Probably a silly question - Catholic tourist at mass in the USA

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Hi everyone,

In a few weeks I am going to Florida (Orlando) on holiday. I have never been to the USA before, and am really looking forward to visiting.

I have found a Catholic Shrine near where I will be staying, which is for the use of Catholic tourists - “Mary, Queen of the Universe” - so I can go to Sunday masses there 🙂

(If anyone has visited this place, please let me know what you think).

My main question is:
  • In Scotland, we have just (as of last week) switched over onto the new mass translation (we are currently being issued mass cards to help us out initially).
When I go to mass at the shrine in Orlando, will they have also switched onto this same new translation?

I expect the english liturgy (both old and new) is the same for the USA and UK?

I have never been to the US before, let alone a Catholic Church there, and so just wanted to know what to expect.

I am familiar with all of the “new mass” change over information for the UK, but have no clue as to what is going on in the US.

The shrines own website does not say anything about this.

Thanks if you can offer advice.

PS - I read some “reviews” of the Shrine online. They are very complimentary, but one complained the masses are long - over 2 hours!?! In my parish, the longest mass is maybe about 75 mins. Is over 2 hours accurate for the US? (I wouldnt have thought so).

Thanks for reading and for any advice.
 
GWright said:
Hi everyone,

In a few weeks I am going to Florida (Orlando) on holiday. I have never been to the USA before, and am really looking forward to visiting.

I have found a Catholic Shrine near where I will be staying, which is for the use of Catholic tourists - “Mary, Queen of the Universe” - so I can go to Sunday masses there 🙂

(If anyone has visited this place, please let me know what you think).

My main question is:
  • In Scotland, we have just (as of last week) switched over onto the new mass translation (we are currently being issued mass cards to help us out initially).
When I go to mass at the shrine in Orlando, will they have also switched onto this same new translation?

I expect the english liturgy (both old and new) is the same for the USA and UK?

I have never been to the US before, let alone a Catholic Church there, and so just wanted to know what to expect.

I am familiar with all of the “new mass” change over information for the UK, but have no clue as to what is going on in the US.

The shrines own website does not say anything about this.

Thanks if you can offer advice.

PS - I read some “reviews” of the Shrine online. They are very complimentary, but one complained the masses are long - over 2 hours!?! In my parish, the longest mass is maybe about 75 mins. Is over 2 hours accurate for the US? (I wouldnt have thought so).

Thanks for reading and for any advice.
Click to expand...
In the USA the official day for beginning to use the spoken parts of the new translation is the First Sunday of Advent. However it is my understanding that some dioceses have given their parishes permission to begin to use the new translation for sung parts of the Mass now.

I have no idea what they will be doing in Florida.

Two hours sounds like a long Mass to me too! But I have been to special occasion Masses that did go that long.

I would guess that perhaps some of the parts of the Mass are longer because of the number of people and concelebrants? That could cause a number of parts of the Mass to be longer since it may take several minutes for all the priests and people to get to where they need to be. There might be more music? The homily might be longer than is typical. There might also be some extra blessings.

And I would guess that not all Masses at that shrine are so long.
 
I am from Florida and have attened Mary, Queen of the Universe Cathedral. It is a beautiful church and the liturgies are equally beautiful. The length may be a little longer than our usual Masses, but not much. A little over an hour is to be expected. The music is also very good. The chorus has published music cd’s.

Since it is Orlando and that area has a million visitors a week, it is geared toward tourists. The priest will take some time to address visitors, ask from what areas they are from, etc…

I think you will enjoy it very much. The grounds are beautiful. Take some time to walk around and visit the gift shop. Enjoy your stay. If I can be of any help don’t hesitate to ask.

In Florida we will be starting the new translations beginning in Advent.

Ray Desjardins
[edited]
 
Hi there,

Many thanks to you both for your helpful thoughts and answers - much appreciated.

Ray - thanks for your kind offer of helping with any additional Qs. I will have a think and perhaps email or pm you. Thanks again. I agree that the shrine loos very beautiful - I have seen saw pic online and think the shrine and its grounds look very beautiful and tranquil, I cant wait to visit!

Cheers!
 
We’ve also been to that shrine many, many times. It is very beautiful, enormous, with visitors from all over the US and the world. There will be a “pitch” for donations, as it relies on donations for funding, I believe.

I still get lost driving there, as the exit is a little tricky, and you follow a long service road, if I recall. The parking lot can be crazy, and every Mass seems packed.

Enjoy your visit!
 
My wife and myself attended Mass at The Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe just last weekend. We attended the Sunday 7:30 am mass. We took a taxi from Disneyworld, and after Mass there were several taxis waiting to take us and others back, so this is a pretty routine activity.

