Our Lady of Czestochowa, Jersey City, NJ

July 7, 2013

Our Lady of Czestochowa

120 Sussex Street

Jersey City, NJ 07302

(201) 434-0798

www.olcjc.org

Our Lady of Częstochowa, or OLC, is located in the Paulus Hook section of Jersey City.  Częstochowa is a town in Poland where there is a famous icon of Mary called the Black Madonna of Częstochowa.  Mary has a couple of scars on her face in the portrait, and there is a legend that the scars were caused by Hussite invaders of the Jasna Gora Monastery in Częstochowa, where the Black Madonna is.  As the legend goes, the Hussites plundered the monastery in 1430, but when trying to escape with the Black Madonna in tow, their horses wouldn't budge.  So one of the Hussites tossed the icon and struck it with his sword twice.  But before he could inflict a third strike, he fell to the ground, writhing in agony, and ultimately died.  The Black Madonna is evidently a big draw for Polish Catholics.

Given its name, there is obviously some Polish history to this church in Jersey City, and the pastor, Fr. Tom Ciba, comes from a Polish family.  That said, it seems the church’s Polish identity has mostly gone the way of the Dodo.

Fr. Ciba’s homily was not for me.  It was a classic “I’m talking about heaven and what goes on there even though I have no idea what goes on in heaven” homily.  I'm not a real fan of these kinds of homilies - I prefer when priests just stick to positive messages.  I pretty much tuned out when Ciba said it was our duty to build the Kingdom of God here on earth.  I snapped back into it when it ended, not because there was some great insightful message, but because it was already over.  It was like a two minute homily.  This isn’t Christmas mass and we’re not a bunch of mopes who can’t pay attention for more than thirty seconds at a time.  We’re knee deep in Ordinary Time, homes.  Let’s put some thought and effort into this.

Anyhow, I went to the 10 a.m. mass on a Sunday, and it was notable for two reasons.  First, this is apparently the weekly children’s mass.  In what I thought was a strange (but brilliant) move, the church sends kids aged 2-5 out with a parent about 5 minutes after the mass starts.  I don’t know where they go, but wherever it is, there are apparently Bible-themed coloring books there.  Iinfants and toddlers stick in Church the whole mass.

The second notable aspect of this mass is that they don’t have ushers bring the offering baskets come time for the collection.  Instead, everyone walks up to the front of the church like on a Communion line.  It’s very public and a little screwy if you ask me because (a) the people who don’t give up must feel like remarkable assholes, and (b) I thought giving was supposed to be anonymous.  I didn't like it because I feel like the church was trying to play some sick shaming game into giving them money.  Although after that two-bit homily, Ciba is lucky he’s getting anything at all, so maybe this shame game is how he makes his bones.  Probably not, but still, I didn't like this collection method.