My wife took some of the kids to Mass in the morning while I took some of the others, the boy included, with me to the later Mass. My boy is now eight years old and he’s a new altar boy and really paying attention to everything in the liturgy now. Our parish doesn’t offer an afternoon Mass so we had to go to another parish a few miles away.
Without going into much detail about the Mass, the music all sounded like Joni Mitchell songs and most of the intentions had to do with the proper care of our planet’s resources. As we were walking out after Mass he started asking me a question. He said, “Hey Dad, I’ve got a couple of questions about Mass.”
I said, “wait until we get to the van.”
My eleven year old daughter laughed and said, “Dad what was with those songs? It sounded like little kid music.”
“Wait until we get to the van please,” I said.
When we got into the van, the boy asked, “Hey Dad, where was the tabernacle? The priest was sitting where it’s supposed to be and I didn’t see it anywhere.”
I explained to him that I’d noticed it too and how the priest’s chair was elevated against the wall behind the altar. But I too had difficulty finding the tabernacle. But I told him it was down on the far aisle but he couldn’t see it because people were standing in front of it.
“Uhm,” he said. “Isn’t that kind of insulting to Jesus?”
I told him that I thought it was. He sat silently for a minute and finally he said, “Let’s not go back to that parish.”
We won’t, I promised him. We won’t.
July 16, 2013 at 12:21 pm
Found a Catholic Church within easy walking distance from my daughter's new home in MI. Walked in, couldn't find the tabernacle. Finally figured out it was in another room. Mass starts, and first thing everybody is asked to turn to their neighbor and make the sign of the cross on their forehead. It went from there.
July 16, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Another person who thinks fewer Catholics means fewer churches with properly dedicated priests and deacons. And rigorous devotion to the Magesterium and most of all Jesus.
That story has me sad.
July 16, 2013 at 6:58 pm
Why on earth didn't you let them say it before you got to the van? A lot of people needed to hear the exquisitely sound reason and wisdom coming from the mouths of babes.
July 16, 2013 at 9:17 pm
Wonder if the music was like the stuff we're subjected to at VBS this week (we're going ONLY because my nine-year-old daughter really wanted to go, and she'll be too old next year. Yay!). I know it's not Mass, and I basically dropped her off and picked her up afterward. She told me afterward that the music, which sounds like it was made for Preschool children, was boring. Plus, the leader talks to all the kids–grades Pre-K through 4th–as though they were five years old, and the catechesis is about at that level (maybe). If she didn't have a friend in her group, she'd be in agony.
July 17, 2013 at 2:55 pm
I went to the other church in my home town. Tabernacle off to the side behind frosted glass doors and the music was the best of Haugen.
I was in agony.
July 17, 2013 at 7:19 pm
And a little child shall lead them
July 17, 2013 at 7:19 pm
And a little child shall lead them