This site is about the McGrail farm at 19 Lyman Road Berlin Massachusetts.

The 1380th Sunday After Pentecost

The 1380th Sunday After Pentecost
In my hands I have a copy of the "New St. Joseph Sunday Missal and Hymnal." This book was the main missal, or Mass book, used in the Diocese of Worcester in the immediate years after the Second Vatican Council. There were many of these books in the various churches of the diocese, including at St. Joseph the Good Provider Church in Berlin, Mass. where the Farm was located.

John P. McGrail and his wife Mary F. McGrail became active in the Church shortly after they purchased the Farm in 1951. The Church was new then, John P. McGrail may have had a hand in building it, or raising the money for its construction. It was a typical small town Catholic Church, with none of the statuary or stone architecture that dominated Clinton's three main churches. It was a simple brick building, with an almost Lutheran plainness inside. There were yellow mottled glass windows, a small choir loft, an organ, and a comfortable and carpeted floor. There was a huge parking lot, unlike churches built before the advent of the automobile.

Since I and several of my brothers stayed over at the Farm every weekend, every Sunday morning we went to Mass. Each of us had "Sunday best" clothes, and these were laid out on Saturday night after bedtime. Usually, these were a suit, with either a bow tie or a clip-on tie. Our hair would be slicked back with Brylcreem, or, failing that, Vaseline.

Then we would get into either the Buick or the Oldsmobile, or the Valiant, or whatever car. Usually, Gramma would wait until Gramp backed up to the door itself. I would sit in front, between Gramp and Gram, and often, my aunt Marguerite Mullen would ride along in the back seat.
We would enter by the side door, and sit in the first pew on the right side. The Missal Books would be in the racks on the pew in front of you.
The Mass was the same in its basic structure every Sunday. This part of the Mass was called the Ordinary. The Gospel reading and a number of the prayers and readings, however, differed each Sunday. In the Missal, after the Ordinary of the Mass, there was listed each of the prayers for every Sunday of the year. There was also a "Thought for Today" and a short analysis of the prayers for that week. There was also a simple, humble printed illustration.
I always followed along with the Mass. What fascinated me was the way that the prayers and the solemn atmosphere added structure and meaning to my existence. What I loved most, however, was the Church calendar. First would come the four Sundays of Advent. These always preceded Christmas. These Sundays were a happy precursor to the Holidays. We made advent wreaths in school. Then would come the Christmas Mass. Then would come Epiphany, then 5 or 6 Sundays after Epiphany, then Septuagesima Sunday, the first of the precursors to Easter. Then would come the solemn, dark time of Lent, beginning with the Ashes on Ash Wednesday. In those days, Lent was a time of self-denial and fasting. Then Passion Sunday, then Palm Sunday. I could almost smell springtime when we got the palms on Palm Sunday. Then the wonderful, spring holiday of Easter. Then 5 Sundays after Easter, then Ascension Day. Finally, the Easter season ended with Pentecost Sunday. Here was always a border. Because, actually, most of the Sundays of the year were "Sundays after Pentecost" or "The Nth Sunday after Pentecost" The 2nd Sunday after Pentecost was in June, and the whole summer was Sundays after Pentecost. Then school started again around the 14th Sunday after Pentecost. Finally, there was the "Last Sunday After Pentecost". This was after as many as 27 Sundays After Pentecost. Wow, this was interminable, more than half the year!

It has been approximately 1380 Sundays since John P. McGrail died in 1979. I'm in the long summer of my life. Someday, however, when I'm retired, I will make an Advent wreath, and think of the times I knew once when Mass was a joyful looking to things to come.

James A. McGrail
copyright 2005

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