Monday, December 22, 2008

Church rant

This is going to be boring for the non-Catholics out there. Feel free to skip it.

Sunday morning, Snookie asked if we could go to monk mass. We've talked about monk mass before. Monk mass is a totally different experience than mass at our home parish. It's worth the drive, and we went pretty often earlier this year. But eventually we decided that we liked the earlier time slot available at our home parish, and then when we got Bobcat's diagnosis, we discovered that our home parish could accommodate with a gluten free communion host. We wouldn't expect special treatment from the monks - after all, they are not a parish designed to serve their parishioners. It's really their mass, and regular people are allowed to come. That's my impression anyway. Bobcat could receive the Precious Blood (wine) only, but the monks don't serve that to the lay people. A decision which I totally endorse, by the way. I wish they would serve under the bread alone at our church because it would involve fewer extraordinary ministers (lay people), and because it takes them so much time to cleanse all those chalices when they're done. It's no wonder so many people leave early, I'm always tempted to leave myself. I thought it was very cool that Snookie, age 6, preferred monk mass. Even a child can recognize and enjoy when things are more reverent.

Well, let me tell you, our experience at regular mass this Sunday was very disconcerting and really made us long for the monks. First off, nobody took the pyx with the GF host from the altar (it's supposed to be the deacon, but we had a visiting deacon who clearly hadn't been informed by the church lady in charge of that stuff). So Bobcat and I had to stand there with everyone staring while Father went up to retrieve it. I am seriously considering becoming an EM myself, just so I can serve him myself and be a lot more discreet about it. But, I don't like the idea of lay ministers, and I don't really want to be one. I know a certain number are necessary, but we have way too many, and I don't want to be among them, or to leave my family during the most important part of the week.

Okay, this is getting long, but here's the really weird part. The announcement was made that for Christmas Eve, there would be two "youth masses" (4:00 and 6:00). That's fine. I'm okay with "family masses", I guess, if it means that the homily will be geared towards children, but everything else is still done reverently, and children and parents will remain seated together. But this is definitely going to be one of our new pastor's interesting inventions. Because for these masses, we are invited to bring a blanket! It's going to be in the parish hall, not the church. I hate to criticize a priest, but this new pastor of ours has raised a few eyebrows with his way of doing things lately. I almost want to go, without the kids of course, just to see what it's all about. Morbid curiosity. MommaLlama and I were joking that maybe the blankets are for the kids to wear and then everyone could pretend to be a priest and help consecrate the Eucharist. I just can't imagine what sort of bizarre stuff is going to happen. Santa will probably visit and deliver the homily.

Anyway. Maybe when Bobcat's GI tract is fully healed, he'll be able to tolerate one little communion host per week and we can go back to the monks.

6 comments:

nicole said...

Interesting. Santa always makes an appearance at the end of the children's Masses at St. Mark's. My kids used to be scared of him, and we would have to leave by the side doors b/c Santa stands outside the main doors. Anyway, sounds weird. I would definitely be skipping it.

Erin Manning said...

Daddio, just a quick question.

Is the "gluten-free" Host really one of the 0.01% gluten hosts approved for use by the US bishops? I was reading the amazing story about the two nuns whose careful experiments developed this, so I was just curious.

Thanks!

Daddio said...

It is one of the approved hosts that is low gluten, not 100% gluten free. Meets the criteria to made of "what flour", but well below the gluten tolerance of nearly any celiac.

Erin Manning said...

That's what I was thinking! Have you ever read about the nuns who developed this? It's so inspiring:

http://catholickey.org/index.php3?article_id=2858&gif=news.gif&issue=20040409&mode=view

Your little ones might enjoy the "kitchen science" the nuns describe!

Elizabeth said...

Santa's elves appeared at our Christmas Eve Mass. I was completely annoyed and will no longer be attending the Children's Mass.

Elizabeth said...

Oh, and there was this Mass that everyone raves about that my parents decided to attend. It turned out to be a mariachi Mass where the priest did most of the singing and insisted on applause after every number. He went through the consecraction so fast that my parents didn't even know that it had taken place AND THEN he didn't even distribute the communion. He stayed up on the stage, err, I mean altar and sang! Mom said she felt "sick" afterwards, the whole mass just sadddend her.