A little background knowledge: both the Old Catholic Mariavite and Catholic Mariavite Churches are independent Polish Churches that were originally rooted in the Franciscan tradition, but split off from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1930s. Moreover, if I understand things correctly, while the Old Catholic Mariavite Church has no women priests, the Mariavite Catholic Church does (interesting stuff, indeed).
First of all, I was struck by the unusual style of the Old Mariavite Catholic church up at Wolska, both inside and outside (all the pictures here are from Wikipedia).
In a way, the place reminded me a little of a Gaudi construction (I absolutely loved his things in Barcelona).
About the Mass itself, well the quite young male priest said Mass facing the altar with his back to the people with about 7-8 servers in attendance (from young children to young men), and the sermon was said by a very old and wise-looking server (I would guess maybe a retired priest). Throughout the Mass, there was plenty of singing in Polish, which, to me, somewhat echoed the plainchant from the Old Latin Mass of traditional (pre-Vatican II) Catholicism that I'm far more familiar with. Let's put it another way, both the choir and the engagement of the congregation was very impressive.
One unusual thing was that the priest went round with the collection plate himself at the end of the Mass, and let's just say that the congregation looked far more financially committed than any Catholic or non-Catholic congregation I've ever seen in Poland. Two other things which also stuck out for me were what seemed like an excessive emphasis on Marian devotion, and the Mass itself being squeezed between an exposition of the Blessed Sacrament before and Benediction after the Mass. Finally, I almost forgot to mention that everybody knelt for Communion and received the host on the tongue, and it seemed like everybody (except for me) went to communion. Amazing commitment, indeed.
All in all, I view my visit to the Old Mariavite Catholic church as having been absolutely incredible. I only ended up there this morning (Mass is at 11am on Sunday morning), as I'd been reading about the church at Wolska last night, and it seemed intriguing (and so it proved).
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