Mass

Garret and I attended mass at a new church yesterday.  It's a church that we saw every time we attended the old one, and kept saying we should try it out.  So, though G nearly decided to head to Artscape instead of mass I chose mass (which surprised him). 

Things I loved: 

* The stained glass allowed a lot of streaming light in.  The faces all looked mad, but eh, the light was pretty.

* The woman in front of me near the end rubbed some lotion into her hands.  It had the double C's.  I thought it was a nice nudge from God.  (this lady and her husband were older, well dressed, and incredibly nice)

* The assistant priest has an island accent that is melodious.

* The woman singing sang beautifully.  This is a rarity indeed.

Things I need to remember:

* The benches have an angle that had my tailbone in agony for the rest of the day.  

* Money!  Seriously, I'm embarrassed to say that we completely forgot our tithing.  We'll put it in with next week's.  Sometimes I forget that God doesn't ask, "debit or credit?"

The best part about this church was the eucharist (communion).  G and I have gone to 4 different Catholic churches since moving here.  At nary a single mass did we receive full communion with both the body and blood.  None of them had wine!  At our favorite church we expect it is due to lack of funds, but at the other 2 we went to before yesterday, they both documented huge amounts of income.  At one we asked and the priest very snottily told us they didn't have enough eucharistic ministers so they only served it at the 10:30 mass.  Mind you, this was the church that had 5 English masses and 1 Spanish one each weekend.  They had so many people that no matter what mass we attended it was packed.  So perhaps the priest should remember that part of his job is to get his parishioners involved.  

But anyway, yesterday I noticed a golden chalice and two pewter looking ones with it.  I kept my fingers crossed and success!  We had wine!  I know it is hard to understand if you are not Catholic.  In fact, since all of my Christian friends are protestant (including my family) even they don't seem to understand.  But for me and G, having the full communion is important.  I know by church doctrine it's recommended, but not required.  Technically you can count it as communion even if there is no wine.  However, for me it always feels incomplete, as if something is missing.  I prayed hard yesterday when first arriving at the church for God to show us where we should be.  The full Eucharist really made us feel that this church is a good choice.  It also has a school attached, which will come in handy later. 

So we're both praying that this church continues to feel right.  It's been a long time since we felt that a church had everything we were looking for.