It's Christmastime, so off to church we go

Three and a half hours to go. Sigh.

good things: turns out the lady pastor is in a different town, so no extended 20 min monologues

bad things: they haven't figured out how to use the dimmer switches, and the soloist choir lady forgot to turn off her handheld mic, so we had some nice feedback for a bit.

Not going to church for the first Christmas ever cuz Sis can't take the premature newborn, and I don't drive.

no church this year cuz we're flying in a few hours. KICKASS!

i actually don't mind going to midnight mass/xmas day services (in fact i much prefer it to synagogue) but i think my mother is afraid she'll offend my father if we go.

i couldnt go this year, which means ive missed 3 days of obligation this year, though i am feeling less and less obligated, with the pope being an asshole adna ll

I went to church and sang in choir! Fun. Except for the woman next to me, whom I nearly bit for being just plain irritating and a bad vocalist. Actually enjoyed the service because Lutheran pastor is grebt! He said last night, just as an auxiliary point, that as long as mountains are strip-mined and waterways are diverted/emptied to fill the pockets of the rich, we're not bringing joy to the Earth. POLLUTION DOES NOT BRING TEH JOY. Love.

reminded me what an archaic practise it all is....jesus...in a world with so many options for fulfillment and enjoyment, why go and sit in uncomfortable seats and KNEEL DOWN over and over while monotonously repeating subservient mantras and then listening to a speech from someone with no ability to speak in public....someone in whom you have no faith, someone whose life is a mystery and who probably is the last person any sane human would go to for advice....

our parish priests speech said something about window dressing making us forget the real meaning of christmas. then he ended with a weird non sequitur of "we must use community spirit to fight the threat of violence that has marred daily life" and the sense of bewilderment was palpable...

well...why go to mass except to keep your catholic parents happy because it's christmas! it really is awful though, the older you get the more ridiculous it seems...I mean what's the point...I think I'll spend an hour on a Sunday playing records for my kids or buying them books, or letting them play a fucking Nintendo, they'd probably learn more...

and yet I still say "jesus" in exasperation above!

GUILT

I had a weird church experience yesterday, my family's not religious so I went with a friend's family. However, the friend herself is not religious, and made an increasing number of side jokes to me about how silly it was and how Christians are sheep throughout and after the service. It was uncomfortable because I really don't want to push religion on her, her family does that enough, but she forgot that she was actually making fun of me too. It was ironically funny in a way, though.

I actually liked today's Mass celebration. The priest who presided over it delivered a fun homily that was in keeping with a festive idea of the spiritual Christmas, an insistence on celebrating the birth of the Lord our Savior. Yesterday's Mass was a drag, though. It was still "just" a regular Sunday Mass, though the focus was obviously on the soon-to-be-celebrated Christmas day. However, the priest at THAT Mass insisted on turning the Christmas-themed homily into an anti-abortion screed delivered from the perspective of someone with an obviously screwed-up understanding of the impact behind Mary's visit with her cousin Elizabeth. All throughout the homily I wanted to cry out, "No, that's not the reason why..." and then explain why that which rang untrue to me was not the case, incorporating prior lessons in the faith. It was so very much a spin on the real meaning behind the occurrences behind the visit by people with an anti-woman agenda. So I'm grateful for today's Mass and its opportunity for an agenda-free, more authentic and true examination of the birth of Christ.

No church for me, although I enjoyed quizzing my brother, who is graduating with dual degrees in divinity and sacred music, about HIS churchie choices.
he "did" five services in two days. Ye Gods!
When he was talking about choosing songs for the kid choir, my mother said "Why not 'I Wonder As I Wander?"
It was perfect, because we have a complicated background, childhood - and I said "That would be a really tough one for a kid!"
meaning, i guess, that the words would be hard for a child.
But, also, that we (I and my brothers),understood them when we were kids.
My brothers were choristers at the St. Thomas Choir School in NYC. They were professional at the age of 11 and all done by the age of 14.
Anyway. I spent many years, as the youngest, experiencing Christmas at St.Thomas, which is one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the U.S. and listening to my brothers sing in one of the most revered boys choir.
It's weird now, but at the time I really loved the pageantry...waiting for my brothers to walk down in their robes singing descant after descant, following the MEN (professional adult male choir), and all the clergy.
I was eight when the youngest of my three brothers went to St. Thomas. So, y'know, I tried to argue with the headmaster about allowing me to be the first girl to attend. My argument? "My voice won't change!"

Last year I bellowed out carols with non-singers - a church with no choir - and sang carols at the top of my lungs.
I can't hit the high parts unless I decide to be loud.

I look forward to going back to church when my brother is ordained. He always wants me to sing in his choir...so, that will be fun.
I think. Hopefully!
i might have to skip a few notes. I'm good with the background noise aka the chorus.
Next year I might be singing in my brothers church!

Church was awesomely painful with the fams today. There was no singer to lead the Polish Catholic crowd in song, so the substitute organ player filled in. Dude was bad. I, being an ass, of course could not stop giggling at his pained and vocals. If there were ever a death knell at the 10am xmas mass, this was it. He kind of sounded like the Leo Sayer with a bad case of laryngitis, or like when the lead singer of Scorpions was going through a painful and awkward puberty. Either/or. I then ended up just feeling really bad as my sister and I were hanging our laughing heads in shame, as he was really, really awful, and kept thinking, "his mom could be right behind me and I'm laughing like a complete asshole."

For some reason my family been to church on Christmas Day, even though my mother is very religious.

oooh?

Vicar of Dibley topped the Christmas tv ratings - the church should be happy enough with that.

i grew up in a Protestant household, (my father is a pastor) but i really enjoy watching the Vatican's midnight mass on tv every year.

i'm not too crazy about Benedict but i really like his speaking voice. it sent me off into sweet xmas-eve slumber. i really like how it sounds every time he says "Bambino."

i haven't been to church for anything other than a funeral in years but on christmas day I came very close to going to a mass at the catholic church down the street; I was taking the baby out for a stroll and he was starting to doze and I had nothing else to do, and saw people filing in. but the voice of whoever was singing inside put me off.