Some Thoughts on the Liturgical Worship of God

I did not realize how much I really love our new parish in St. Paul of St. Agnes Church until we came home after a long vacation to see family and went again to Mass in the small daily Mass chapel. While traveling we went with our parents and siblings to the parishes that we went to when we still lived at our respective homes. There was the familiarity of the place and the way liturgy was celebrated at each church, and in a way they felt like home. But they were missing the aspects tradition in the liturgy that characterized the Church for years.

We went to the 8 AM Mass with our three children for the first time. Father processed in with the male altar servers and started the Mass. He read the readings and gave a solid homily. And then he turned his back to the people, or is it that he turned to face the tabernacle and the crucifix. He led us in prayer (in English for daily Mass) as he prayed the offertory and then the Eucharistic prayer. As L would call it, "Body of Christ", was on the altar and then he turned to offer the sign of peace and then continued on with the liturgy. The congregation all knelt at a communion rail and received on the tongue. As that morning Mass progressed I realized that good "saying the black and doing the red liturgy" really leads me to God and teaches me how to love Him. The proper worship due to God is that which has been passed down to us by Tradition, and it is in the liturgy that we love Him. I guess I have a "liturgical love language" towards God.

Today was the orchestral Mass at St. Agnes which was Antonin Dvorak's Mass in D. I got to nurse F during the Kyrie in the small Marian side chapel:

I wonder if she will retain the memory of the Kyrie and the painting of Our Lady and baby Jesus that she was gazing at when she finished nursing. It was a Latin Novus Ordo Mass (new Mass as opposed to Latin Extraordinary Form). It was beautiful, between the music with the chanted propers and orchestral Mass parts and the "dance" of the priest, deacons, and servers on the altar as they prepared for the Eucharist and then the Sacrament was there. There is something special that has been preserved at St. Agnes in its liturgies, and I am so glad that we get to be a part of it now. As I am learning proper worship of God there, I am finding that the proper liturgical worship I learn there allows me to worship God no matter what the church I am in.

P.S. Just as I was publishing this L stood up next to me and sang: "Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna in the highest! Hooray!"

Home Again: Seven Quicktakes for Jan 11, 2013

So, I am back in town as of Sunday, but have been spending my normal blogging time (naptime) with Jillian Michaels and then my shower. This is my attempt to encourage the baby weight off. Since I am now experiencing normal life with three kids these will all be takes on the children:

1. Today F had her two month check up and with weight in the 96th percentile and height in the 80th I am going to say that she is more like my side than M's. There are always big babies on my side. You should see my sister's babies. :) Her one year old weighs the same as my two year old and that is her smallest baby so far.

2. F had her first vaccines today.

 

When we came home from the doctor's office this plastic baby had stolen her hat and her bouncy seat with a little help from G. I hope the vaccines do not affect her sleeping because I am really enjoying waking up after five to seven hours each night to a baby who nurses right back to sleep. I don't mind nursing her 7 times between 7 pm and 11pm if that means she sleeps forever. Keep it up kiddo! L had a few long stretches at this age and then went to a waking every 3 hour schedule until she stopped night nursing at 15 months.

3. L's potty training (which we attempted to start on Tuesday) is not really happening anymore, and no she is not using the toliet. She is just still wearing diapers. Not even the threat of no candy until she goes on the toliet is inspiring her. For now we are trying to get her to want to go on the toliet and figure out how her bladder works and so on. Maybe it will happen soon. My new goal is before the baby needs the size large cloth diapers that L uses.

4. L's toddler bed arrived in the mail today. She figured how to get out of her crib this week (thanks to big sister G) and we decided it would be safer to have her in a toddler bed if this was the case. The reason we do not already have one is that we put G in a twin right away, but the bedroom they are in would be super cramped with two twins and all their toys. The plan is to get the "big girls" an Ikea bunk bed in a year when G turns FIVE?!?!??!?!

5. We call the strange moods the children experience after a road trip the "grandparent affect." This is characterized by the desire for constant attention and extreme whiney-ness when the desired attention is not available. It usually wears off on its own after a week.

6. I think L is getting her two year molars. My only evidence however is the persistent biting of her older sister. At least she is not biting the baby?

7. All three kids really like the song "Away in a Manger." F smiles at it and the other two dance. We are doing the Christmas season until Candlemas Day, which is February 2.

Wondering About Baby Jesus?

I first seriously thought about devotion to baby Jesus when I traveled to Prague with a group of friends during the semester I studied at my school's campus in Austria. The Infant of Prague can be found on a side altar in a church somewhere in the city. I was not even planning on going to Prague that weekend, but decided to join a group of friends last minute when my other plans fell through. When I found myself praying before the Infant dressed up in a shiny green vestment-like dress I was not really sure what to say or pray or why this devotion had been popular for hundreds of years.

Two years later I was living in a house in Steubenville, Ohio near my college campus with four young women who shared a devotion to baby Jesus and were in the same household (the Steubenville alternative to a sorority created to pray together in community based on a common spirituality). Their simple enthusiasm for the child Jesus taught me how I should have prayed that day in Prague. It was similar to the universal adoration shown to a newborn baby, except that it was combined with their love of God. In fact, it seemed to enhance their love of God in a way that I had never thought about.

How did the Shepherds feel before the Infant they knew to be their Savior and God? The Wise Men knew there was something special about the Infant King they came to adore. And Our Lady, Mary, must have felt such an overwhelming love for her own Son who was also her Lord and her God.

God chose to become man as a little baby, and it is awesome that we can still pray to Him as that child. The Church gives us the opportunity every Christmas, but we are not restricted to the season in our devotion to Him. What does a devotion to baby Jesus do for us as worshipers of God? Praying to the child Jesus helps us follow His call to simplicity to be like a little child. When we come and adore the divine child we open ourselves to have Wonder and to be transformed by it. Wonder is what a child has when she sees the moon in the sky during the day instead of at night, and children wonder at the snow covering the ground. Children marvel at all aspects of God’s creation from the smallest bug to the largest mountain. When we start to wonder again, especially towards God himself, we learn to wonder at all of His creation. And our wondering at God is a way of worshiping Him and it causes us to grow in our love of Him.

This Sunday is Epiphany when the three wise men came to adore the child Jesus in Bethlehem. If we join them with our hearts in traveling to wonder at the Infant King, we can grow in love of God this Christmas Season. O come, let us adore Him!

Originally posted on Truth and Charity.