Tacos!: St. Anne's Catholic Church, Sunday July 13th, 8:30am

St. Anne's Church, Santa Monica, CA

I usually don’t go to the early masses. For one, I like to sleep in. For another, most of the people seem like they’re still half asleep. But I had places to be on this Sunday and I had no other choice. 

I was excited to go to this church because I had heard about it several times. So I followed my GPS and I pulled into the parking lot. From here though I didn’t know where to go. None of the buildings were distinctly church-like. Luckily, someone else pulled into the parking lot behind me and I was able to follow them where I needed to go.

The fountain with the outdoor
church in the background

I walked through this large courtyard, past an outdoor church area (where I almost wished Mass would be held instead of inside), a fountain, and a school. Most Catholic churches in LA have a school attached so I knew I was headed in the right direction. Side note: the school had a really beautiful painting of the California Missions on the side of the building. It’s customary for every grade school kid in California to write a report about one of the missions at some point in their education, so it was nice to see a great painting of all of them on the wall. 

The California Missions painting on
the side of the school

I continued through the courtyard and eventually came to the end. It was a large open area. To my left was a cafeteria/food stand area where women were chatting and preparing food. Obviously the church wasn’t that way. To my right was a building that looked like a large party hall with an open door. It didn’t look like the entrance to the church, but it was really my only option so I walked over. Lo and behold, it was the church.

The inside looked as nondescript as the outside. It literally looked like someone took a large party hall, put some pews and an altar inside and called it a church. (Turns out there was a front door and I came through the back. Though the front door was pretty tucked away and if you weren’t looking for it you might pass right by it.) 

The interior of St. Anne's

Along one of the walls was a shrine and piled around it were flowers and candles of all kinds. This was an interesting and welcome addition to the church; it felt as if this church held some special significance because of the shrine’s presence. 

The church was very quiet but quite full. It almost seemed as if everyone was still trying to wake up, but of course, maybe that was just me projecting. In any case, it was a chill crowd. No one was too loud ever during the Mass and not many people sang when it came time to do so. As far as the music went, it was pretty simple: a couple cantors, a piano, an acoustic guitar, and a violin playing mostly traditional songs.

The wall where the shrine sat, piled with flowers.

The priest was African and had a strong accent but you could still understand him. You might have missed a word here and there, but it wasn’t a problem for the most part. For his homily, he talked about the history of the book of Isaiah and how it was believed that there were actually three authors that wrote the book of Isaiah. The Isaiah writing this particular Sunday’s reading (read all the readings from this Sunday HERE) was written from captivity. The entirety of the Jewish people were living under the captivity of…Babylon? The Greeks? I can’t remember. The Jewish people were held captive a lot. ANYWAY, this Isaiah author, the priest said, was writing words of comfort to the Jewish people and urging them to be strong and trust in God. 

The mass unfolded pretty normally. Nothing too exciting to report. It was still Mass, and it was still beautiful, but a Mass at St. Anne’s felt like the Masses I’ve been to a million times before. There WAS an announcement that there would be a taco bar after Mass, but I had to head to a meeting so I was sadly unable to indulge.

All in all, St. Anne’s was pretty standard. It had some unique things to look at and experience, but the experience as a whole didn’t make too much of an impact. I do think that if I return and attend a Mass that’s not so early there might be a little more energy, but I can’t say for sure. I definitely hope they make use of their outdoor church space; I would most certainly return for that as I would love to have Mass outside amongst God’s creation. 

In any case, I think I’d only go back to St. Anne’s if they did have an outdoor Mass. Not to say that the church wasn’t lovely, the people weren’t kind and welcoming, or the worship was bad. It just wasn’t quite my cup of tea. Though I am glad I went. And I might be back to visit and learn more about the shrine.

Learn more about St. Anne’s at their website: http://www.stanneshrine.org