October 29

Welcome to Mass

At the Diocese of Charleston’s Youth Conference last year, Doug Tooke spoke. (He was phenomenal.) He shared an experience with the audience that I still think about… Here is the abridged version: Doug was at daily Mass. As the priest cleaned the altar after communion while everyone prayed silently on their knees, a food delivery guy showed up at the church. He walked into the sanctuary and announced, in a very loud voice, that he had a sandwich delivery while holding them in the air. When no one responded (because it’s the middle of Mass!), the sandwich guy saw the priest on the altar and thought, that must be the guy who ordered the sandwich! So he began to march down the aisle with a BLT in tow… at that moment, an older gentleman (and Knight of Columbus) rose from his seat, stopped him in his tracks with a loud “stop!” and escorted him from the church were they could get to the bottom of this sandwich debacle. 

Doug shared this story because it was his first time encountering someone without an understanding of the Divine. Most of us walk into a church, and our eyes lift to the beauty of the space; churches invite the faithful to the heart of the Divine through their very design. If you’re like me, there is a peace that comes over you the moment you enter, an awareness of the Almighty. This poor young man wasn’t aware that he stood in a very holy place.

I think now of the words of Ven. Fulton Sheen. He said, “God does not love us because we are valuable. We are valuable because God loves us”. This is the one-sentence summary of why the human person is worthy because God says so. We want our children to know this with every beat of their hearts; we want God to define their incredible worth, not the world. However, Sheen’s words fall rather flat if our child has no understanding of who God is. 

The only solution to reawakening a culture of life is Jesus, and the most powerful thing we can do is bring our children to Mass so they can encounter our Lord and Savior. 

You may have not gone to Mass in a while, or you may attend daily… Either way, God desires you to be sitting in the pew this Sunday. With your kids. Period. Don’t worry if sometimes it looks like a mess, (when my kiddos were babies I once showed up to Mass wearing two different shoes), the only thing that matters is that God delights in you!

Attached, we have a wonderful “Bringing Your Child to Mass Guide.”  If you attend Mass often, you are the perfect advocate for getting this introduced into your parish so that new families will feel comfortable as they step out in faith.