Cry Room Chronicles XXXI

Today's adventure in Mass-going found us at the 9:30 a.m. Mass at St. Louis. We almost got up in time for the 8 o'clock Mass but didn't think we'd make it. So we left pretty early, went to the grocery store to stock up on the necessities and still made it with seven or eight minutes to spare.

We started upstairs in the main body of the church, which had its pluses and minuses. On the plus side was the choir and the musicians which kept the children occupied for a little while. On the minus side was the woman sitting six or seven rows in front of us who wore a leopard-print coat. Lucy saw it and said, quite audibly, "Tiger! Tiger!"It was cute but Mass had already started by the time she made the discovery. She kept fussing and talking till I took her out to the vestibule. We walked around for a little bit as the homily started. Then Jacob and Mommy showed up and we were off to the children's chapel.

Jacob had his obligatory potty stop on the way downstairs. Lucy decided she needed a diaper change once we got to the chapel, which was quite full today. We found only two seats together; the kids didn't really need chairs since they wandered about as usual. Both of them loved putting money in the collection basket. Jacob couldn't be bothered to stop reading when the sign of peace came. Going to communion was mostly uneventful except for another obligatory potty stop. I would blame the juice he drank in the car but really Jacob has bathroom visit fixation disorder (BVFD is quite common in children), at least in cool places like church.

We did go to the playground afterwards. The visit was brief because it was far too cold out. Jacob and Lucy enjoyed the slides and were sad to go.

During the homily, Father said he had three things to help us be authentically holier people. First, he talked about practicing perpetual presence with God. In stead of being aware of Him on an hour on Sunday, we should constantly be conscious of God's presence in our lives. That presence should inform our actions and guide our thoughts and decisions. He makes a great point, one that I need to work on. The other two points were lost in going to the children's chapel and changing Lucy's diaper. I'm sure they were just as profound and moving. One out of three isn't bad. Hopefully we'll get two or three out of three next week!