Santa Clara University's Mission Church

Elite '08

307

410

Teej T.

San Diego, CA

Remember how I said every mission is different?

San Antonio is in a military base, La Purisima is a state park with hiking trails, San Luis Obispo is in the middle of the downtown commercial center....

Santa Clara is in the middle of a Catholic university, and serves as a major chapel.  Dang.

It's beautiful, and eerily appropriate for this mission to be on a site of education, long a value of the Franciscans who built the structure.  It's a beautiful, meditative place, and well-worth the visit, moving past stressed law students and carefree undergrads to enter the sacred space.  It was a great spot to sit and pray and reflect, and I'm glad I could.  Santa Clara's definitely worth the visit, even if you have to cut through a campus to get to it.

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15

134

Evelyn K.

Cupertino, CA

I've attended a wedding here.  It was very beautiful; i remember the stained glass windows and the high ceilings.  

I remembered  their Priest that was presiding the event was a female and she had Birkenstock and she was dressed liked the priest in Robin Hood (Disney version).

But in order to schedule your wedding here: the bride or groom MUST be a current students, staff, faculty or graduate of SCU.   One can have a Catholic or Non-Catholic Wedding; I attended a Non-catholic wedding.

The cost for reserving this church is $750.00 ; which is due in full within 10 days of making your reservation.  Extra fees will be charged when the seating capacity exceeds the regular capacity of 400.

There's also an option to have a candlelight ceremony which starts at $75.00.  And they won't accept credit cards.

Also SCU packed their weddings so your ceremony is held for a short time.  After my friend's wedding was finished, and the guests wanted to take pictures ; we weren't able to stay long because there was another wedding following my friend's wedding.

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Elite '08

73

405

Eugene F.

Campbell, CA

For four years, this served as a place of refuge from the hustle and bustle of my college life.  After classes, or particularly stressful times, I would wander into the mission and just sit and meditate for a bit.  I always felt a little bit better and more prepared for whatever lay in front of me.

This is the centerpiece of the Santa Clara University campus, and with it's location on the university's campus is probably one of the best maintained of the California Missions.  There have been several renovation/restorations that have occurred over the past 10-15 years including the replacing of the original pearwood statues that stood on the facade of the building with metal cast copies, several of the side altars have had their statues restored, new chairs throughout the mission, and recently some colored accents were added to the facade.

In terms of masses, this is probably one of the best, if not the best, student-led masses in the area.  I am a little biased toward the music there since I sang with the choir for all four years while I was in school; and to this day I still do some of the idiosyncratic things I learned in that choir--and it makes me giggle, too!  

I've also had the privilege of singing at too many weddings to count for friends, friends of friends, and I always impressed with how beautiful the setting of this historic site always is.  

So, 5 stars for this wonderful fixture and gem of Santa Clara University and surrounding area.

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0

1

Andrew B.

San Jose, CA

The Good Friday service I attended at this church was sickeningly bad. And I'll admit from the get-go that I couldn't even sit through the whole thing. The choir was a motley crew of students completely and inappropriately underdressed for the occasion. The choirmaster was trying to double as a youth pastor I think and he had the silliest "soul patch" under his bottom lip. He looked ridiculous and I couldn't take him seriously. After a pathetic performance by the choir, a group of students began to read through the Passion in a dramatic reading. Except there was nothing remotely dramatic about the reading. I felt like I was in third grade again and was having to listen to six imbeciles trying to "popcorn read". Don't even get me started on the strategically inserted kettle drum that the choirmaster/youth pastor/washed up loser was playing at planned intervals (apparently for some kind of effect). The reading was so bad that I was tempted to just get up and leave right in the middle, but I figured I'd better give them a shot. It's God's house, after all. Then the celebrant stood up and said (channeling Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller's Day Off) "The agony...the agony...the agony...is apparent." At which point I realized that the service that should have been a time for peace and meditation on God's beneficence was turning into a point of frustration and anger for me. So I left.
And I'm not going back.

On a side note: what's with people in California wearing skater t-shirts and sandals to a Good Friday service? Maybe i just don't get it because I came here from the East Coast.

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Elite '08

345

1080

Kathleen M.

San Jose, CA

I'm so into sleeping in and being busy during the day that the 10 p.m. mass at the Mission at SCU is at a perfect time for me. That's good since it's one of the best Masses to attend in the South Bay, and has become my regular church. The mission is filled with chairs (no wooden pews here) and the altar is in the middle. It's kind of a strange layout, but it ensures that everyone is near "the action."

The singing and music is by far the best of any church I've been to in the Bay Area. The music takes on this other dimension with the stringed instruments that makes it feel like it's soaring. The choir sounds great - not like those ones at other churches that inevitably have some older chick who has to sing over the rest of the choir with her wavery vibrato.

At 32, I feel like Oldie Oldington attending Mass with all the students. I felt good though a few weeks ago when a 50-ish man crossing the street at the same time as me asked how my midterms were going.

The homilies are good and all contain the values I like about the church (no anti-abortion speeches here) and tell of a loving God. They're not as interesting or intellectual as the homilies at Newman Hall near UC Berkeley or Father Rick's homilies at St. Clare's across the street, but they're still better than 85% of other homilies out there.

I don't know the campus at all so I parked on Lafayette and risked getting raped walking to church the first 6 weeks. (Really it's not dangerous at all, even on Lafayette - I kid about the raping). I had no idea how to get to the parking area in the campus proper, and I finally had to ask.

After Easter, the 10 p.m. is switching to 9 p.m. (The horror!). Also, the Mission only holds Mass while school is in session so it's best to check the website to make sure it's not summer session or spring break the first time you go.

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