Today Hugh and I sought out an English speaking mass. It was on the opposite side of the city and takes about 35 minutes to get to but since we've been going to mass across the street and listening to the whole mass in French, we thought it might be a good time to try and find a mass where we could understand the sermon.
We got to St. Joseph's just as mass was starting. The church is nothing like the grand churches around Paris; it's partially underground and mostly hidden from the average passerby. It is small and rather plain on the inside but at tonight's mass, it was absolutely packed with people. What I wasn't expecting was that about 95% of those people were Asian! Not that there is anything wrong with that and it was great to see so many devoted Catholic Asians. I was simply expecting Americans or maybe some people from the UK and Ireland. The priests were from Ireland and Scotland but take the 2 priests, myself, and my friend Hugh and that's about all the non-Asians in the room. The other funny thing was, for a 5 foot 4 inches girl, I'm not used to feeling like a giant! I felt like the majority of the people in church maybe came up to my shoulder, helping us to stand out even more.
I was glad to have found an English speaking church but I'm not sure if I will go back. I can understand the readings the ordinary of the mass well enough in French so staying with St. Antoine's isn't out of the question.
After mass, I went to La du Falafel, met up with a few friends and enjoyed a yummy Jewish meal. I'd say that was a lot of different cultures for one day!
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