Sunday, January 30, 2011

Beautiful but Tough...

Mass was kind of tough today. On multiple levels. Beautiful, as always, but also tough.

First there was our not so tiny princess bunny. She'd had a difficult morning when she decided that she hated every dress in her closet (the problem lately is that she shares it with her sister and her sister's 12-month sized dresses look infinitely more appealing to her. She simply refuses to believe that she can't fit her size 5 body into a 12 month dress). I was slightly hopeful when she pulled things together and seemed cheerful as Mass began. I was slightly surprised when she started dancing during the Kyrie Eleison (and the opening hymn), but was frankly relieved that she was being quiet, considering her mood.

For the record, she actually has been great at Mass lately (with the exception of today). For the past few months she's been back to sitting quietly on Paul's lap (instead of howling at the top of her lungs). She was quiet for 75% of the time. The other 25% caused her to be taken out twice (once it began with her saying "No Mae! No Mae! No Mae!" after a curl got to close to one of Mae's chubby little hands and continued on and on and on...) but all in all it could have been much worse.

And then there was the other part, which made me feel like I was the one who was about to have a tantrum (deep breath). It was when our priest (who is new at our parish) began to say the Our Father and a person in the church began playing the guitar over the words and when about half of the congregation continued to pray with him, speaking instead of singing, the music volume increased and the singing began over the spoken prayer. I've noted before that one of my main pet peeves is that the words are actually different in the sung version, but the entire scene, with the guitarist actually playing over the spoken prayer, made it somehow seem much, much worse.

I did focus every ounce of energy on the Eucharist and prayed and prayed and prayed to not be bothered and actually was blessed to be able to focus on Christ's real presence, but I have to say, that the entire thing is somewhat unbelievable.

On a lighter note, the Valentine's Day present I bought Paul kind of ties into this story. It's two parts that you can see here and here (PAUL DO NOT CLICK ON THOSE LINKS!!!! You have to be surprised!). Maybe I should have bought him two of present #1. One to wash and one to wear...

2 comments:

  1. After I checked your blog, and saw what you are giving Paul, I checked my e-mail from "My Jewish Learning". Over on their website,in the "Jewniverse" section, they have an ad for the exact same thing.
    Don't forget to tell us what he gave you for V-Day!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry you had a difficult time at Mass. Hopefully the guitar thing was a one-time occurrence!

    Love the Valentine's Day gifts!

    ReplyDelete

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