It's always fun to watch. It reminds me of my own children, and my own experience when I was younger: Catholic School (Our Lady of Lourdes), school uniforms, daily prayer in the classroom and the pledge of allegiance, CYO basketball, spelling bees, nuns, walks home from school.
I was in eighth grade with a few of my peers, being assigned a special project on dentistry, when word came over the intercom that President Kennedy had been shot. After we were dismissed, it was a long walk home, followed by a weekend of TV-watching. I was at my grandmother's for a visit on Sunday morning when Lee Harvey Oswald was shot to death.
But I digress. A few things have changed about the Catholic church in the years since, but the respect for sacramental tradition does not wane. The children who are judged to have reached the age of reason, and are henceforth assumed to know right from wrong, are dressed in bright white lacy dresses and pretty little headpieces, dark suits and ties.
I talked briefly with three kids before Mass began yesterday. They acted a little uncomfortable in their dress clothing. But it was swell to joke with the kids, as their well-dressed extended families gathered in the sanctuary, chatting with each other, preparing cameras, ensuring the young behave as if they're in church.
It was a great liturgy. And congratulations to the new communicants and their families. As Pastoral Associate Debbie Miller says, "Welcome to the table of the Lord, boys and girls." Welcome indeed.
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