Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Easter Weekend

Lest I appear to be something of a one-trick pony, based on my previous posts about the motu proprio, Rites (old-vs-new), etc., I thought it appropriate to add a post on just life in general, at least as far as the weekend goes.

Well, this being the first whole weekend in April, here in good ol' NC, one would have expected reasonably nice weather. Especially after a few weeks of being hot and sunny. That, however was not to be. I won't hold forth on the weather in this area, as Simon-Peter described the madness of it here far more eloquently than I ever could. Just suffice to say that it was cold and windy - far too cold to do anything outdoors of any consequence. That made for an extended weekend indoors.

As a result, by Sunday, we were all stir-crazy. So after my wife and daughter got home from mass, we ate a beautiful dinner, and piled all three children in the van, allegedly to go to a park somewhere to let them burn off some energy. It took all of 15 minutes until all three were blissfully asleep (a RARE occasion on a weekend day)!!! Cause for celebration!!! So our trip to the park involved a 3 hour, 120 mile triangular trip from home to home (with a stop at a Dairy Queen for an Easter treat for my wife and I). That meant for three straight ours of lucid (awake-daytime) uninterrupted conversation between my perfect wife and I. MORE cause for celebration!!! Our five year old daughter was a bit disoriented, when she awoke a few miles from home, but was easily placated by playing in the back yard with her sister.

All of this worked out beautifully, allowing me to go to mass at 7:00 Easter night. This procedure of going to Mass in shifts is the result of simply being unable to handle the three (actually, the middle) children at mass. It is a less than ideal arrangement, but works pretty well. Though I am looking forward to the time when we can go as a family again. The mass itself was beautiful. Our Lady of Grace is without a doubt the most impressive church I have ever been in (though I am prejudiced, since I was married there). The mass was beautifully done (no Latin, though) complete with organ accompaniment (unusual for the Sunday night Mass) and Father Starczewski sung (!) much of the mass!!!!! Wow... He has a wonderful voice, and I encouraged him to sing more as I was shaking his hand after mass. Though I don't know if he took me seriously or not. This is not to disparage my "home" church, St. Benedict's (yes, I still use the possessive - sue me) which is beautiful as well. Though not as striking, it is actually warmer and prettier in a less ostentatious way. And it has the advantage of having a choir that actually occupies the choir loft, and which, for such a small church, is pretty good.
Unfortunately, it does not have a school, so our children are going to be attending Our Lady of Grace, anyway!
All in all, and amazing weekend. I am so blessed. I don't know what I've done to deserve it all, but I am so blessed. Thank God for it all.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tom--it was great running across your blog. I agree, Fr. John should sing more of the Mass more often. I'm too recent a convert (1969) to have attended a Latin Mass, and I was just a glad to find it in English as I entered. Now, the translation... . Don't get me started. And there are 30-40 other things I would fix, even about OLG. Send me an email and I'll put you on the email list for adult formation things happening here. Yours in Christ, Jim McCullough jmccullough(at)olgchurch(dot)org

The Crescat said...

Tom- you should update your blog more often. I'd be interested to see what you pound out.