ROAMIN'
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Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
May 2005

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HOLY TRINITY, ATWATER

Not "Roman," but Reverent

Atwater is an interesting place, a part of Los Angeles nestled between the Los Angeles River and the Glendale city limits. Its inhabitants include Cubans, Filipinos, Mexicans, Koreans, and Catholic Copts; these latter have their own parish there, where this writer once attended a solemn liturgy and was privileged to meet the Catholic Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt afterward.

But the former three groups and a large number of Anglos attend the parish of Holy Trinity, located at 3222 Boyce Avenue. There I went for the Palm Sunday Mass at 11:30 a.m. on March 20. Although Holy Trinity has a simple, modified Spanish structure outside, the interior is of more interest. There are a number of large statues, but these were invisible, covered with the purple "array" proper to Lent. Although the altar rail is gone, the sanctuary retains its traditional orientation, with the tabernacle in the center. The presence of Adoremus hymnals (containing traditional hymns and chants) and the notices in the bulletin of thrice-weekly Eucharistic adoration, and devotions to Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the Sacred Heart, gave notice that Holy Trinity is a parish of deep spirituality.

Despite the hymnals, a suited cantor rehearsed the congregation — very mixed ethnically, the Anglos in its midst tending to be older — in singing the hymns, which were on a song sheet. Thus prepared, when the sanctuary party, made up of Father Thomas Peacha, the pastor, Father James McElroy, the senior priest, two altar boys, and an altar girl, processed down the nave, the faithful sang a song called, "Give Praise to the Lord of All Earth," in alternating English and Spanish verses. Once arrived at their places in the sanctuary, the two priests blessed a pile of palms, after which the Mass itself began.

The people were very fervent, and the liturgy followed the missal. A suited lector read the first reading, Isaiah 50:4-7. The second reading, after the Responsorial Psalm, was Philippians 2: 6-11, in which St. Paul tells us that Christ triumphed through humbling Himself. The Gospel was St. Matthew's Passion, recited as a dialogue, with Father McElroy saying the words of Christ and the two sides of the aisle taking the other parts in turn. In his homily, Father McElroy warned us that, although the people of Jerusalem had welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday, most were only too glad to cry, "crucify Him!" on Good Friday. He counseled us not to do the same.

The offertory was accompanied by a hymn I had not heard before, called "Send in Your Spirit." While the people sang this, Father McElroy performed the offertory, setting up a number of pewter chalices, in accordance with the latest legislation from Rome, which forbids the iced-tea pitchers so beloved of Cardinal Mahony. Eucharistic Prayer III was used, and the number of extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist was kept to manageable numbers, primarily to commune the people from the chalice. As the congregation received, many on the tongue, Katawan Ni Kristo, "Body of Christ," was sung — a Tagalog hymn which featured English verses alongside the Tagalog chorus.

Communion over, the Mass came fairly quickly to its end. As a last announcement before recessing, Father McElroy alerted us that blessed palms were now available.

While not in any sense extravagant or very "Roman," the Mass at Holy Trinity was nevertheless a most fervently offered Mass, with the congregation seeming to be focused on the Blessed Sacrament from the moment of its transubstantiation — an attitude shared by the priests on the altar. There were no doughnuts, coffee, or other refreshments I could see afterwards.

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