We are there to praise and worship God, to be spiritually nourished, and to unite our lives with the life of Christ as He offers Himself up to the Father. We are not there because we bought our ticket and are entitled to a certain experience.
Read the rest of my latest for The Catholic Weekly.
You’re a brave woman, wading into this topic…again. I agree with your thoughts. Also, I think about the fact that when Christ gathered among people, it was surely not silent and that never seemed to stop His work. Of course I’m not saying we should recreate any of that at mass…just sayin it was likely not a quiet scene.
I went to mass at an unfamiliar parish while traveling once. There were no children, but a woman attended with a special needs teenager or young woman in a motorized wheelchair. She started vocalizing at one point and the woman simply left with her in the middle of mass and didn’t return. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was disturbing.
We’re very lucky to be in a small predominantly Catholic community that tends towards large families, so I’ve not once had anything but positive remarks about my three small boys (7, 5, and 2) at Mass. Though they do pretty well most of the time. Yesterday the priest offered a blessing for “all expectant parents” while looking directly at obviously-expectant me (due with #4 in a month), and after Mass a lady I don’t know came up to us and said she was so glad he had prayed for me, because it looked as if I needed prayers.
I was not sure how to take that. Luckily, she followed up with, “I don’t know how you do it, but you seem to be doing it very successfully!” while gesturing at my ex-utero children.
That was funny.