Saturday night came and went without Older Daughter and I knowing where we would attend Mass. The rest of the family was out of town, and I wasn't feeling well enough to travel a great distance. I decided that we would attend Mass at a local parish (not the one where I worked) as an extreme penance, and also so that Daughter could arrive on time to the Religious Education classes where she serves as an aide.
Ultimately, the anticipated stress of this experience was too much for these old bones, so I quickly looked up the Mass time for an out-of-town church and realized we could make it if we left right now.
We arrived at the beautiful historic church ("historic" in this case means "unwreckovated" since it's on the National Register of Historic Places), located in a cave tour region, as the opening hymn was being sung. "Gather Us In" accompanied by a strumming guitar pierced my ears as we were ushered to a pew.
"What have I done?" I wondered to myself, but swore to not lose heart. When we'd attended this church earlier in the year, the music stunk, but the priest was a pretty awesome guy.
The rest of the music was nearly as bad as the opening "hymn." The closing song was full of syncopations, so I sung that puppy with EVERY written syncopation. *evil grin*
The priest delivered the homily in an almost Ben Stein-esque tone, but it was one of the best sermons I've heard in my life. He discussed the results of a poll suggesting that many Catholics don't believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. He called this "TERRIFYING" and reminded parents that they MUST teach their children about the realities of our faith. He also touched on the Penn State child rape scandal without mentioning it by name -- very delicately done, no one was scandalized, but his meaning was clear to anyone watching/listening/reading the news. He was very careful with his word choices, and even brought up fine theological points that would be left to a footnote in a text, all so that his meaning was exactly clear to everyone.
As I listened to him, I thought two things: 1) why am I not recording this, and 2) can he be our new bishop?
We spoke after Mass, and he told me that the pipe organ is played every week, but the musicians irregularly rotate between Masses.
The rest of the Mass was unremarkable-- no bells, no incense, people were respectful and decently dressed-- but the amazing priest made this church a great option for Mass attendance.
Yay for that! Said Older Daughter made it in time to aide too -- so there were no problems!
ReplyDeleteOlder daughter has corrected me; there WERE bells at the consecration. My bad.
ReplyDeleteMCK - I'm glad, because I was really pushing it time-wise.
ReplyDelete