Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Running Towards Him and Taking it Slow

Hi Everyone ... my apologies for not posting for a bit.  Thank you all for your well wishes during this time.  

I witnessed two different actions at Mass this month that really made me think.

The first action happened right before the Readings.  The church I was at has a practice of calling up all the kids in attendance before the first Reading.  The priest gives one of the children a big book of readings, and that child leads the procession out of the church and to the classrooms where they learn the Gospel in their own terms.  Now, normally, the children are reluctant to be the "book carrier".  For one, it calls attention to them, and they are usually quite shy.  Second, the book is rather large for them and, I imagine, not the easiest thing to carry a decent distance.

But on this day, a lad who looked to be all of 5 years old, came sprinting to the priest to grab the book ... and then proudly held it high over his head as he attempted to proceed back down the aisle.  (He didn't make it far before he had to get some assistance carrying it, but it was definitely an A for effort!)

That action had an immediate impact on me.  What if we all "raced to God's word" as quickly as that little boy did??

The second action that gave me pause was at a different church the following week.  I don't know about churches near you, but when most of our priests perform the Consecration, they hold the body and blood up in the air for about three to five seconds.   Ten at the most. The priest that was residing over this particular Mass held each in the air for a full sixty seconds!

I must admit, relative to the normal actions, those sixty seconds felt like ten minutes.  And what felt a bit awkward at first, turned into something quite beautiful.  

I wondered to myself ... shouldn't we always take an extra minute or two to fully reflect on that most beautiful part of Mass?
 

God Bless all of you. 


 

2 comments:

Victor S E Moubarak said...

It's great to see you posting again, Michael. Welcome back.

We have a similar practice in our church with the children first gathering at the altar then leaving to go elsewhere and read/understand the weekly readings. They then come back and offer at the altar posters and drawings of what they have learnt that week.

Good point about the Consecration. Unfortunately, there are a number of Catholic priests who do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. And our Church is doing nothing about it.

God bless.

Shirley said...

We also have the Children's Liturgy, and they are quite proud to be able to carry the Book.
I am witnessing a shift to self centered praise in our Church. Our current priest is head of the Charismatic Conference in our diocese and some of the things he does make me shudder. However, he is quite reverent when it comes to the Eucharist.