What I Wore For My Sunday Best

Happy Sunday!

Linking up with Fine Linen & Purple with WIWS and Grace for her inaugural Sunday Best. You should, too.

Mass today was just beautiful at the Basilica for the feast day. The choir sang Panis Angelicus (which was also sung at our wedding! Chris didn't remember that. Goof.), and Fr. Dailey's homilies are just always so on point and riveting. Ryan's behavior was better than normal although not as good as last week's. We were in the pew for the majority of the Mass although Kate can tell you that there were quite a lot of "Baby!" notifications in the form of a yell. Ryan and Fr. Dailey must have gotten together before Mass to plan Ryan's behavior during the homily. Father read this excerpt from a letter Tolkien wrote to his sons about the Eucharist:

"The only cure for sagging of fainting faith in Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and involate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals. Also, I can recommend this as an exercise (alas! only too easy to find opportunity for): make your communion in circumstances that affront your taste. Choose a snuffling or gabbling priest or a proud and vulgar friar; and a church full of the usual bourgeois crowd, ill-behaved children..."

Right as Father said, "Ill-behaved children," Ryan was in the middle of a trying the twist under the pew move all while shrieking. So there you go, fellow Basilica Mass goers of today! We helped you follow JRR Tolkien's advice.

After Mass, we saw Ryan Gosling II, this time in cuter form as we found much younger goslings than last week.

And now for my Sunday Best and Ryan's not-so-best:

Dress: Polo Ralph Lauren Outlet. Shoes: JCPenney, mega-clearance!

The rest of Sunday was lovely because I got to spend the early afternoon with the ladies from Be Merry, Kate and Fabrics and Fun at a BBQ here in town. Thank you again, and thank you, Monica, for letting me crash the party!

THEN I got to come home and watch my brothers-in-law play rugby on NBC for the USA Sevens Collegiate Championship. An NBC Sports reporter interviewed my father-in-law since he had two sons playing, and when Ryan saw him on the TV he said, "Papa!" and, "Patr!" for Patrick, my other brother-in-law who was sitting next to my father-in-law. Well done to David and the rest of the ND rugby team, and congratulations to Brad, National Champion!!!

I hope you had a wonderful Sunday. Head on over to visit FLAP and Grace, pretty please.

Mass Angel

The title does not refer to my child when we are at Mass as you can see from almost every Sunday post that I have written. Ryan is a typical toddler who does not want to be contained for an hour at a time. Five minutes? If we are lucky. 

Don't you love my Mass behavior, Dad?! No? Well, here is a kiss to make up for it. 

Over the past few days, both Chris and I have read blog posts that addressed the importance of children at Mass. We couldn't agree more! Even though we err on the side of caution concerning Ryan's exuberance and the rest of the congregation's ability to focus on the Mass and remove Ryan temporarily when you know what is about to hit the altar (does that adaptation of the real phrase make any sense?...bear with me...), we think it is so essential to bring little ones to the public heart of our faith. I'm not going to expand more because Mandi and Christy have already done such a fantastic job illustrating this point. You can head on over to their lovely blogs and have a read. 

So! I was thinking back on all of our Masses since Ryan has banished us from staying in the pew for the whole Mass, and I remembered a few, "Mass Angels," who set my crazy heartbeat of a sweating and terrified-of-fellow-parishioner parent back at a normal beating level of thankful relief. Here are a few gems:

-1-

After Ryan's stellar Mass performance at a wedding, I was relaying the story to one of the bride's aunts. She nodded understandingly since she had seven children and replied, "Well, this church is so family friendly, it doesn't even have a cry room." 

My inner reaction was, "Oooooohhh!" I had thought while I was huddled in the cold lobby that the breathtaking church didn't have a cry room simply because it was over a hundred years old when, in fact, they were being incredibly welcome to children by sending the message, "Hey! Don't go anywhere else!" in a much more eloquent and subdued fashion. 

-2-

When we were at Mass at one of the older local parishes here in South Bend, Ryan was seriously the only person under fifteen there, and most of the parishioners at Mass that day were my parents' age and older. Ryan was cooing (at increasing levels) as I carried him down the aisle so I could receive communion, and I was mortified. A kind, elderly woman leaned over to me, smiled and whispered, "Just listen to him! He is singing! He wants to sing!"

-3- 

Mass had just ended at the Basilica, and Ryan's behavior had been a doozy so it was the usual dance of pew --> lobby --> pew --> lobby. The professor who had been sitting in front of us turned around once Mass had ended and told us a story. 

He had gone to Jerusalem for research and was attending Sunday Mass. A local hermit who spent all of his time silently praying in recluse was there as well as a crying baby. After Mass, the hermit looked at our Mass neighbor and declared, "It will be a sad day for the Church when we don't hear babies crying at Mass."

-4-

Just this past Sunday at Mass, a well-known priest on campus was behind us in the communion line. Ryan was quite the talker. Afterwards, the priest chuckled, "He must want to be a priest! He wants to talk during Mass!"

Do you have any stories of Mass Angels?