Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Ordinary Time is anything but ordinary in the journey of Catholic parenting...

Hello all, and happy Tuesday to you! I was in fact tied up with the electrician yesterday (as I suspected I would be), and after that crew left I was home in the hot house, sweating, so I wasn't exactly in the mood to sit at our computer and blog. In our non-centrally air conditioned house, if I'm alone I just walk around in as few layers as possible and hope that I don't accidentally scandalize anybody coming to deliver a package.

But at any rate, we had a lovely weekend, and in particular a lovely Sunday, the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time. This is that long stretch of Ordinary Time that spans the entire summer and fall, all the way to Advent in late November or very early December. Each year, I try to find the specialness in Ordinary Time, since it doesn't have any crescendo-like solemnities in it, and there are plenty of special things, to be sure. One of them are awesome saint feast days, and we'll be revisiting that throughout the season. :)

This weekend I was feeling very happy and content to be headed back to Mass at my regular parish. For a few weeks leading up, I hadn't attended Mass there. One weekend, we went to Mass as a family to a vigil at a different parish, a historic building that Mike loves, and another we were in Pittsburgh where I attended Mass at a fairly new and much more modern parish building. Finally, I was back at good old St. Paul's.

The kids were with me and had their usual faces going on: Anne - happy and excited, Henry - stoic and long suffering. ;) We took our usual place near the front at the right side of the church. The green banners are back up above the altar denoting that we are in Ordinary Time. I noticed that there was a red altar cloth, which marked the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, martyrs. I just love details like that. *swoons*

The kids were very well behaved, although Henry seemed to be worrying that he was looking decidedly uncool if he actually used his missal. I suspect it had something to do with the fact that cute Cora was one of the altar servers this week. :0

When it was time for communion, Anne requested to walk up with Henry, as she has for several weeks now. She *adores* her big brother, and looks up to him, so I said that that was fine, and I just walk behind them. This is a nice development in that it frees up my hands to receive the Precious Blood. I personally never receive communion in either form with one hand, I'm too afraid of dropping or spilling (I'm clumsy). So when carrying a child I receive the Host on the tongue, and skip the Precious Blood. With Anne walking on her own, this is no longer an issue.

So the kids go up. Hank receives communion and Anne gets a blessing. They look completely adorable through the entire proceedings. I go up to receive, feeling happy and serene. As I turn from the priest and look toward the line for the chalice, I see a sight that I suppose I should have been more prepared for, knowing my daughter: Henry and Anne are casually headed back to our pew, right at the front of the church. For reasons that will never be understood by anybody over the age of 10, Anne has decided that she needs some more air flow and movement in the vicinity of her legs. She has hiked her dress up, oh, to the area just south of her armpits.

:0

All I can see are Hello Kitty underpants, and she is too far ahead of me to grab quickly. I hustle past the Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion holding the chalice and race to snag her. I quickly yank down her dress and she looks all offended, like *I've* done something to embarrass *her*.

*unladylike snort*

We made it back to the pew with minimal scandal in place. Anne did not seem deterred in the least, and waved to every person coming back from the communion line from her station at the end of our pew. It was our more amusing forays at Mass, to be certain. :)

Coming up this month, we have lots of fun Catholic stuff to look forward to. July bears the feasts of St. Henry, St. Anne, and St. Kateri Tekakwitha, all dear to my heart. I will post on all of them. We also have the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on July 16th. So exciting! I just love those Carmelites, that may warrant a post as well. The weather is heating up here, but we'll be doing lots of saint talking and book reviewing. What are your favorite summer feast days? Leave me a comment!

1 comment:

  1. Since my parish is run by Discalced Carmelites the big feast day thing is July 16th.

    Bloomers or shorts underneath. Girls do that all the time at that age. I can't tell you how many times working at the daycare I was flashed. "Oh, look Miss L. See? I got new big girl undies." "That's nice dear. Now put your dress down." I always appreciated the parents who threw a pair of cotton shorts on underneath. Course this is me with my children who prefer being nude. Well...my oldest is outgrowing that. I make him throw a pair of shorts over his underwear and a shirt. He doesn't mind so much because of his great love of pockets. My youngest on the other hand. He flips out if he spills the least bit of water on his shirt and than refuses to wear a new one.

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