My Daughter’s Communion Was For The Birds

My daughter’s first communion was yesterday. Unlike Patrick’s tale of woe, it was a fully reverential and moving affair. All the children bowed low before the Eucharist. And after receiving the Eucharist my daughter didn’t even make eye contact with us even though we were seated nearby. She was solemn and prayerful. I was very proud.

She read the Prayer of the Faithful beautifully and when I asked her afterwards if she’d been nervous she looked at me like I was crazy. (Just the way her mother does)

But one odd and funny thing happened I wanted to share. Actually two. When we came in to Church we noticed two birds flying around the altar. They were attracted to the altar, I think, because of the flowers. (I don’t think they were Catholic as they didn’t genuflect but that doesn’t mean anything anymore) But they were swishing and zooming around our Pastor’s head.

Now mind you, the church was a heck of a lot more packed than is typical for our parish and I know this greatly upsets the priests at my parish because they bend over backwards trying to do anything and everything to get people to come to Mass regularly. But our Pastor at the beginning of Mass said he tried all night to get the birds out, including turning all the lights off and leaving the front doors wide open, running, chasing, and screaming after them, and making crow noises into the microphone system. I half think the birds stayed just to see what he would do next.

So our Pastor concluded we would just have to ignore them. And then he said a thought just struck him. “I know what I’ll do,” he said. “I’ll baptize them so that way they’ll only come to Church twice a year at Christmas and Easter.”

Some people laughed. Many didn’t.

But overall it was a great, beautiful and prayerful day.