Mass Happenings

Today after church Riley had a meeting with the Priest for his upcoming First Communion (six more days!) so we had to go to St. Ann's. This is the parish where the boys attend CCD, but it is a large, somewhat impersonal parish and not my first choice for Sunday Mass. (It's amazing, when you don't live in the Lincoln diocese, you're allowed to attend any Catholic Church!)

So there we were at St. Ann's, the boys being angels for a change (Riley had his CCD workbook with him and he and Shannon studied it for quite a bit,) when all of the sudden Corey's ears perked up. "Mommy, why did they say my name?" What? "They just said, 'Corey to you, Lord!'" This continued throughout the mass, every time he heard the word glory he commented on it, (and it is often, try listening for it the next time you Catholics get the chance.)

It was soon time for us to take up the offertory (whenever we sit toward the back of the church we are asked to do this,) and we all got up to perform our task. As the usher was handing us the supplies, he came up one short. Shannon had returned to the pew to complete a Jesus word search and had no intention of helping us walk the offering up the aisle. I gave Ken the nod that said, "Just forget it," and Corey was handed the large basket of monetary offerings and we gingerly made our way down the aisle without Shannon and with Corey setting the pace. We added a good two extra minutes to the Mass, this following the big Annual Appeal that the Priest had made after the homily, and I don't think we won any friends at St. Ann's.

Once we rejoined Shannon, who was no longer blissfully unaware of our absence, he burst into tears and the meltdowns began. The remainder of the Mass was spent reminding the boys to stand, kneel or sit, and giving Corey multiple rundowns of how many minutes and songs were left before we could leave. And, of course, explaining to Corey that once again they were saying glory, not Corey.

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By the way, the meeting with the Priest, which ensured Riley was properly prepared to receive his First Communion next week, went really well after a rough start. Once Riley got over his nervousness, he was able to answer most of the Priest's questions. I was a little worried, initially, when Father asked who created the heavens and earth and Riley simply could not come up with the answer. I admit it, I was blushing at this one. However, soon it all kicked in and Riley even gave 'one perfect answer' of which he was very proud (I know it's the body and blood of Christ because He told us so.) Riley knew of original sin, the trinity, the body and blood of Christ, the first sin, and all of the hard stuff, but for the life of him, he just couldn't remember who started it all. That's my boy.