally experience by merely touring a church or cathedral.

Attending Mass while on vacation requires advance planning, especially when we are traveling with or visiting non-Catholics.  We regularly consult Mass Times online before our trip to find Mass schedules for churches near by our accommodations.  The Mass Times site has helped us locate a services for Easter Mass in Toronto, near a work retreat in Columbus, a few blocks from our friends’ Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan and a newly constructed church in Frederick, Maryland.  One of the most unusual Mass experiences was at Basilica of Mary, Queen of the Universe in Orlando.  The Basilica is not a parish and does not have weekly bulletins but was built to service Catholics tourists.  It’s congregation is almost entirely made of up tourists each week.

Following our favor of fives, here are the five most memorable Catholic churches we visited around the world.

#1: Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in Goa

The time we attended Mass in Goa under the protection of armed guards made me realize that I too often take religious freedom for granted.  We spent Christmas 2006 in Goa, where a terrorist alert was issued indicating that Al Qaeda was targeting the area for an attack on tourists.  The church where we attended Midnight Mass was heavily protected due to the large gathering of Catholics.  Luckily, no attacks occurred, but that truly an unforgettable experience.

#2: Saint Anthony’s Friary Church and the Holy Ghost Church in Bangalore

Spending Holy Week in Bangalore was another unforgettable experience.  While Hinduism is the most common religion in India, there are also almost 20 million Catholics.  Holy Week services at our church at home are well attended but the church is not packed.  If you arrive 20 minutes early on Easter Sunday, you are pretty much guaranteed a seat.  The services we attended in India gave “standing room only” a new meaning.  Multiple services are held almost hourly in different languages, and hundreds of chairs are set up outside with large screens live video streaming the Mass.  We attended Holy Week services at Holy Ghost Church and Saint Anthony’s Friary Church.  We arrived at least 30 minutes before each service began to park and then wait outside the doors for the prior service to finish.  As soon as the prior Mass ended, people rush in to find a seat.  Nonetheless, everyone is dressed up and reverent and patient with the large crowds.  The Masses we attended in India were all in English but celebrated with very different music and crowds than we were accustomed to.

#3: Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of Saint John the Baptist in San Juan

Attending Mass on vacation often includes language barrier issues.  While honeymooning in Puerto Rico, my husband and I attended Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of Saint John the Baptist, one of the oldest cathedrals in the Americas and conveniently located in Old San Juan just across the street from our hotel.  The entire Mass was in Spanish, and while we didn’t understand the exact words being said, we could follow along during the readings, songs, prayers and homily.  The service gave us the opportunity to quietly reflect – a rare opportunity in the excitement of the past few weeks.

Our experience in San Juan helped us realize that attending Mass in another language can be quite special as well.  On a recent trip to the D.C. area, the most convenient Sunday Mass for us to attend happened to be in Spanish.  Due to our scheduling Jenga necessary to fit in everything we had planned, we decided that the timing was more important than attending Mass in English.  We forewarned our boys, but our two year old daughter was quite confused and stated rather loudly at a quiet moment of the service that she did not understand what they were saying.

#4: St. Peter’s Parish in Akureyri, Iceland

Our visit to St. Peter’s Parish in Iceland was definitely an experience we will never forget.  The entire population of Iceland is only about 330,000, and the country has about 12,000 Catholics, seven Catholic churches and about nine priests.  We were lucky that we stayed in Akureyri, the second largest metropolitan area outside of Reykjavik (with a population of 17,000) because one of the few churches outside Reykjavik is located here.  St. Peter’s is located in a building the size of a house.  The sanctuary was comparable to a large living room and seated maybe 25-30.  The priest flew in from Reykjavik for  Sunday Mass, which was said in Icelandic.  After the service, we were invited to the church hall in the basement for coffee and pastries.  The priest could not attend because he was headed to the airport for another Mass.  Our kids never want to miss our church’s monthly Donut Sunday and were thrilled to find a similar tradition in Iceland.  We sat with a few parishioners and had lovely chats.  My daughter was mesmerized by an older gentleman with a long white beard who she was convinced must be Santa.  We were pretty far north, after all.

#5: St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City

We have had some pretty extraordinary experiences even during “typical” English Masses.   While attending Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, my mom and I were fortunate to hear Archbishop Edward Egan say Mass.  Our visit was just a few months after Egan participated in the 2005 papal conclave.  He served as Archbishop until his retirement in 2009 and died a few years later in 2015.

When I was leaving for a recent work trip, my daughter reminded me that I needed to go to church in Phoenix.  I wasn’t able to fit Mass into my short, packed, mid-week trip, but was thrilled that she sees travel and Mass to be intertwined.  Our tradition of attending Mass on vacation gives us the opportunity to spend an hour not as tourists but as fellow worshipers.  Despite different songs, prayers and even languages, we are united with Catholics all around the world in our weekly celebration.  This cultural and spiritual experience only enhances our travels.