Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church — Attraction in Branson

Completely irreverent sad state of the Church. The homily was also so bad, “pay attention to the little things,” then a list of 10 things that you could ”notice” to increase airtime for the homily that took 2 min to prepare. If you’re going to be a Catholic parish that tries to look as Protestant as possible here is some things that might be helpful to understand as a former Protestant. Trying to make your music sound Protestant, doesn’t make anyone want to be at your parish except for maybe the middle age to boomer age that still think it appeals to the young kids. The young kids, are the people flooding tradition Masses that want reverent and ancient hymns. The only people that like this are cradle Catholics that don’t know any better and boomers that think this is “tradition.” No one leaves Protestantism or comes to Church for off-brand Protestant music. Not a soul. They come there because it’s Catholic. And what I saw on Sunday, was not Catholic. It’s Catholics trying to be Protestant. Vatican 2 is great, it doesn’t require you ignore 2,000 years of Church tradition and liturgy. This type of Novus Ordo is abuse of V2. Another thing that might be helpful, if you’re going to try to look Protestant, try doing it for things that are actually good, that they do well. For instance, study the Bible, be actually welcoming besides a general greeting (this doesn’t necessarily apply to this parish, but most like it), have homilies that convict people of sin and move them to repentance, you’re responsible for their souls. These types of parishes are dying. There’s no reason to come, you're told nothing of your desperate need for Christ because of sin. The sacraments are not reverently received. Why come even? If it’s just family trip, that won’t last generations, once there’s a good enough reason not to care, no one will. And that’s exactly what’s happening. Maybe you’re a boomer or cradle Catholic that likes what you’re used to. Well, what you’re used to is not Catholic. It’s nostalgic, sure, it’s not traditional Catholicism and it’s not the future of Catholicism. The only way the Church will grow is passionate teaching about our need for Christ through the sacraments. Those sacraments aren’t just some thing you take because you went to Mass that day. It’s Christ Himself that should be handled as such. It should only be received in a state of grace. And at this parish, it’s handed out like some dance routine, no reverence at all. An absolute embarrassment to Catholic Church. Like I said before I am a convert, and I’m also married to a Protestant. I didn’t want to bring my wife because I didn’t want her to see the irreverent and embarrassing side of Catholicism. No serious Protestant converts in parishes like...

Nice church in middle of Branson to serve the Catholic faithful.

The grounds are clean and well-maintained, but a bit tricky to navigate if you are mobility-challenged with many hills and uneven surfaces.

The interior is beautiful: high-ceilings, natural light, and featuring a particularly beautiful statue of Our Lady. Inside the church, the layout expands widely with the altar centered against the far wall, as usual. I noticed the tabernacle was about 50 feet away from the altar, which, to me, is a bit surprising.

The current paster has a beautiful singing voice that you'd think you were at a paid-for show downtown, and the music arrangement for many of the songs were similar, but different than versions I'm used to hearing - but beautiful in its own way.

The paster has a healthy sense of humor and is very realistic with his situation, noting there are probably more visitors than parishioners, and that they need help covering their financial needs. That said, you'll be more likely to donate a little more to the collection plate than you might normally give when visiting.

It was also interesting to see as many Communion ministers as we did - with the width of the layout, in retrospect, it makes sense.

A good place to go for weekend Mass - just don't be in a rush to leave - they sing every verse...

We've visited this church three times. We're from Texas. The first time (03/2016), we fell in love with everything about it. I wished we lived there just to attend services there! The priest was amazing. He captured and held our attention with his down to earth services. The highlight was Cassandre Faimon-Haygood singing psalms. Her message was angelic ......and drove me to tears. It felt as though the Holy Spirit was singing to our souls. When we visited the following year, we had to find this place again. Our wait was well worth it as we felt like family here. Once again, we loved our visit and wanted to return... to attend services there (Yes, we still live in Texas). Our third visit (Thanksgiving, 2017) was very different. While we attend to worship, it was all different. There was a different priest and Cassandre Faimon-Haygood was not there to sing psalms. While we were happy to attend church, all was different. I hope this was simply due to the holidays. We hope to visit again and hope we are blessed enough to hear Cassandre Faimon-Haygood sing psalms again....