Thursday, October 30, 2003
Peace, all.
Snapshots in ministry ...
I had a nice exchange with one of our older parishioners today. Delightful lady. She patted my arm as she gave her approval to married lay people working for the Church. She commented it would be good if priests were allowed to marry. I nodded. Then she added, "But I'm still traditional in lots of things. I can't get used to women on the altar. They don't belong there."
Sunday children's choir take two this weekend. They've never had one in this parish. Of course, there is a very good music program in the school: two teachers plus a band instructor. But as is true for most American parish schools, sport is King. Actually, I'm getting socked by the scouts, not soccer this weekend: eight fourth grade girls going camping. Sheesh, that's about 2/5ths of my group. If I had known, I would have had the kids sing next week instead. It would have given me an extra rehearsal.
In the middle of rehearsal yesterday, one of the girls teared up. What was it? My gory description of how some saints got martyred? Nope. (They did ask me how Kateri Tekakwitha and others died.) A sudden memory of something scary. We put our fists together with some of the girl's friends and prayed the power of Christ would replace fear and tears with courage. Of course, the event of six or so third graders all pushing their fists together got the giggles going again. I had heard through the grapevine that a few parishioners are grumbling about the new choir. "Why do we need another thing for kids? Let them do it in the school, where that kind of thing belongs." *Sigh* It's a good parish, but it has so far to go.
