Cry Room Chronicles XXXVI

This week we decided to go to the 4 p.m. vigil Mass at St. Louis. We arrived with a few minutes to spare, only to find the parking lot jam packed. We had to park at the far end of the parking lot.

This weekend is the monthly food drive for the poor, so we had an overstuffed bag of groceries to donate. I do not use the word "overstuffed" to brag about our generosity; rather, it explains why the bag ripped when it fell over on a sharp turn going to church. We had a canvas shopping bag in the car which took half the groceries. The remains of the original bag carried the rest. Naturally, this also slowed us down in actually walking into church. By the time we were inside, the first reading was already being read.

We went downstairs to the children's chapel after dropping off the groceries. Jacob made a beeline for the bathroom. Lucy followed suit with her cry, "Diaper change! Diaper change!" We didn't get properly settled till well into the Gospel reading.

I realized that this Mass was a Children's Mass: the readers and choir were all children and Father invited all the good children to come up to the foot of the altar for the sermon. He asked them about the purpose of Lent and how we can unite our offerings up with Christ's suffering. Then he asked about the joy of Easter and got the eventual mention of the Easter bunny, which he laughed off. Not a whole lot of depth which is okay for a Children's Mass.

The rest of Mass was pretty calm for us. Jacob did a lot of book reading. Lucy wandered a bit and read a bit. She also checked out the other people in the children's chapel. One boy was smaller than Lucy. She kept pointing him out as "There's baby!" No one came to collect the offertory, which was disappointing. During the consecration, Jacob told me he wanted to go to the upstairs potty. We went and returned just in time for the sign of peace. Communion was also uneventful. Jacob and Mommy stayed to watch the choir sing the last hymns. Jacob went potty again just before we left.

All in all, it was a pretty good Sunday Mass (even if it was Saturday afternoon). Maybe the kids will wake up early from afternoon naps and we can go again soon.