Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Faith Formation Mass

We have Mass after Faith Formation every Wednesday night. It is a new addition to our Faith Formation schedule and I really like it. For awhile now, I have thought I should be attending daily Mass. I have probably actually attended daily Mass twice, ever. It is possible, I have attended more, but not much, and it has always been on Monday evenings, until this school year.

I enjoy it. I enjoy seeing the number of youth who stay after Faith Formation. Some weeks there are more than others. Every week, students from one of the classes assist with music, readings and prayers. The bigger the class, the more students stay. The younger the class, the more parents and younger siblings stay. Tonight, there were probably 30 people in attendance.

My favorite part of the Mass is the celebration of the Eucharist. Father invites everyone in attendance to come down around the altar. We are all within feet of the elevation of the Body of Christ. It is very powerful and moving. I didn't realize how spiritual it felt until last week, when we remained in our pews. It felt like something was missing.'

It was good to be close to Jesus tonight.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Falling Down on the Job

Months ago, I was starting a 40 day journey, or so I said. It didn't happen. I was paralyzed. There was too much to do, but most of it was busy work. My focus was on taking care of business, but not necessarily taking care of my spiritual business.

I had things to do. After all, I chaired the HarvestFest and the 125th Anniversary celebration of our Parish. I started the school year, chairing the Education Advisory Committee and sitting on the Parish Council as the reporting representative from the EAC committee. My husband and I began another school year teaching the 2nd grade class in Faith Formation. There were the Sunday obligation Masses and the Wednesday night Masses after Faith Formation. We had daily prayer before the kids headed off to school.

Somewhere in there, though, while I was trying to take care of the spiritual needs of my family, I wasn't taking care of my own. I couldn't even acknowledge my own. I didn't want to face my own.

So, here I am: gearing up for an Emmaus retreat, praying for peace, hoping for comfort, looking to re-connect with my own spiritual self.