Anyway, yesterday morning our parish was hosting a small Advent goods sale in the back entryway, and naturally, my Catholic tchotchke-loving children had to have a perusal.
#SoProud
New Advent calendars for everybody! They now each have a traditional paper calendar in addition to chocolate ones (we haven't showed them those yet, otherwise we'd never hear the end of the pleas for an early break-in). And Henry has a Lego one. Whew!
Ok, so Mass itself. In a sense this was the "last" Sunday in Ordinary Time, since it's the final Sunday so named, the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Next week is still technically Ordinary Time, however, with the feast of Christ the King. Advent *really* feels close at this point though!
Our parish still has the November setup of saint relics on the altar, and the Book of Remembrance for us to write in the names of our departed loved ones. I so love this tradition. We're lingering on this theme, and as well we should, until the official start to Advent on November 30th.
The kids and I arrived at the church for 10 am Mass pretty chilled, it's certainly gotten wintry here of late. In fact, we're going to be under a lake effect snow watch Tuesday night and Wednesday, but that's a subject for another post. ;-) The church was nice and warm, and we settled in.
And, ladies and gentlemen, drum roll please... For the very first time since Anne reached non-diaper wearing status, we had ZERO TRIPS TO THE BATHROOM DURING MASS!!!!
*wild applause*
Wow, was that a treat. :) The kids were both very good too, just a little bit of elbowing each other to contend with. For the most part I got to hear the readings (the Gospel was the parable of the talents), although during the homily I was dealing with a few Anne-isms, which is to say answering "whispered" questions and commentary:
"Mommy, LOOK AT THAT PRETTY GIRL IN THE YELLOW JACKET!"
This was an older woman sitting behind us who positively beamed with Anne's praise.
Unfortunately, the opposite was bound to occur as well:
"Mommy, HOW COME THAT MAN HAS SUCH BIG EARS?!"
Oh my. Luckily, that person was sitting far enough away that I'm hopeful he didn't hear her. Even with his allegedly large ears. :0
I'm praying the Novena to Christ the King right now (in addition to the 54 Day Rosary Novena, novena overload! :0), and so I had all of those intentions in mind as we prayed following Communion. Speaking of novenas, allow me to detour for just a moment: I think that following the 54 Day Rosary Novena (which ends Sunday November 23rd), I will reserve a spot on the top of the blog as a general "Current Novena Page." So, whatever novena I'm praying at that time, I'll label a page that will display there so that anyone who would like to join in can, or could ask me to pray for their intentions. If I'm not praying a novena at a given time, I'll have the Our Lady Undoer of Knots novena information listed there, since one could start that novena at any time, it's always a winner. :) I'm excited about this idea! We all benefit from praying more often, and from praying for each other. Yay. :)
Following Mass we went to the Advent sale mentioned above, and then headed home. We had dinner with friends, and a grand time was had by all. I am very glad that this is the last full week of November prior to the Thanksgiving break. Since Mike and I are perpetually on an academic calendar, I still think of Thanksgiving this way. :) I'll be off starting on Wednesday next week, and I'm very much looking forward to it. Thus, blogging will be light next week, but you'll all be too busy eating pumpkin pie anyway, right? ;-)
Tomorrow, I have a dance update, which is always fun. I'll report in then, but in the meantime: how was your 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time? Leave a comment. :)
It was awesome! We went to Mass at the Cathedral and their Confirmation Celebration. 44 new Confirmands. Awesome! Then we hung out at the reception and chatted, then went to dinner and came home.
ReplyDeleteWe're getting ready for Advent here.
Hope all is well.
Blessings,
Em