The beautiful Sanctuary at St Mary Immaculate Church, Warick

This past Bank holiday week-end, my better-half and I finally decided to spend a much longed for week-end away together. It was just what the doctor ordered. It was great to just relax without any interruptions from any electronic device whatsoever. Bliss!

We decided to visit Stratford Upon Avon as we’ve never been there, and booked into a hotel in the nearby town of Warick. The next important decision, was about where we would attend Mass on Sunday and  St. Mary Immaculate Church happens to be about 5-6 km from the hotel, so that became the obvious choice for our weekly Sunday sojourn. We saw it as a  bonus that we could attend the 8;30am Mass and then carry on from there to do our site-seeing and exploring in the neighbouring town of  Stratford (or so we’d planned!) On Saturday I came down with a racking and relentless cough, which kept me wide-eyed and bush-tailed throughout the night. Not good. So, we abandoned said plans and after Mass decided to head back to the hotel where I spent the entire day in bed (still coughing) trying to catch up on a bit of sleep.

Our attendance at St. Mary Immaculate was just lovely in every sense of the word. We  were greeted by a most beautifully adorned  Sanctuary as we walked into the intimate seating area for about 200 worshippers. ( I say intimate, as our church holds probably upwards of 600 parishioners at a time.)

The icons of Saints adorned the back wall, rightfully taking their place to ‘worship’ alongside us during the Mass. The Sanctus took on a new meaning for me with these wonderful images  staring down upon the Altar, during the most special prayer of  devotion and worship in the Mass. We received Communion in both kinds that morning, in an unknown community of fellow Catholics.

After Mass we introduced ourselves to Fr. Stefan Laszczyk, who by and by came to tell us about to one of  St. Mary Immaculate’s world famous parishioners: JJR Tolkien! He and his wife were married at this church in 1916. I love the fact that in England history lies around every corner, and if you’re not careful, you may just miss an exciting titbit.

I’m glad we introduced ourselves to Fr. Laszczyk!

Sorry about the blurriness!!