Cry Room Chronicles II

Lucy in her going-to-Church outfit, now with shoes!

We parked our car in the Church lot at 7:59 a.m., so we were as close to almost on time as you can get. The procession had already made it to the altar by the time we got in, but the first hymn was still being sung. We made our usual way down to the Children's Chapel, only to discover no sound or picture of the Mass.

We climbed back upstairs and Angie let the junior usher (he looked about 10 years old) know about the problem. Entering the church, we filed into the backmost pew we could. Lucy and Jacob were pretty squirmy today throughout the Mass.

Lucy started burbling during the first reading, so I don't know what the reading was about. She started making more noise during the homily, so I pulled out what was left of her 7:30 bottle and quieted her down. It seemed like a brilliant idea until I discovered some spit up on her dress and chin! Luckily we keep extra outfits for both children in the diaper bag. Even better was the changing table in the men's room (a lot of men's rooms don't have that). I missed the heart of the sermon but didn't have to change Lucy on the floor. As a side note, I was surprised by how many guys were using the restroom during Mass. The total must have been four or five, not counting Lucy and me.

Jacob did a lot of squirming throughout the Mass. He needed a lot of holding in our laps or blocking from escaping the pew. At one point, he banged his head into the pew by accident, so Angie had to take him out to calm him down. After they came back, Lucy wanted to switch parents, so I held Jacob through the end of Mass. He wasn't as enthusiastic about the sign of peace as he usually is. He did shake a few hands besides mommy's and daddy's. He told me he wanted to leave after that. I told him we had to go to communion and sing another song before leaving. Jacob replied, "We get body of Christ!" He was still pretty antsy to get things moving.

As we were driving home, Angie said it was a toss up as to who was the more troublesome child today. Personally, I think spitting up during the homily wins easily. I did think of telling Father that his sermon made my daughter throw up, but then I would have been the most troublesome child. What I did hear of the sermon was quite good. He started with a short overview of the history of the Feast of Corpus Christi, including its origin in 1264. Thomas Aquinas was commissioned to write part of the Divine Office and some hymns for the feast. The feast became very popular and two cities in the USA are named after it: Corpus Christi, Texas, and Sacramento, California. Sacramento is the Spanish word for "The Sacrament," since the Eucharist is the central sacrament of our Faith. The rest of the homily was lost on me, alas.

Hopefully next week the Children's Chapel will be back online!

Lucy in her post-church outfit, still with shoes