Christ the King Church

Now I know where to embrace My Lord when visiting my pals in Kansas City. Set in the beautiful Waldo neighborhood (quaint homes, hilly, profusion of trees bursting with fall colors, ethnically diverse with corner restaurants, bars and even a filling station or two selling homemade fried chicken or tamales — take your pick) this (guessing) 1970s red brick structure isn’t much to brag about from the exterior (albeit the back entrance into the social hall and then into the church boasts a beautiful little meditative garden) the interior is an interesting mix of both modern and severe austerity. The Stations of the Cross are imposing concrete renditions that reminded me of a cross between a Diego Rivera painting and those ominous workers portraits you’d see in post-​communist eastern Europe.
Surprisingly one of the shrines to the Crucified Christ bore a rendition of a Salvador Dali painting; rather mod indeed! But what really took my breathe away was that there was no altar table, or rather the altar itself — festooned with beautiful filigreed reliquaries (yes, those are bones of saints) was against the wall in the traditional Roman Tridentine tradition.
When home in Fort Lauderdale I often slide into my local pew clad in shorts and a t-​shirt — I’m here to talk to God, not make a fashion statement. But cold Missouri November weather had me in a pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt — and I’m glad I was looking a little more together because right away I noticed over 80% of the women were wearing veils and mantillas — yep — I had walked into a traditional Latin Rite High Mass! AND I LOVED IT! What an amazing choir! And I guess four years of high school and four years of college Latin comes in handy when all the prayers and intonations came back like a thunderbolt… Dominus vobiscum… et cum spiritu tuo… This was the Mass with the bells and whistles, well, bells and incense — the Mass that way it was supposed to be said and suddenly before you know it 2 hours have passed and your transposed back into the real world — while I have been an attendee at traditional Latin Rite masses before (Saint Mary’s Kansas is home to the Society of Saint Pius X), this one seemed so special — and I was lucky enough to attend a Church on the Feast of Christ the King dedicated to Him of same name — I must confess my knees weren’t used to accepting Holy Communion from a marble altar rail — but it was worth it. I almost want to book a trip back home just to go to this Church!

Beautiful Roman Catholic Church… very open, inviting and modern!