The Church

By Aubrey

One thing we haven’t told you about was actually one of the first decisions we made: the church. We debated for a while whether to have the wedding in Seattle or Boston, wanting the wedding at the Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University or St. Ignatius Church at Boston College. Either way, St. Igy was going to be present.

We decided on Boston and discovered that you cannot plan a fall wedding at Boston College until the release of the football schedule…which isn’t released until April.  Yeah, we know. It does make sense though in a way - you don’t want tailgaters and people with paint all over their faces walking through your wedding pictures and it would be nice if people could actually get to the church and park. Still, this is a Jesuit university. You would think one of the seven holy sacraments would take precedence.

Stumped, we went to Father Joe, who will be marrying us and with whom I have worked since I started the program at BC. He suggested a church near the campus, Our Lady Help of Christians. It’s a beautiful church, despite the lack of St. Ignatius in its name. Right away there were two signs: when we walked in we were faced by the statue of St. Jude, one of Grandma Sullivan’s favorite saints, and at the front of the church is the statue of Mary that Grandpa Leo gave grandma when they were married. Plus, they were willing to let Father Joe preside over the wedding, so there will be a Jesuit present at the very least.

These photos were taken at 4 in the afternoon on a Friday, we entered through the rectory and there was no one there. Two sweet old ladies were confused about why there was no mass going on. “Are we late?” Actually the mass was the next day, on Saturday. “Oh, I should have known. I never get this good a parking spot.”