Our little refuge here in on Ada Fleming's old property can become a three-ring circus with just a slight adjustment of schedule, or a child with a fever, or finding out that Sian's ballet practice is at the same time as Colin's baseball game. I'm hesitant to whinge about this because I do have an ex who is very involved, but it is harder for a single mom or dad to keep all of the stuff in her or his head without the help of a spouse or a nanny.
All that to say that I forgot we only have one service at St. Matthews in August. This change was noted not just in the bulletin, but in the announcements last week. Thus, it only took me about a minute, when we drove into the lot this morning and found just a few cars, to realize we should have been there an hour before.
When the children asked me if we could have a small service here at home, I said yes immediately. After all, this is something I can do as an ordained priest. In the Catholic Church, there is a tradition, which I have never quite understood, of holding private masses, so why not a family one?
I have to admit I still feel slightly selfish about that idea-after all, if Mom hadn't gotten her dates mixed up, we would have been in church. But beyond Eucharist, meeting in community is also something we Christians are asked to do. Sometimes it is time to see, in ordinary time, that whenever two or three are gathered in His name, Christ is present.
That's the easy part-then ensued a lively conversation about what to use for bread and wine. Those large Indian wafers? Perhaps. I am not going to open a whole bottle of wine, and we don't seem to have any grape juice. I don't want to go all wild and crazy with the elements-after all, this is serious stuff. So perhaps we will just call this a mini Love Feast-the joy of God's love for us mirrored in our love for each other as we share in hearing the Word, breaking the Bread, and praying for our family and friends...and even and specifically, our enemies.
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