Is this Church, or Choich?

I have so many things bouncing around in my head today that I’m sure I can’t get to them all. I may write them here so I can expound on them later and just get to what I can get to today. (Note to self: Mass, farts, common misconceptions based on appearance, job, childhood, BC walk)

BB’s class had a family Mass today. Now, let me start by saying, SAS – her current school- is a really good school. Top performing, blue-ribbon status, parents would wait in line for days to get their kids registered to go to this school until they changed the registration process to “luck of the draw”. So far, no big problems, just minor stuff that I attribute to getting used to a new school. All in all, I’m pleased. As part of her enrollment, we joined the Parish to get “in-Parish discount” on tuition, but we still usually go to HNM for Mass (we like the Deacon there!). So, back to the story: Today is 1st and 2nd grade family Mass. BB got to read a petition, so she was very excited and wanted someone from her family to attend (aside: out of approx 150 kids, only 9 got reading parts. I’m so proud of my little reader!) Apparently we have joined a Pratholic Church. You know, a Catholic church that acts Protestant…as in holding hands during the Lord’s Prayer, raising hands when the congregants reply to the Priest, singing a large part of the actual Mass, even the music was Pratholic. Remember those infomercials where you could buy the music CDs of those large church choirs, and they would sing snippets while rolling the song names up the screen and you would see pictures of the minister at his pulpit with the choir in the background smiling, singing, and dancing. Yeah, the only reason I knew some of the songs at Mass today is because I used to be a vidiot and those commercials came back to haunt me. They even had a guitar player who played while the Priest and students stood up and sang while signing (I assume/hope that was for the children’s Mass only) just like in the 70s. When you take all that and roll it into a 70’s-style church (stucco walls with pastel frescoes at the altar, rounded wooden altar fixtures), it’s definitely not my type of church. I prefer a more traditional church surrounding, and I don’t like to hold hands at any point during the Mass. So, in summary, while I want church to be traditional, we are now part of a progressive (I think that’s what you’d call it) parish. If this is the sacrifice I must make for my children’s education, than it is the cross I must bear (pun intended).

I’ll bet they have you sit face-to-face for confession, too.