The choice on some Sunday mornings is between arriving to church on time or bringing along one of the children. This morning there wasn't any choice: I was already late so go ahead and bring a child.
Enough folks go away for the summer that latecomers like myself CAN find good parking spots this time of year. Tim and I approached the lower level door at the same time as another family whom we know socially. The wife admitted that this was their first time at the church. I tried to contain my glee.
I could have said something snotty like, "Well, in that case, I'll mention to you that the service begins at ELEVEN!" but such a remark would have incriminated myself as well.
Immediately my mind ran through possible causes for this family coming to church for the first time. Were they invited to a baptism? That didn't seem to be it. Even though they were nicely dressed, they weren't "over the top," dressed to the nines like most visitors for baptisms. Besides they would have mentioned that off the bat, lest I mistakenly think they were there of their own volition.
My hunch, if I had to make one, is that their children will attend a Catholic school this fall, and the parents wanted to investigate this Catholicism thing a little. That hunch assumes that they possess no prior experience with Catholicism ... a big assumption but one that's getting easier and easier to make all of the time.
Back to it: She asked whether the ground level door would make a good entrance and I said, "Sure." and some other rubbish about us heading directly to the Cry Room.
I'm a busybody but for the most part I was able to keep my eyes off them. I became curious about two things: at what point they would leave and whether they would take communion. The husband was in and out with the youngest one for discipline reasons, I suspect.
I hadn't a clear sense of their spirituality from my social interactions with them. I guess I thought that she was a syncretist, being attracted to nature religions, paganism and wicca, 'though one day she wore a t-shirt with an om symbol on it. I said to her very sincerely, "I like your shirt" and she said that she really needed that shirt on that particular day. I recognized the symbol from George Harrison's albums (33 1/3 in particular) but didn't really know of the symbol's significance in Hinduism.
I was mildly scandalized when she and her children went up for communion especially because I know that one of them is "too young". But her willingness to go forward indicates that she has some familiarity with Christianity ... doesn't it? I think that her intentions were for only the children to receive but the Eucharistic minister offered, so she accepted for herself somewhat timidly.
And they left shortly after communion so, hmmm, maybe they are Catholic after all. I sent an email saying it was nice to see them, that I hope to see them again and if they have any questions about anything, I could try to put them in touch with the right people. They are probably thinking, "Well, Teresa goes there, so that's out." Because I'm not particularly winsome. Folks start running the other way when they see me coming.
Immediately my mind ran through possible causes for this family coming to church for the first time. Were they invited to a baptism? That didn't seem to be it. Even though they were nicely dressed, they weren't "over the top," dressed to the nines like most visitors for baptisms. Besides they would have mentioned that off the bat, lest I mistakenly think they were there of their own volition.
My hunch, if I had to make one, is that their children will attend a Catholic school this fall, and the parents wanted to investigate this Catholicism thing a little. That hunch assumes that they possess no prior experience with Catholicism ... a big assumption but one that's getting easier and easier to make all of the time.
Back to it: She asked whether the ground level door would make a good entrance and I said, "Sure." and some other rubbish about us heading directly to the Cry Room.
I'm a busybody but for the most part I was able to keep my eyes off them. I became curious about two things: at what point they would leave and whether they would take communion. The husband was in and out with the youngest one for discipline reasons, I suspect.
I hadn't a clear sense of their spirituality from my social interactions with them. I guess I thought that she was a syncretist, being attracted to nature religions, paganism and wicca, 'though one day she wore a t-shirt with an om symbol on it. I said to her very sincerely, "I like your shirt" and she said that she really needed that shirt on that particular day. I recognized the symbol from George Harrison's albums (33 1/3 in particular) but didn't really know of the symbol's significance in Hinduism.
I was mildly scandalized when she and her children went up for communion especially because I know that one of them is "too young". But her willingness to go forward indicates that she has some familiarity with Christianity ... doesn't it? I think that her intentions were for only the children to receive but the Eucharistic minister offered, so she accepted for herself somewhat timidly.
And they left shortly after communion so, hmmm, maybe they are Catholic after all. I sent an email saying it was nice to see them, that I hope to see them again and if they have any questions about anything, I could try to put them in touch with the right people. They are probably thinking, "Well, Teresa goes there, so that's out." Because I'm not particularly winsome. Folks start running the other way when they see me coming.
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