Lunchtime Masses in Baltimore give downtown workers a spiritual boost

Published: 2007-01-08

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- On a recent weekday, Tina Tekirian of Frederick slipped out of her laboratory at the University of Maryland's School of Medicine in downtown Baltimore, walked the few blocks to the Shrine of St. Jude and settled into a pew shortly before the noon Mass was set to begin. With a workplace identification card dangling in front of her warm purple sweater, the neuroscientist and parishioner of St. John the Evangelist in Frederick was deep in prayer as the priest made his way to the altar. Taking her lunch break to attend the noon Mass is a weekday ritual for Tekirian, who says it's no sacrifice to skip the meal and eat while she works later in the afternoon. "This is the most important part of my day," the 34-year-old research associate told The Catholic Review, newspaper of the Baltimore Archdiocese. "Prayer is the very center of my life. It's the part of my rhythm that allows me to focus the rest of the day."

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