My Parish

Growing up, we went to a couple different parishes. The city was growing and so the number of Catholics grew, hence more parishes needed. I remember they all had different flavors and the people attending them seemed to have different attitudes about going to mass.

Sure, at every parish in the world, there are some people who will always be: Sits-in-the-front-and-leads-the-people-in-the-responses Guy, Prays-so-fervently-she-forgets-to-stand-up Lady, So-excited-about-the-sign-of-peace-your-hand-falls-off Man, Used-to-have-a-good-voice-200-years-ago Woman, and on and on.

Then there are the groups of people that tends to be always around: Teenagers or the "boo for Mass" people; young parents, the "Mass is so hectic" people; spouses of Catholics, or the "blah for Mass" people, most of the crowd fits into "attentive but easily distracted at Mass" people; and my personal favorite... old people, the "yay for Mass!" people.

Now - my parish is of all ages, but in some ways they all are like old people. You walk in and they are mostly very quiet before Mass. The church was constructed during the early 70's or, fan period, but has been redone to look gorgeous. Tabernacle in center, candles all around, Statues in nooks with painted angels and gold in-lay, they even have painted some of the walls to look like marble, but in the "marble" grain is tucked JMJ or IHS. So beautiful!

We had our newest baby baptized on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (nice day, huh?). It was the last day of the Christmas season, and there were trees and lights and candles and about 10 alters boys who knew exactly what they were doing (and more shockingly) looked like they actually wanted to be there and had chosen to assist at the Mass. It was just glorious. It was how Mass I think was meant to be. And at the height of the Sacrifice of the Mass, I looked up and the head alter boy was laying prostrate on the floor, very aware that his Lord had just died for him.

I love that our parish is made up of "yay for Mass" people. That one alter boy I would say is a "YAY FOR MASS" man.

Me? I'm hoping the "YAY" will wear off on me - I'm pretty sure it's already started.