Sunday, October 31, 2010

Mass Chat: Let the chidden come to me... in their costumes.


"When I see children, I see the face of God." - Michael Jackson
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So anyway, last evening was the costume ball Mass at my parish.  I was not going to go but a friend said - that's your church, your community - you should be there.  So I went.
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The rehearsal for the kid's in the Halloween Costume Mass choir took place 20 minutes before Mass.  The flat screens were working with videos of kids singing and dancing to Disney style Hanna Montana rock music and the kids were gyrating and singing along.  During Mass the songs were not as raucous.  The church was packed and very noisy.  At the end of Mass all the little animals and witches and batmen and spidermen and queens and knights assembled on the sanctuary steps to pose for a group photo with Father and the deacons.  There had to be over a hundred kids.  Applause, applause, then final blessing.  Father had nicely pulled together the meaning of it all right before the blessing - although I can't recall what he said.
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I must say, the experience really wasn't all that bad.  I wasn't angry or upset and I was able to remain somewhat recollected - by the grace of God to be sure.  May He be praised forever.
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New photo.  Yes, one reader got tired of the smoking pope.

11 comments:

  1. Kudos to you, Terry, for staying recollected. I wouldn't have been able to pull that off.
    The priest at my former parish always called the little kids at mass to come up to the altar during consecration.
    No one could ever accuse me of not liking children--I ran a daycare out of my home for eight years--but in this instance, "Suffer the little children" took on a new context I was never able to rise above.

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  2. Happy Hallowe'en Terry! I am going to the cemetary this afternoon. I will pray for your parents.

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  3. You're a stronger person than I am. What you described makes me want to hurl...

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  4. They never do crap like that at the Cathedral, thanks be to God!

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  5. I didn't even like children's Masses when I was a child. Glad we don't do the Halloween Mass here. Though when my kids were little they did a "patron saint" party at their religious ed. classes, and I thought it was nice. But it wasn't at Mass.

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  6. I knew a priest in Germany who always did the "let the kids come to the altar" thing. I trust that he meant well, but it did make me wince.

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  7. Anonymous5:22 PM

    This is so sad to hear about. Give us the Faith of Our Fathers!

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  8. This is a joke..right?

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  9. Tragically, Carol, I doubt it's a joke.

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  10. It definitely is not a joke.

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  11. Ouch.

    I have a little more patience with this than I did a few years back.

    I remember one Sunday, I walked out of the 10 Mass at one parish. Went to the 11 at another and walked out of that one and ended up at the 5 where the shenanigans were silly but at least not scandalous to my children's souls.

    We have a lot of work to do.

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