Nicest Thing in Mass this Weekend?

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Every Mass is special, I know, but sometimes little things make them more memorable. This weekend we had about the two tiniest altar boys I’ve ever seen serve together. The celebrant several times had to adjust the smallest one’s surplice because it was so large on his little frame it kept slipping off his shoulders; meanwhile, the cassock was sweeping the floor. The taller altar boy would occasionally reach over and try to get the smaller boy’s cowlick to sit down. They were quite a pair. Yet far from being a distraction from the Mass, I found it heartening to think about the young men who are in this way being trained in the ways of the church, swinging the thurible, (which was quite a feat since they were so small) holding the paten, kneeling in a reverent posture and all the other things which set tiny feet on the right path. One could not help but pray for them and their spiritual well-being.
The other nice thing was the mention of Herman the cripple, whose feast was recently celebrated, and who wrote the Salve regina. We have lately sung this song in Latin, of course prior to the celebrant recessing.
Beautiful finish to a beautiful mass.
 
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mpav:
Every Mass is special, I know, but sometimes little things make them more memorable. This weekend we had about the two tiniest altar boys I’ve ever seen serve together. The celebrant several times had to adjust the smallest one’s surplice because it was so large on his little frame it kept slipping off his shoulders; meanwhile, the cassock was sweeping the floor. The taller altar boy would occasionally reach over and try to get the smaller boy’s cowlick to sit down. They were quite a pair. Yet far from being a distraction from the Mass, I found it heartening to think about the young men who are in this way being trained in the ways of the church, swinging the thurible, (which was quite a feat since they were so small) holding the paten, kneeling in a reverent posture and all the other things which set tiny feet on the right path. One could not help but pray for them and their spiritual well-being.
The other nice thing was the mention of Herman the cripple, whose feast was recently celebrated, and who wrote the Salve regina. We have lately sung this song in Latin, of course prior to the celebrant recessing.
Beautiful finish to a beautiful mass.
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Be sure to tell those boys how much you appreciated that job that they did. To this day, I can still remember the people who encouraged me before I served my first Sunday Mass and those who expressed appreciation and support. It made me feel so much more confident that I was up to doing it.
 
“On the lips of children and babes, You have found perfect praise”
 
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mpav:
Every Mass is special, I know, but sometimes little things make them more memorable.

the Salve regina. .
Click to expand...
It will be interesting to see how many Marian songs are sung this month… or how many Eucharistic songs are sung as we close the year of the Eucharist, and look to the Synod.

oops… that would mean nothing from a Protestant source, huh?

We had a substitute priest this weekend… very good, and similiar to the new pastor who is in the Holy Land. His homily was interjected with personal stories to emphasize that God is in charge and His plans are not always easy to see or understand, and that we must allow Him to bear fruit in us. The priest learned young to play the piano well… and his mom and family were athiests and anti-religious. But his mom let him go to Mass every day because he got paid one dollar for playing the piano. Little did she, or he, know that these daily graces would lead to the priesthood.
 
For us, it was “Respect Life” Sunday, and the pastor mentioned abortion, contraception, etc. He didn’t explicitly come out and say they were wrong, but he did imply it. For us, that is a baby step toward orthodoxy.
 
The priest used the word “abortion” in the homily. (It was a strong homily but he equivocated on where and how Church doctrine drew the line.)

<< I complimented him on it (“thank you for using the word “abortion” in your homily”) as he was greeting people exiting the church. He was taken aback and only gave a nervous chuckle. >>
 
the priest rounded up some polish speaking volunteers to teach the poles some english, we have about 35-42 new poles join our small parish and between them you would struggle to get a whole conversation out of them, hopefully this will give them the skills and confidence to get better jobs and housing,
 
Wow! I had an experience I never bargained for.

I went to early morning Mass on Sunday with a migrane that had been festering since Saturday evening. It was not too bad until I got to Mass.

Then it really opened up. My eyes hurt, my skin went cold my face went pale and I had a great desire to be sick all from the throbbing pain in my head and I left very quickly after the Priest had left the Altar.

Later that night I had occassion to tell Jesus how sorry I was for coming to Mass that morning in such a state. I said “My Lord I am sorry I came to you this morning suffering.”

He inwardly replied “My child how wonderful as this is how, this morning, I came to you.”

Needless to say that put my worries in persepctive.
 
One of our auxilliary bishops (Joeseph Tyson) came to our newman center and gave a very nice homily about much work and time and expertice it takes to make good wine (he met and befriended a viniologist once when he was bycycling in germany), and if one fails any of those 3 components you either get an overgrown vineyard, a ruined wine that is either too sweet or vinegar, or a just the knowlege that you COULD make wine if you wanted to but you never do… Thus as students we must turn our studies to help and tend to humanity, produce good and holy fruits in our endeavors, and not live in ivory towers but actually help mankind with our learning.
 
We have a large Nigerian community in our parish and so yesterday we celebrated Nigerian Independence Day. The two priests concelebrating (one a Priest new to our parish, the other our old Parish Priest visiting us which was lovely) wore Ghanian vestments, the Nigerian choir joined with our choir and the offertory procession, thanksgiving after communion and recessional hymn were all sung in Nigerian, during the offertory procession all the children of the parish joined in and brought food gifts to the priests which were given later on to the SVP. The Nigerian community then invited the rest of the parish to a party where they provided food and music. Mass lasted nearly two hours and I could see no sign of people complaining and did not notice anybody leaving before the end of the last hymn.
 
The recessional song was one called ‘Golden Rose’ in honor of Our Lady of Knock. I was pleasantly surprised because usually our choir director does a lot of swingy protestant hymns (stuff that sounds like you could hand clap along to it) but the past few weeks I’ve noticed more reverant and pretty hymns, such as this one.

Also our two new priests are fantastic, they are inviting parish members over to the rectory for a visit each week to get to know everyone. I was very surprised at this, but again pleasantly so. Thought it was a great idea and will make us look welcoming to those that might be visitors, etc.
 
Wish I’d been there for Golden Rose.

Mr S
"It will be interesting to see how many Marian songs are sung this month… or how many Eucharistic songs are sung as we close the year of the Eucharist, and look to the Synod.

oops… that would mean nothing from a Protestant source, huh?"

Sing of Mary, which I like very much, was written by an Anglican, a Catholic leaning Anglican to be sure, but an Anglican nonetheless.
 
I have to admit, this is my favorite time of the year, when the newly trained altar servers begin their rotation. We welcome all boys who have made their first communion. They are so eager and willing–and so little–but so reverent and careful with every movement and gesture. We had a college student serving with his two young nephews and it was a trip to watch him patiently guiding and correctlng them.
 
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