Christmas Mass(es) 2011, 1st Day of UK Christmas

For our first Christmas in England, we went to the 5 p.m. children's Mass at St. Roberts. We tried to get there by 4:30 but only left the house at 4:30, so the plan didn't work. I dropped off Angie and the children at 4:42 and went in search of a parking spot. The church's parking lot is pretty small and nothing was available; nor were any of the spots on the street. The supermarket across the way had a special sign up saying, "Parking for Waitrose Customers Only." I drove around the neighborhood for quite a while until I wound up parking by the library four blocks away. That wouldn't have been so bad except for the cold rain that was coming down.

By the time I arrived at church, people were already packed into the vestibule with one or two standing outside the doors. I waded in through the crowd and spotted my family standing by on the left side aisle. We stood through the Mass with some friends. The church was the fullest I'd ever seen it. Just like Bethlehem with no rooms at any of the inns.

Mass went fairly normally until the Gospel. At that point, some of the children came forward and read the nativity from St. Luke. A few appropriate hymns were sprinkled in. Then Father invited the children to sit up front for the homily. Jacob and Lucy went forward with Mommy. The homily was definitely aimed at the children. Father asked the children a bunch of questions about the first Christmas. Then he opened a present, though not before trying to get the children to guess what it was. They shook the box, tried to guess from the shape and the weight, etc. When he finally unwrapped it, it was not what they were expecting. Father said this was like the mystery of Christmas. Many of the Jews were expecting the messiah to come as a military leader to kick out the Romans if not take over the world. Instead, He came as an infant in the most humble of circumstances. And His gift of eternal life is more glorious than any temporal good that can be given. Father managed to pull a great message out of what started pretty routinely and seemed to take a wrong turn.

The rest of Mass went very well considering the circumstances. Jacob and Lucy were very patient if not very attentive. Our friends brought their son and Lucy did some book and toy swapping back and forth silently during Mass. Going to communion was not as hectic as I thought, even with the aisles packed with parishioners. We did light candles at the end of Mass. Jacob and Lucy prayed for Mommy and Daddy. All in all, it was a distracting Christmas Vigil but still good. The Mass is the Mass after all.

On Christmas morning, we went to St. Josephs (another church in town) for the 8 a.m. Mass to have a quieter and more prayerful time. After an early breakfast and unwrapping a few presents, we drove off. We arrived 10 minutes early and found plenty of parking.

The church had lots of people in it but everyone was sitting and there was still a few empty spots here and there. Lucy had a bit of wanderlust and forgot to whisper a few times, but otherwise was good. After communion, she wandered into the pew in front of us which was empty. Jacob followed her trying to convince her to come back to our pew because this was someone else's spot. He did a great job whispering but a poor job convincing. She came out the other end and back into our pew.

Lucy did do a great job shaking hands at the sign of peace. The people behind us were impressed. Jacob said most of the responses and was generally well behaved. Except for going to the toilet in the middle of Mass. They made it back for the Our Father. We lit candles after Mass. Both Jacob and Lucy prayed for Mommy.

Father's homily was quite good. He spoke about the superficiality of the secular version of Christmas we find in our culture. But even that still retains the core message of the Nativity--the exchange of gifts. We think of others before ourselves and remember the importance of family and of peaceful times. I wish everyone the peace of Christmas and hope that extends beyond today, far into the new year.