Churches and Faith Communities as Third Places/ Third Place Stories
When one first walks into the Church of Our Lady of Loretto, its unique architectural style and layout is apparent. The congregation sits around the altar, which acts as the centerpiece with the choir behind and the ambo and baptismal font facing it on the other side of the circular shaped room. This post-Vatican II style emphasizes the role of the laity in the liturgy and creates a more inviting space that has multiple entry points to join the assembly. The Vision Statement for Liturgy, available on the church website, puts it plainly that the prayer of the gathered assembly, also known as liturgy, is at the heart of the Christian life. The congregation, lay ministers, and religious sisters of Loretto, in deed and word, exclaim loudly the ancient saying “Lex orandi, lex credendi” (the rule of prayer is the rule of belief.)
One of the hallmarks of the liturgies is their effortlessly multicultural style thanks to the women welcomed from around the world to the novitiate of the Sisters of Holy Cross. When I first arrived in South Bend, Indiana for doctoral studies, I followed my instincts to a Mexican parish on the west side of town. Loretto, though, sitting on the campus of St. Mary’s College, has become my spiritual home and a space where I am in community with others. Those whose language I do not speak and whose culture I do not know have shown me through prayer, conversation, and food what a global church looks like on the banks of the St. Joseph’s River in northern Indiana.
Loretto is proof that when the liturgy itself, in a different temporality, one of anamnesis, or re-membering, with eschatological anticipation, is welcoming, inviting, and beautiful, a space is opened to make possible the creation of community in the here and now. This community has given me hope that we can reach across differences that seem insurmountable otherwise if only we can learn to pray together.
-Amirah Orozco