Table Talk #1

"What is your most memorable moment about Sunday Mass?"

Hmm...my moment goes back to attending Mass as a child before celebrating my First Communion.   Periodically my father took me with him on a Sunday morning to the 9:45 Mass.  I was fascinated by all the 'gestures' I saw him do, and impressed by his disciplined silence and robust singing of 'Holy God, We Praise Thy Name' (He had been in the St. Alphonsus all-boys' choir and was also an altar boy so after Mass he would tell me stories about these experiences.)  What I distinctly remember, though, is my father's hand on my knee when my short little legs that couldn't reach the floor would be swinging back and forth.  The first time I was doing this, my father whispered that swinging my leg meant I wasn't paying attention in God's house.  After that his hand on my offending knee reminded me that being at Mass required a different, and special behavior; an early lesson on appropriate reverence!  Today when I am restless in church I can still feel my father's hand....


Your turn!
Please join in 'table talk' by sharing with us a memory you have of a Mass or liturgical service from your childhood or adulthood in the comment section following this blog post. 

A Tongue of Honey

http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/pics/Saint_Ambrose_of_Milan_Holy_Spirit.jpg

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Antiques and Garden Fair at the Chicago Botanic Gardens with my fifteen-year-old.  I am not an 'antiques addict' but I do enjoy browsing through them to see what people have kept, what has survived the years (sometimes miraculously) , and what simply piques my curiosity.  Among the many beautiful items was a 5-foot tall image of St. Ambrosius hand-woven from some kind of grass or reed in the early 1900's.  What caught my attention was not that I recognized that it was St. Ambrosius (because I surely did not); rather it was the mitre and bishop's staff, and the fact that a religious image was amongst the many secular items at the fair.  In his upraised hand he was holding a beehive and he himself was also designed to be a hive!  The piece had never been utilized as a hive and was in pristine condition.  What was the significance of the beehive, I wondered?  After a search of several sites online, I discovered the legend that as an infant "a swarm of bees settled on his mouth as a prophecy that he would be gifted with eloquence."  (www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1207.shtml)  It is also felt that the honey left by the bees on the infant's tongue "lead to the unusual sweetness in his lyrics...."  (swarm-catcher-lel.blogspot.com/2009/02/st-zosima-and-st-savatii-my-favourite.html)
Here are some additional notes of biographical interest:

>St. Ambrosius, more commonly known as St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan
>feast day is December 7 (recognized by the Church as his day of consecration)
>one of the 8 Great Doctors of the Church
>elected bishop while still a catechumen (such was his eloquence with the people!)
>responsible for the conversion of St. Augustine
>accredited with the Ambrosian chant and many Latin hymns
>spoke against the Arian heresies of his time
>known as the patron saint of beekeeping 

My son asked me on the way to the fair, "Why are we going to this again?"  I cheerfully responded that it would be a 'feast for the senses':  a myriad of colors, designs, and textures; the scents of antiquity and fresh flowers; a taste of wine to enjoy while browsing (for me, anyway); the conversations of visitors and vendors.  Little did I know that God would also plant a seed that would lead to learning about one of the Doctors of the Catholic Church!  I leave you with a prayer that we may follow the example of St. Ambrose's eloquence with people and in defense of our faith, and that our words may always be perceived as sweetness to the ears of others.
    

Taste and See

When I returned to teaching in the Catholic school system (after sixteen years of being part stay-at-home mom and part-time curriculum director for a tutoring center), I was not expecting the ‘hunger’ to strike. In fact, I hadn’t even been planning on returning to classroom teaching, but God obviously had other plans for me.  I absolutely loved teaching fifth grade, especially Religion, and discovered I was ‘falling in love’ with my Roman Catholic faith.  As a cradle Catholic and graduate of nine years of parochial school I had never before experienced this depth of feeling.  The more I taught the faith, the more I learned with the students, and the more passionate I became about it as well.  This passion fueled my ‘hunger’ and I began researching graduate schools of theology/religious studies in order to be ‘fed’ further by the treasures of our Catholic faith.  Digging more deeply into Scripture and Tradition has also made me thirst for a better/closer relationship with God our Father and His only Son, Jesus Christ (more on this another time).  The point to this can be found in the message that I share with my students at the beginning of and during each school year:  we never stop learning about our faith and what God reveals to us, and it is a humbling privilege to be on this lifelong journey together as we ‘fall more in love’ with our faith and grow closer to our Lord in the process.  The more we learn, the hungrier we will become!  It is my prayerful hope that you will rediscover the nourishment of God’s love and the Catholic tradition in the ‘sacred bytes’ offered in this blogspot, and that we will share these moments in our fellowship of pilgrimage as the Body of Christ!  Will you come taste and celebrate what the Catholic faith offers us with me?