Beautiful scene at Mass today

  • Thread starter Thread starter 1990Domer
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
1

1990Domer

Guest
DH and I saw something that just melted our hearts. My son was serving at Mass and was holding the paten for our pastor. A mother came up to communion with her special needs son (he was wearing noise protectors on his ears and special sensory glasses) who was carrying a toy. Our pastor made sure to bend down to allow the little boy to show him his toy. My husband and I looked at each other and thought how brave it was for that mother to take her son to church when I’m sure it could have been much easier to and arguably justifiable to keep him at home. DH and I thought that the little boy probably was on the autism spectrum given the sensory issues the mom was trying to address.

I wish I could have found that mother if only to give her a smile and wish her a Merry Christmas. She’ll never know the gratitude she brought me and DH as we never thought, when our son was newly diagnosed, that 10 years later he would be an altar boy. And after mass, a nice couple complimented my son on what a nice job he did serving. I’m not sure why, but maybe because he didn’t look bored. In any respect, it was a great Christmas.
 
Lovely. Just shows how much can be accomplished with the help of Christ! I hope the mother you saw has as much success with her son. And whar a beautiful gesture from your priest!
 
Lily_Bernans said:
Lovely. Just shows how much can be accomplished with the help of Christ! I hope the mother you saw has as much success with her son. And whar a beautiful gesture from your priest!
Click to expand...
Amen! I hope so too. Our pastor is the best! I still don’t know what he said to my son to allow him to overcome his anxiety. And I loved his gesture because it showed how he wants to welcome everyone into God’s house.
 
Very nice! Remember that Jesus said that His Kingdom belongs to the little ones, and what a fitting day to give witness to that! May God bless all of you this Christmas and always! 🙂
 
What a heartwarming post…Thank you for sharing it with us. I hope your family had a very Merry Christmas!

Many blessings!🙂
 
Thank you everyone for the kind replies. As DH and I were winding down the day, it was interesting that he, too, was writing about our experience at church for a different Catholic forum he frequents (he was also going to post it here, but I beat him to it). The experience grounded me in a way I really needed. My greatest gift yesterday was seeing how good God is, no matter what cross He gives you.
 
I found what my husband posted:

"Shortly after returning from Communion, a small ruckus in the receiving line caught my attention. A woman was presenting herself to the priest with a boy of about 6 in tow. The boy was flailing about in disorganized way, giving the woman (I assumed his mother) all she could handle to keep him in line and not further disrupting reception for other mass goers. Furthermore, the boy was wearing what looked like exotic headphones, and was carrying what looked at quick glance like a small hairdryer, or maybe a power drill. As they reached the priest, the boy started speaking to him and handing him the object, which now was seen pretty clearly to be a space-themed toy gun. The woman frantically tried to keep his arms down and spoke to both him and the priest although I could not catch any of the words. The priest answered with something and waited with his hand outstretched as if to give the boy a blessing, until he was still enough to receive a hand over his forehead. The two then proceeded around, with the boy babbling away and his attention clearly fixed on his toy gun. (I never could make out any of the discussion)

I had never witnessed such a thing before. But my own family experience left no doubt what I was witnessing. Many folks might have been angry at the irreverence shown and even the woman’s complicity. But my reaction was almost one of joyful tears. This was a young boy with profound disability, almost certainly some flavor of autism. Due to its socially inappropriate symptoms, his mother almost certainly never brought him to church…without his objects to play his fixated fantasy with, he probably would be unbearably disruptive the entire Mass. But for “some reason”, today she let him bring his play gear to hopefully keep him occupied, and took a chance on our Lord’s Supper on the feast of His Incarnation.

This woman probably has had to bear snide comments, dirty looks and perhaps worse, in the past when bringing this boy to church. Thus my guess that he hasn’t seen the inside of a church in years. But today, they came, and were present when Jesus Himself became present in front of them. While the boy probably had no idea of any of the goings on of the Mass, he received invaluable graces that those who stayed home for any number of mundane reasons did not.

My wife also realised what we were witnessing. As this disability affects our own family, we both were close to tears."

I think a kind e-mail to our pastor is in order today!
 
I found what my husband posted:

"Shortly after returning from Communion, a small ruckus in the receiving line caught my attention. A woman was presenting herself to the priest with a boy of about 6 in tow. The boy was flailing about in disorganized way, giving the woman (I assumed his mother) all she could handle to keep him in line and not further disrupting reception for other mass goers. Furthermore, the boy was wearing what looked like exotic headphones, and was carrying what looked at quick glance like a small hairdryer, or maybe a power drill. As they reached the priest, the boy started speaking to him and handing him the object, which now was seen pretty clearly to be a space-themed toy gun. The woman frantically tried to keep his arms down and spoke to both him and the priest although I could not catch any of the words. The priest answered with something and waited with his hand outstretched as if to give the boy a blessing, until he was still enough to receive a hand over his forehead. The two then proceeded around, with the boy babbling away and his attention clearly fixed on his toy gun. (I never could make out any of the discussion)

I had never witnessed such a thing before. But my own family experience left no doubt what I was witnessing. Many folks might have been angry at the irreverence shown and even the woman’s complicity. But my reaction was almost one of joyful tears. This was a young boy with profound disability, almost certainly some flavor of autism. Due to its socially inappropriate symptoms, his mother almost certainly never brought him to church…without his objects to play his fixated fantasy with, he probably would be unbearably disruptive the entire Mass. But for “some reason”, today she let him bring his play gear to hopefully keep him occupied, and took a chance on our Lord’s Supper on the feast of His Incarnation.

This woman probably has had to bear snide comments, dirty looks and perhaps worse, in the past when bringing this boy to church. Thus my guess that he hasn’t seen the inside of a church in years. But today, they came, and were present when Jesus Himself became present in front of them. While the boy probably had no idea of any of the goings on of the Mass, he received invaluable graces that those who stayed home for any number of mundane reasons did not.

My wife also realised what we were witnessing. As this disability affects our own family, we both were close to tears."

I think a kind e-mail to our pastor is in order today!
 
I think it’s wonderful that you sent your pastor a positive email. I know that a lot of times priests get complaints although there are a few positive notes as well. I think it’s great that you encouraged him this way. 👍

Prayers for all those who struggle with disabilities and their caregivers. May God bless and assist them…
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top