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daidoji_giseiI got to church this morning thinking I was a little late for the 10:30 mass (slippery sidewalks scare me) and discovered I was very late--they had just begun saying the Our Father when I arrived. After a few moments of confusion I realized that I had confused the mass schedule for my previous parish with the schedule of my new one: Blessed Sacrament has masses at 10 and 11:30, not 10:30.
This was highly vexing. I've been so consumed by my move and the various alarms at work that I haven't done anything to mark Advent (except to make retrograde motion in the area of caritas), and I'd missed mass last week due to being sick. Showing up for the last 10 minutes of mass scarcely counts as a spiritual exercise at all! (In fact, I think that technically it doesn't count, though to be honest when I'm on foot and the wind chill is -20 I tend to let the technicalities fend for themselves.) There was still the 11:30 mass, but that would mean finishing this mass, then waiting. That wouldn't do--I had a million boxes to unpack, and piles of housework, and a thousand little details for the coming week to agonize over--how get my Christmas shopping done, how to deal with work, finishing up the move, arranging for a car to get back home for Christmas....the list goes on.
The mass ended and I wrapped back up and went outside to start my walk home. I'd gone a few steps when I stopped and thought, "What am I going to do with my time today?" The list jumped in my head--boxes, housework, details. I stood there for a moment and then turned around and headed back into the church, slipping through the outgoing tide of my fellow parishoners. Finding the rack of spiritual reading kept for the benefit of those practicing perpetual adoration, I found a bible and settled down to read until the next mass. There was sound in the church around me, but there was no noise.
This was highly vexing. I've been so consumed by my move and the various alarms at work that I haven't done anything to mark Advent (except to make retrograde motion in the area of caritas), and I'd missed mass last week due to being sick. Showing up for the last 10 minutes of mass scarcely counts as a spiritual exercise at all! (In fact, I think that technically it doesn't count, though to be honest when I'm on foot and the wind chill is -20 I tend to let the technicalities fend for themselves.) There was still the 11:30 mass, but that would mean finishing this mass, then waiting. That wouldn't do--I had a million boxes to unpack, and piles of housework, and a thousand little details for the coming week to agonize over--how get my Christmas shopping done, how to deal with work, finishing up the move, arranging for a car to get back home for Christmas....the list goes on.
The mass ended and I wrapped back up and went outside to start my walk home. I'd gone a few steps when I stopped and thought, "What am I going to do with my time today?" The list jumped in my head--boxes, housework, details. I stood there for a moment and then turned around and headed back into the church, slipping through the outgoing tide of my fellow parishoners. Finding the rack of spiritual reading kept for the benefit of those practicing perpetual adoration, I found a bible and settled down to read until the next mass. There was sound in the church around me, but there was no noise.
