Somehow this morning we were running late again, so we got to the church parking lot at 8 a.m. By the time we got into the building, Mass had already started so we made a beeline for the Children's Chapel.
Luckily, when we entered we could hear Mass. The lights were out and the TV off, but both were easy to fix. We were the lone Reningers until the second reading, when a dad came in with a boy and a girl. Later on, a mom and dad with two boys came in, maybe seeking refuge from the sanctuary. I've seen them before on previous weeks both upstairs and in the Children's Chapel. We haven't formally met yet.
Jacob and Lucy were both very well behaved this week. They still walked/crawled around a lot. Lucy cleaned off a shelf of toddler books and bent up a copy of Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton. It was pretty easy to clean up at the end of Mass, though we may have to make an extra donation to St. Louis. Jacob only asked to go home once and was pretty receptive to instructions and directions.
Jacob was especially good at doing responses this week. In addition to singing the Alleluia, at the offertory he kept repeating, "Blessed be God, blessed be God, blessed be God," which I guess was his way of saying "Blessed be God forever." And after the consecration, he repeated two or three times "Christ is risen, Christ will come."
Even better was the sign of peace. All the little boys were into giving the sign of peace, so handshakes were had all around. Lucy didn't participate since I held her up too high. Maybe next week.
Lucy was a little distracting during the homily. The homily emphasized the clear theme of the readings: forgiveness. Father went into great detail about how awkward and astounding the gospel story was. Jesus is invited by a pharisee to dinner which is interrupted by a woman of ill repute who washes Jesus' feet with her tears and dries them with her hair. Imagine a formal dinner party that's going in full swing. Then a local prostitute crashes the party and goes after the guest of honor. How would the host react? How shocking is Jesus' response? Not only does He forgive her sins, He also tells a parable that shows that her love is greater than the pharisee's. The priest made the point that when Jesus says that she has loved much therefore she has been forgiven much, she isn't earning forgiveness because she loves much. Rather her love opens her to being forgiven. The homily was pretty good but I felt like there could have been more.
Also, we ran into another family that we've seen at St. Mary of the Mills and now here at St. Louis. They have a boy about Jacob's age and we had seen them Friday night at our village center and finally introduced ourselves. Now we know Luke, Kim and Timmy by name. At church, we met two of the grandparents on the dad's side.
Since we had such a good time at church, we decided to stop for a treat at one of our favorite bakeries, Touchet Touchet. We had a blueberry muffin and a lemon poppy seed muffin. They were pretty yummy. I hope next week is just as good.
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