Like Jeffrey, I’ve found posting during cooloquium (I’m letting that typo stand!) difficult, not for reasons you might surmise however.
First, I’m learning to adapt to the qwerty reality of a tablet. And I’ve somehow acquired a very debilitating sinus infection that has kept me up these last two nights. Enough of that.
All I wish to share is that among many wonderful sessions and rehearsals, I experienced the most beautiful Mass of my Catholic life yesterday, an EF within the Octave of Pentecost. How can I sum this up? I finally felt the joy of being a “child of God.” Even though I know that Mass, per se, isn’t solely a “me and Jesus” encounter, there was no doubt, repeat, NO DOUBT, that through the actions and enactions of His ordained ministers, the diverse sub-groups of scholas, choirs, acolytes, concelebrants and the Faithful in general, I was with and among my real family. I was partaking, finally, not as a stranger but as friend. I knew we were all elsewhere, clearly and unequivocally in the presence of Christ offering Himself again to our Father through the guidance and support of two millenia’s work within His Church.
From 2006 to 2011, joy of joys, and these last forty years, that some I believe errantly describe as our liturgical wanderings in the desert, proved to be of great consequence and value- these few years led this soul to the treasure-filled banquet in the union of heaven and earth.
More later…