Faith is a Blessing

Before we had the kumquat...actually before I was in my 3rd trimester...Jason and I frequently went to Mass both Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Mostly because we don't get to go Saturday morning since no churches around here offer a daily Mass on Saturday. But, we also really love going. However, during my 3rd trimester, I was so tired, and now we're both so tired still that we rarely do this. Hopefully we'll get back to going regularly to both Daily Mass and both weekend Masses. If the kumquat can make it through 2 Masses in a weekend that is! ;-)

The last two Sundays some little boys that we had never seen sat in front of us. Last weekend we, at first, thought they were alone but later found out their moms were sitting several rows behind us. Don't ask me why they didn't sit with their kids, I have no idea. But, this past Sunday, we figured out it didn't really matter. The kids were pretty obnoxious. Last Sunday I often tapped them on the shoulder and told them when to stand and sit, when to kneel, and shushed them a few times. I must look scary, because they listened. ;-) This past Sunday however, with the moms sitting in our row, the kids were about 8x more obnoxious. These boys are probably right around 7-8, the age of reason. Of the three, only one received Communion, so I'm guessing he was older. One of the boys was continually turning around to his mother (who I guessed doesn't speak English) and would ask her for something and she'd do it, then he'd whine and ask for the opposite. Honestly, I'd have taken the kid out and given him a good talkin' to! It was ridiculous.

The moms, as I said, didn't speak English; they didn't respond to anything as their obnoxious little boys were pointing out, or sing at all. They attempted a couple times to shush their boys, but overall let them be as loud as they wanted. It was extremely hard to concentrate and I was really frustred with the moms.

But then, at the Consecration, as I was praying for this mother and her children, I glanced at my awesome husband. He holds Dominic throughout the entire Mass (unless he is reading that day), feeds him, handles him so that I can fully focus on Mass. When he's older and acts up (which of course won't happen anyway because we obviously will have amazingly well behaved kids <<insert eye roll here>>), Jason will either handle the discipline or share it with me at least. And I realized how blessed I was. These moms were there alone for whatever reason, but between the two of them there were 5 kids, and I'm sure that is hard. I'm sure it's stressful to know your kids are obnoxious. And I'm so blessed to have my husband with me sharing not only in child care, but sharing my Faith.

I'm also really blessed to have Faith. It's something I take for granted sometimes; thinking that everyone MUST know the Truth, and forgetting that God does not bless us equally with Faith. These moms were not paying attention to Mass, maybe it was that they don't speak the language, but if they know their religion, they KNOW what is happening and they should have a desire to show their kids how to behave. But, maybe they aren't there yet. Maybe their Faith is JUST strong enough to get them to show up and know they want their kids in CCD.

Maybe what they need is someone to show them some kindness, and someone to pray for them. So, this week I'm trying to add more prayers for the unconverted. This includes those that are far from the Truth, and those that are trying their best to live the Faith. We are all in a constant state of conversion.