Anybody out there struggle with getting their kids to appreciate Mass? Or is just me?
Are your kids perfect examples of holiness and piety? Or do you sometimes have to do battle getting them to sit up straight, stop fidgeting and pay attention? If your kids are perfect then maybe you can teach me your secret. Because although my boys aren’t bad there is definitely room for improvement. Of course I could say that about myself too….
For the most part Patrick and Ben behave themselves at Mass. They are altar servers and whenever they serve they always do a pretty good job of sitting still and paying attention. But then again they are sitting where everyone – including the priest – can see them. When they aren’t serving Mass it can sometimes be a different story. It’s much easier to get distracted by all kinds of things sitting in the pew when you think no one is looking at you.
There are days when it seems like I poke them a lot. They don’t seem to be listening. I’m sure they are in their own little world. I see them making faces at their niece and nephews and I know they are distracted by the least little thing.
But then there are days like last Sunday that make me smile and realize not only are they listening way more than I think, but they are even absorbing much of what is going on around us.
I told you a few weeks back how the boys and I sometimes sing songs together in the car and how Patrick’s song-du-jour is The Proof of Your Love by For King & Country. Well that song is based on last Sunday’s reading. As the lector began I watched Patrick…..Was he paying attention? Would he realize the words in the song he likes were going to be read during Mass?
I waited for it and then Bingo! There it was…..he turned to me, got a funny look on his face and then mouthed that’s my song.
Score! That’s one for Jesus!
Realizing that songs he likes are sometimes actually taken from Bible verses Patrick just realized that Mass can have a ‘cool’ element too.
It may not be much but I’ll take it.
And continue to pray that my young man finds more reasons to love the Mass.
Until I write again….
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.1 Corinthians 13:1-7
Great song!
Awww that story does my heart good Aunt Teresa!!