Adventure at Our Lady of Victory Basilica

 

On Assumption Thursday, a couple of days ago, I found myself at Our Lady of Victory Basilica, pictured above. It is one of my favorite places in the world. For one thing, things always happen to me when I am there.

Everyone has places like that. It does not have to be some place exalted, either. Another place where things always happen to me is Gates Circle Liquor. It is one reason I do not go there that often. Something always happens to me and you are not always in the mood for that.

But anyway. I was in OLV for Assumption. By the way that is my own photo at the top of this post! I never get over that place.

It was a great experience from the word go, this being Buffalo.

The church was crowded, for one thing. I remember not long ago when holy days were not crowded. It says something about how committed people are these days. It is really a new era.

The people who were there — and there were tons of them, you need tons to build critical mass in massive Our Lady of Victory — were really with the program, too. They were alert and paying attention and clearly involved and reverent. These are the people who made it through Covid and through the priest scandal and through various rounds of church closings and we are still with it, damn the torpedoes. It wasn’t all old people either. I mean, middle of the day, you get a lot of retired folks, however young people are very involved and it is great to see. Which reminds me, there was one baby who kept yelling “Amen!” LOL!

So… what happened to me? I told you things always happen to me.

I ran into my childhood friend Patricia Murphy!

Patricia lived down the street from me. She and her sister Sally were at the Mass and they came over and said hello to me afterwards. Sally, whom I love, we run into each other now and then. Always under insane circumstances — like once, our congregation at St. Anthony’s was doing a procession, for Corpus Christi or something like that. And Sally happened to be passing in her car. And she pulled over and parked and got out and joined the procession! And came back to church and prayed with us afterwards. What a cool person.

But Patricia, I had not seen her in I do not know how long. Decades. Maybe not since I was a kid. used to go over to the Murphys' when we were kids. Patricia was more or less my age and I would spend hours over there with her. That is another story for another day. It is a beautiful story. Maybe I will tell it tomorrow.

But today, what a joy it was to see her! We are going to reconnect online.

Quick other story, because it is just so Buffalo.

The organist at Our Lady of Victory, God love him, did “Immaculate Mary” as the opening hymn and “Hail, Holy Queen” as the closing. Note to non-Catholics … those are THE two hymns you have to sing when it is a Mary feast.

However fie on the organist, he cut us off after one single verse of “Hail Holy Queen.” SO disappointing! This is a magnificent hymn — it ranks up there with “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” as the Catholic national anthem — and everyone loves singing it. It is hard to find a decent YouTube video of it. They are all too stodgy, too kitschy, too amateur, too something. However here is one that seems to date to today. I am not sure where it was in the world, but look at the choir singers’ faces. They love it!

We loved singing it today too at Our Lady of Victory. The girl in the pew in front of me was singing along too. She had a great voice. I heard her singing the Communion hymn, “Gift of Finest Wheat.” That is not a hymn I really know or care for, so I was not singing it, however I heard her singing it, and she sounded great.

When we came to the disappointing early end of “Hail, Holy Queen” there was a moment before the organist began playing his recessional. And I took that moment to complain.

I said to this lady: “I wanted to sing the second verse!”

She said: “So did I! I wanted to sing it, too!”

I said: “You have a beautiful voice. I heard you singing ‘Gift of Finest Wheat.’”

She said: “Thank you!”

I yakked on: “I sing at St. Anthony’s, with the ladies’ group there. If you ever wanted to join us, you would be most welcome.”

She said: “Oh, I couldn’t sing Latin.”

I was wearing a veil which is probably how she figured Latin might come into this.

I said. “You just did!”

She stared at me.

I sang, “Salve, salve, salve Regina!”

Ha, ha! That is of course the rousing last line of "Hail, Holy Queen."

She will likely never join our group at St. Anthony’s. However we shared a laugh. 

And as far as her joining our group, you never know.

You never, never know!