Keeping the Faith

Remember that movie with Ed Norton and Ben Stiller? The hip priest and rabbi? We met the closest equivalent to Norton's character possible this weekend.

We went to St. Pet’s to check out the church after calling the priest Saturday morning to see if we could cross over to their parish for a Memorial Day wedding. Not realizing our timing coincided with 5 p.m. mass, we decided to stay and see what church was like there. Father Dan Bachner said mass.

It turns out that Father Dan is the priest I spoke with on the phone that morning, and also the priest my family saw say his first mass at St. James a couple months ago. He’s awesome. Coincidence? Ok, yeah. Fine. But it's a cool coincidence.

In comparison with the options in the modern Catholic church, this guy blows me away. After his homily, Gavin even leaned over and said “he’s good.”

He delivered a memorable homily (that I won’t go into here) that was interactive. He asked a question aloud during his talk, and someone answered it. I was in shock – someone just spoke during church and it WASN’T the priest!!! Apparently, that’s normal in his masses. We like it. People were engaged, alert and actually into the mass. St. James just doesn’t have that feel.

We’re wondering if Father Norton, I mean… Father Dan might be able to cross back over to St. James to serve as the concelebrant for our wedding mass with Uncle Augie. Probably not, but it would be cool.

Note: If you’re not familiar with Edward Norton – the hottest blond on the big screen – you’re missing out.