The beauty of the Mass

To me, there is simply nothing in life as beautiful as the Mass. I wish I could go to Mass every day! Even a mass that is filled with me up and down and attending to my children's needs, there is still such grace that we receive from attending the sacrifice of the Mass.

Today we had a special mass celebration for our parishes patron saint, St. Joseph. Every reading and prayer and song were done in different languages to incorporate the wide language community St. Joe's offers. All of the priests that ordinarily say the Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish masses joined us, and the bishop came up for the celebration too. I forget that my kids don't get to see the bishop very often.  When I converted to the church I went to a cathedral parish and the bishop was just like any other priest. When Ina saw him before mass, she was completely star struck.  "Who's that?  Isn't his photo on the wall over there?" << I laughed thinking oh, you notice those photos when you're running away from me at mass.  And honestly, as a parent mass was awful for me today.  Potty breaks, tantrums, baby crying, kid injuries, frustration, frustration, frustration.  But inbetween all those moments, it was such a beautiful mass with all the wonder and beauty of all the pomp and circumstance of the Catholic Church.  It was especially neat to see Ina, who hadn't experienced alot beyond our regular mass experience, and her interest. We also had seminarians participate in the mass, two of which are st Joseph's parishioners and heard their call while at mass at our parish. Beautiful.

Our church is losing another wonderful priest to another parish. He will be greatly missed. Fr. Bernadine is such a wonderful holy man and I know he will do great service at the parishes across town that he will be moving to.  St.  Joe's will miss him though! He is so good with babies and kids and has a sweet heart of God. In fact, as they were walking out, he saw Ina's very grumpy frowny mid tantrum face and reached across a few of us to touch her.  <3

A man was taken via ambulance during mass today too. I pray that he is okay and getting the medical care he needs. The sirens and fire truck and ambulance coupled with my already broken down feelings from the beauty of the mass were really overwhelming for me.

There was also a reception at the Cody Center too and there were lots of people going!  we didn't go, but I am sure it was wonderful and blessed. 

Oh, and just for giggles. I almost never wear high heels, but today I felt well enough to wear them.  It would figure that we would sit close (which means FAR WALK to the back), my kids would have to pee or get up 60000000000 times, and my calves are suffering from all that high heel crazy mama ness today!

A very simple thing, going to mass.  But so very complex, too. Mass is beautiful.