Christmas Mass today

[babochka]

This evening, I was invited to attend a Christmas pageant at our local Catholic school. Our neighbor girls were very excited to be taking part! I was surprised when I arrived, because they had not told me that the pageant was taking place within a Mass. The pageant took the place of the readings and homily. (Yes, yes, I know… but that isn’t my point here. Feel free to rant, though. I’ll join you! ) All of the music for the Mass was Christmas music: Angels We Have Heard on High, O Little Town of Bethlehem, etc. I know they chose to do this now because the kids will be out of school for the next two weeks, but c’mon… We really try to live the liturgical year as a family, to live the cycle of fasts and feasts with the church. Sometimes this frustrates my children, but I explain to them that we do this because we’re Christians and live differently from the rest of the world. It is hard and we’re imperfect at it, but it would be really helpful if the church were to do this as well. Around here, Catholic churches have Easter Egg hunts on Holy Saturday and now a Christmas Mass during Advent?

 

[superamazingman]

This evening, I was invited to attend a Christmas pageant at our local Catholic school. Our neighbor girls were very excited to be taking part! I was surprised when I arrived, because they had not told me that the pageant was taking place within a Mass. The pageant took the place of the readings and homily. (Yes, yes, I know… but that isn’t my point here. Feel free to rant, though. I’ll join you! ) All of the music for the Mass was Christmas music: Angels We Have Heard on High, O Little Town of Bethlehem, etc. I know they chose to do this now because the kids will be out of school for the next two weeks, but c’mon… We really try to live the liturgical year as a family, to live the cycle of fasts and feasts with the church. Sometimes this frustrates my children, but I explain to them that we do this because we’re Christians and live differently from the rest of the world. It is hard and we’re imperfect at it, but it would be really helpful if the church were to do this as well. Around here, Catholic churches have Easter Egg hunts on Holy Saturday and now a Christmas Mass during Advent?

wow. How frustrating.

 

[Vico]

This evening, I was invited to attend a Christmas pageant at our local Catholic school. Our neighbor girls were very excited to be taking part! I was surprised when I arrived, because they had not told me that the pageant was taking place within a Mass. The pageant took the place of the readings and homily. (Yes, yes, I know… but that isn’t my point here. Feel free to rant, though. I’ll join you! ) All of the music for the Mass was Christmas music: Angels We Have Heard on High, O Little Town of Bethlehem, etc. I know they chose to do this now because the kids will be out of school for the next two weeks, but c’mon… We really try to live the liturgical year as a family, to live the cycle of fasts and feasts with the church. Sometimes this frustrates my children, but I explain to them that we do this because we’re Christians and live differently from the rest of the world. It is hard and we’re imperfect at it, but it would be really helpful if the church were to do this as well. Around here, Catholic churches have Easter Egg hunts on Holy Saturday and now a Christmas Mass during Advent?

All the partying makes the Nativity Fast from November 15 a challenge too (e.g., Thanksgiving).

 

[babochka]

On a positive note, at the end of Mass, Father announced that the school children had all been to confession this week as part of their Christmas preparation. He let us all know that there would be 3 priests hearing confessions for 4 hours on Friday, 4 hours on Saturday, and 2 hours on Monday, and that he hoped that we would keep them all busy.

 

[babochka]

All the partying makes the Nativity Fast from November 15 a challenge too (e.g., Thanksgiving).

Yes, well I did mention that we do this imperfectly. And our priest gave us an explicit dispensation for Thanksgiving.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

It is hard. Although if the school resumes before Jan 6, they could presumably do the pagent then - when it is actually Christmas!