mass

  • Wednesday

    Wednesday

    One Wednesday morning, I was filled with anxiety. There are things I can’t change, as much as I want to. I had not slept well. I went to mass and breakfast with my Dad. I saw Jim O. and Maura T. and Fr. George and each of them was so graceful in their light-bringing that…

  • Retreat

    I was on retreat this weekend with a group of women and I had somewhat of a leadership role. I gave a talk, and helped facilitate conversations, but mostly I was in the retreat experience along with everyone else. It might have been easy for the women to believe that the ‘leaders’ among the group…

  • Mercy

    Fr. George rushed in to mass late with apologies and then preached on mercy. He had valid excuses for his tardiness (his car was encrusted in ice and he was inspired to write down a future book idea), but we didn’t need them. His presence and the message were most welcome. The word ‘mercy’ has…

  • Communion

    I went to four daily masses this vacation week. I didn’t plan on it, not at first, but it just kind of happened. Pre-breakfast mass with Dad, one with a friend, one for a church event, one a funeral, none in my own parish. The wisdom that poured out of good priests during their homilies…

  • Homily

    I heard the best homily today. It wasn’t a traditional homily, and it wasn’t given by a priest, but there it was at mass, plain enough for anyone to see and hear. And thank God, because on a day like this, when mass was filled with a laborious money ask, the chaos and joy of…

  • Good

    A deacon friend of mine asked me a question after mass, very much out of the blue. He asked, if I could choose one word by which I hoped people would describe me, would I want to be known as ‘holy’ or ‘good’? As a person who thinks frequently about legacy, the question intrigued me,…

  • Sing

    I am pretty sure I sang flat for almost all of Mass today. There was a monitor issue, and one of my ears is a bit blocked, and (insert excuse here), but I wasn’t happy with what I was doing and not entirely sure that any ministry I may have been attempting was hitting its…

  • Saint Matthew

    I asked God to help me to see my life the way He sees it, so He brought me to Mass and Fr. George, who talked about a painting and so I looked it up and there I am. The painting is ‘The Calling of Saint Matthew’ by Caravaggio and it depicts the moment that…

  • Communion

    As a music minister at a First Communion Mass, I have a front row seat for some real beauty and also some outright hilarity. I watch the facial expressions of the second-grade children as they receive the Eucharist for the first time, and it can be hard to keep my place in the music; they…

  • Mystery

    A mysterious thing happened today. Absolutely wrecked by a hacking case of bronchitis, I sang through an entire funeral Mass for a gathered group of family and friends. I didn’t want my illness to draw attention from what the bereaved were there to do, and so before I began, I just asked God to sing…