Monday, December 25, 2006

The kids' first Midnight Mass



It's been a long time since I've gone to midnight mass, so I thought it would be nice to go to a friend's church to enjoy one.

When I was younger, my parents sent us to various mainline protestant churches, and one set of grandparents was Catholic. When I was an older child, I became LDS. So my childhood experiences of church were of very conservative-type services.

Our children, however, are growing up in a non-denom, contemporary evangelical tradition. "Liturgy" is not a word in their vocabulary. "Responsive reading?" Nope, they've never heard of it.

Until tonight.

About 10 minutes or so into the service, I realized I forgot to inform them about the incense. And then when it was time for communion, I forgot to inform them about the real wine (our church uses grape juice). I got a lot of dirty looks from down the row of seats. Whoopsie!

It was very cool, and I am so glad we went. I had forgotten how good Bach sounds in a church.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

2 comments:

John H said...

the older I get, the more I enjoy the liturgy. Just the thought that people all over the world are reading/reciting/listening to the same words is such a great wonderful 'thing' to me.

Merry Christmas. Glad you guys got to enjoy that mass.

Anne said...

Thanks, John. I'd forgotten about the comfort in ritual. It was great to enjoy it last night with those I love most.