For the past month, I have been attending St. Basil's for Sunday mass and have found it it so be very impressionable. The Filipino Priest is very personable and funny. He manages to keep the mass and the Gospel sounding interesting and from the heart, which is very important, I feel, for all the parishioners to stay interested and actually listen to what is being taught.
After moving to the area, I had been attended all the Catholic Churches in the area to see which community I wanted to become a part of, and St. Basil, the last one I checked out, has seemed to finally hit the mark. The church itself is beautiful, the community is friendly and welcoming, and I feel a good sense of spirit within the confines of this church. Yes, the neighborhood is not in the best area of town, but it isn't the worst. The church feels safe and I truly feel the spirit of God here.
I will say, that I find it to be very distant and cold that no one shakes hands anymore when sharing the sign of peace, but I guess that is how many churches are going now. The little head nod just seems to be so impersonal, and I wish that St. Basil would encourage their parishioners to welcome each other with open arms.
There is a good amount of diversity who attend mass at this church, but I will say that the majority of the parish seems to be Filipino. But then, we are in Vallejo and there is a huge Filipino community here, who of course are majority Catholic.
Overall, I would recommend anyone looking for a Catholic church to come check this one out. I appreciate that there is a 5:30pm mass on Sundays. I wish there was an even later one. Where I use to attend mass, we would have an 8:00pm and a 10:00pm mass on Sundays. This ensured that everyone could attend Sunday mass regardless of the time of day. I know we are suppose to honor and worship God on our own accord and He is to be our first priority, but I also feel that some people need the additional assistance to lead them to the Lord, and by having the extra mass times, it would allow people the opportunity to receive the added blessings if they were not able to attend earlier in the day, but that's just a thought. read more