This week we were back on schedule, walking in three minutes before the beginning of 8 a.m. Mass at St. Louis. In the children's chapel we discovered our old friends James and Colin with their parents (the mom is still pregnant). We said our hellos before the Mass started. Colin even said Lucy's name!
James is on a new program where he is following along the parts of the Mass, giving responses and standing or sitting at the appropriate times. It gives me hope for Jacob. Colin was carrying around a blanket with his hand up by his shoulder. His mother took this as a "ready to strike" stance and was very watchful when he was around Lucy and Jacob. Jacob and he had a lot of near interactions. Colin was generally peaceful. So much so that he even gave the sign of peace early to everyone in the room. Jacob did his usual wandering around the room and reading out loud from any book he could find. He asked to go see the violins, not realizing that we weren't at the 9:30 Mass.
We did go upstairs a little early for communion. I gave Jacob a nickel for the poor box. He just wandered around with it. Putting coins in the poor box has lost its appeal for Jacob but has gained appeal for Lucy. She took a couple of coins from me. Not able to reach it on her own, I had to hold her over the box while she put some spare change in. At least one of us is financially supporting the church.
After Mass we went to the playground where we caught up with Timmy and his parents Kim and Luke. We hadn't seen them since August. There wasn't much news to report. We were all bummed about the canceled pool party in the neighborhood (you know, the one I didn't write a blog about because it didn't happen). Other than that, the summer has been quiet. Then we headed home for special muffins (Jacob and Lucy still don't know that the green vegetable zucchini is the key ingredient) and some fun outside.
The sermon was a bit of a blur since we were trying to convince Jacob he needed his diaper changed. He countered with his need to read more books. Finally, we gave him two minutes to read and then he'd get the diaper change. Lucy didn't want me to leave the room so Angie wound up with diaper duty. Heaven help whoever went into that bathroom after us! Anyway, the gospel had the famous line, "every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 14:11ish) I do remember the priest talking about how we need patience and understanding, especially in situations that we can't control and feel are extremely annoying and inconvenient, like a delayed or canceled flight at the airport or being stuck in a grocery line behind very chatty and seemingly slow checkout attendants. That touched me because I have felt umbrage at the grocery store checkout before. I hope to mend my ways in the future.
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