The church is beautiful, and the Mass was very spiritual. We felt quite at home.

Information about the Church can be found at www.maryqueenof the universe.org

I hope that you find this information useful.

DGB
 
I lived in the Disney-owned apartments next to this church when I worked for Disney. It’s looks really nice from the outside. Unfortunately for me, I was just getting interested in Catholicism before I moved back home and I never went inside. 🤷 I did make a U turn there a few times though. 👍
 
I’ve been there twice, as my employer held a business conference in the area for two years in a row. The second time it was easier to find. I did have to take a taxi to get there the first time as it was about a mile or two or three from my hotel and involved negotiating some tricky intersections if on foot.

This year, I was resolved to not pay so much on taxi fare, so I walked back and found it was not that bad.

As for the church (the Shrine), it is very beautiful for the most part, despite being fairly new.

I had confession there each time and was sort of surprised that the only option was a head-on, face-to-face confession, but I rolled with it.

The Mass each time was did have a sort of overly-obvious plea for donations. I forget what was said but at one point I thought it was a bit tacky how it was put. I guess it’s not a local church but strictly to serve the touring Disney crowd. They have a very big book/ gift shop that also is a huge source of funds. Some of this gets a bit tacky but alas I left with a lot of good stuff I never see in person. They have some kind of attached museum, also set up to solicit funds, as is some kind of memorial where people can buy bricks for the dearly departed. The grounds on the side are interesting and I like the statue of the Virgin Mary there, a nice place to rest and reflect if you are there very early.

I found the homily this year very well put as I think the priest was trying to reach those more casual Catholics who feel that during the week they’re at Disney, they ought to go to church once. He really hit hard on the Ten commandments and what makes a good Catholic. It was not the easy going “Thanks for coming” homily of the year earlier and thank goodness.

Each year, there was a woman who sang the psalms who had a beautiful voice. How refeshing compared to my parish,at home, which offers only already-dated cringe-worthy , guitar masses .

So I do recommend it and please consider any criticism as mild. It’s a such a treat to find the church wherever one goes in the states…or the world.
 
rdesjardins said:
I am from Florida and have attened Mary, Queen of the Universe Cathedral. It is a beautiful church and the liturgies are equally beautiful. The length may be a little longer than our usual Masses, but not much. A little over an hour is to be expected. The music is also very good. The chorus has published music cd’s.

Since it is Orlando and that area has a million visitors a week, it is geared toward tourists. The priest will take some time to address visitors, ask from what areas they are from, etc…

I think you will enjoy it very much. The grounds are beautiful. Take some time to walk around and visit the gift shop. Enjoy your stay. If I can be of any help don’t hesitate to ask.

In Florida we will be starting the new translations beginning in Advent.

Ray Desjardins
[edited]
dixieagle;8329986:
We’ve also been to that shrine many, many times. It is very beautiful, enormous, with visitors from all over the US and the world. There will be a “pitch” for donations, as it relies on donations for funding, I believe.

I still get lost driving there, as the exit is a little tricky, and you follow a long service road, if I recall. The parking lot can be crazy, and every Mass seems packed.

Enjoy your visit!
Click to expand...
Dittos. We were just there a couple weeks ago.

Yep, they depend on donations entirely, and have a nice bookstore on the grounds. In the back, they also have a garden-path stations of the Cross that is really cool.

We didn’t really notice the mass being more than an hour.
Click to expand...
 
There’s a story (that I’ve unfortunately already forgotten) about the statue of I think Saint Paul in the back that the priests sometimes mention…
 
As you have already be told, it is a beautiful place. They also offer confessions like 6 or 8 hours every day (except possible weekends).
 
FYI, my then 6 year old daughter thought the parish was “Mary, Queen of Universal” and wondered why that park had it’s own church 😉
 
Agree. For a new church, it is well done architecturally and the masses are very nice (classy and sacred --not “hip”). In fact, it appears to be a work in progress since every time we go back, we find a few things have been added. I would guess they are just adding to it as funds permit. The mass is a bit longer because the priests do a little overview of their mission and the shrine at the beginning, but I did not find it to be boring or too long.

I did not have a problem with their plea for money. As they will explain at the beginning of mass, they will not do weddings or funerals there, because their sole purpose is to provide the mass to the tourists in the area. That is their sole funding source. Also, I look forward to getting their newsletter. When my family fell on some hard times, I wrote back that I could not give a donation, and the priest asked for all of our names and emailed me regularly that he was praying for us and checked in with us.

As for the new missal, my guess is they will not have adopted it yet. They are definitely traditional though, so I do not think you will have trouble following along.

Also beautiful grounds and a great gift shop.
 
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