Tuesday, April 22, 2008

My Favorite Mass

8am – This is far and away my favorite Mass. Not that I get to attend it much. It’s way too hard to get all the kids up and semi-presentable (you know: pants actually zipped up, socks that match, shoes on the right feet, underwear not on the outside of the clothes, maybe hair and teeth brushed – especially important for the ‘commie sign of peace’) by 8am. We do go as a family to this Mass on Christmas and Easter due to family obligations throughout the day. The outcome varies from tolerable to a disaster of Titanic proportions. Otherwise I usually only get to go if the boys are serving, if someone has a sports event too early that day to make it to another Mass, or if we have sick kids and the parents have to go to separate Masses.

So why do I like this Mass so much? What’s not to like? This Mass is short and to the point. 45 minutes tops. No fluff. Not that I’m in a rush. But why have all that extra filler that the other Masses have? Do they really need to sing the announcements? I guess the fact that old lady Magillicutti has gallstones and there will be a soup and salad bible study on Tuesday, sound better when set to music.
But the 8am mass usually has no music. At the most it has opening and closing songs. And the songs are actually Catholic songs…go figure. So you get the Mass, the whole Mass and nothing but the Mass.

It’s also nice to have the whole day open after Mass. You can be home by 9am and make a nice big family breakfast and then plan out the rest of the day. I don’t mean it to sound like I’m saying it’s good to get church over with and out of the way, that’s not really what I’m saying. But you are going to church so why not go early and use the rest of the day for other family activities (or maybe a nap)?

This Mass has a fair number of old people…heck they are up early anyway so why not come. These would be the old people who didn’t make it to the Saturday evening Mass. Maybe they forgot, maybe their nap ran over or maybe that early bird special was too good to pass up. Either way they are there in force. It also has those lucky people who don’t have small children any more. Or those luckier few with little kids who can actually sit still for Mass. Who are these people? I’m sure they drug their kids before church. Some type of Baby Valium. They are like Stepford Kids. They just sit there quietly throughout the Mass.????? Yes I’m jealous. Sue me.

Tomorrow the 10am Mass

1 comment:

momto5minnies said...

We just went to the 8am mass this past weekend. My husband said the same thing ... that we should go to this one because then the rest of the day seems so wide open. I also found it quiet, more reflective. The people there are faithful to that time. I'm not sure we would go (yet) because of the almost 3 year old. We were able to leave her home with older sister (who had been to 5pm Sat. mass with a youth retreat).