Two Blessings are Better Than One
It’s always interesting when Gail serves as a Eucharistic Minister at the 6:30pm Mass at St. Paul’s (our home parish). Because that means it’s the 3 Imoo boys for whole Mass: a good 60-75 minutes of worshipping, singing, and listening with no Mommy to help monitor the situation. Thankfully, the boys are generally good at Mass so we never have to bring anything to “distract” them or keep them occupied. They both sing the songs (sitting in the first pew behind the music ministry doesn’t hurt) and Sean in particular follows along in the missal.
With Mom on the altar for the whole Mass, Jake will often get creative to busy himself and last night was no exception. I remember him removing the wooden cross from around my neck near the start of Mass and didn’t think too much about it. In hindsight, I should have, as he’s left my necklace at the church before, only to have one of the Sisters find it and then find me during the week to return it. Sure enough, as Jake and Sean readied themselves to take the offertory basket up, I saw my cross lying on top of the bills and envelopes. Trying to be subtle as I could (not really my specialty), I was able to retrieve my cross without incident. At least it wasn’t as bad as Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall in the 1998 movie “Coming to America.” That’s when Arsenio threw a chicken bone in the basket, thinking it was the trash! Come to think of it, I’m noot even sure why he was eating in church!
Then it came time to receive communion (or in their case, a blessing). As we walked up the aisle towards the altar, Sean and Jake placed their hands over their chest in the blessing-ready position. We saw Mommy on the right side and decided that’s where we were going to go. After all, it’s an amazing feeling to receive Jesus from my wife. And the boys get to be blessed by their own mother!
Then, Sean saw that Rich, certainly one of his favourite uncles, was distributing communion on the centre-right, meaning on the same side as Gail. I could see the wheels starting to turn in Sean’s head: Mommy or Uncle Rich? My Godfather or my good mother? We arrived at the altar in order of height: Jake turned right and went to Mommy. Sean, with no hesitation, when straight ahead to Uncle Rich. And I was bowled over from behind after stopping to watch. Just kidding. I went to Gail and gathered the boys up to head back to our pew to pray. I noticed that Gail quickly placed her hand on Sean’s head as he passed her.
Back in our pew, and after reflecting for a few minutes, I leaned over to Sean and asked him: “Why did you go to Uncle Rich and not Mommy?” I certainly wasn’t upset, and I actually was thankful that Sean didn’t make ME choose between Rich and Gail (if Sean had followed Jake to Gail, I wonder if I would have gone to Rich out of sympathy…haha). Sean’s answer was simple, direct, and brilliant:
“I had a feeling that Mom was going to touch me too. So I ended up with two blessings instead of just one!”
I smiled, thanked God for the gift of child-like faith, and made sure my cross was still around my neck. After all, we were only a few minutes away from the second collection.
With Mom on the altar for the whole Mass, Jake will often get creative to busy himself and last night was no exception. I remember him removing the wooden cross from around my neck near the start of Mass and didn’t think too much about it. In hindsight, I should have, as he’s left my necklace at the church before, only to have one of the Sisters find it and then find me during the week to return it. Sure enough, as Jake and Sean readied themselves to take the offertory basket up, I saw my cross lying on top of the bills and envelopes. Trying to be subtle as I could (not really my specialty), I was able to retrieve my cross without incident. At least it wasn’t as bad as Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall in the 1998 movie “Coming to America.” That’s when Arsenio threw a chicken bone in the basket, thinking it was the trash! Come to think of it, I’m noot even sure why he was eating in church!
Then it came time to receive communion (or in their case, a blessing). As we walked up the aisle towards the altar, Sean and Jake placed their hands over their chest in the blessing-ready position. We saw Mommy on the right side and decided that’s where we were going to go. After all, it’s an amazing feeling to receive Jesus from my wife. And the boys get to be blessed by their own mother!
Then, Sean saw that Rich, certainly one of his favourite uncles, was distributing communion on the centre-right, meaning on the same side as Gail. I could see the wheels starting to turn in Sean’s head: Mommy or Uncle Rich? My Godfather or my good mother? We arrived at the altar in order of height: Jake turned right and went to Mommy. Sean, with no hesitation, when straight ahead to Uncle Rich. And I was bowled over from behind after stopping to watch. Just kidding. I went to Gail and gathered the boys up to head back to our pew to pray. I noticed that Gail quickly placed her hand on Sean’s head as he passed her.
Back in our pew, and after reflecting for a few minutes, I leaned over to Sean and asked him: “Why did you go to Uncle Rich and not Mommy?” I certainly wasn’t upset, and I actually was thankful that Sean didn’t make ME choose between Rich and Gail (if Sean had followed Jake to Gail, I wonder if I would have gone to Rich out of sympathy…haha). Sean’s answer was simple, direct, and brilliant:
“I had a feeling that Mom was going to touch me too. So I ended up with two blessings instead of just one!”
I smiled, thanked God for the gift of child-like faith, and made sure my cross was still around my neck. After all, we were only a few minutes away from the second collection.
posted by Clay at 4:13 PM
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