Sunday, January 18, 2009

My Sunday Adventures

Today on the way to church for 10:00 am mass (choir at 10 and sacristan at 12) the freeway was a mess from the predicted snow that we had overnight. Only 2 of the 3 lanes were passable. You would think that they had enough time to get plows and salt trucks out, but no!! Is this weather something new around here?!! And just let me say, some people should put their cars in the garage when the first snow falls and keep them there until spring!!
At my sacristan mass 2 servers and 1 Eucharistic minister didn't make it but at least they had let us know ahead of time that they couldn't find subs. Our pastor emeritus who was supposed to have the mass also didn't make it both for health reasons and weather. Our pastor had to come over to say mass even though he is in pain from a herniated disc. Both of these priests need our prayers. Since our pastor is the only priest at our parish we have been having a lot of visiting priests since the week before Christmas. This last month in particular has reminded us that there is a real need for more priestly vocations.

The Sunday after Chrostmas high winds provided an adventure. I was sacristan for 8:00 am mass and left the house a little after 6:30 am because I had to stop for gas. At the gas station I had to hold tight to my door when I was opening it to keep it from being whipped away by the winds. Driving on the freeway with an SUV was a little tricky, trying to fight the wind. As I got closer to my parish the thought crossed my mind that this past fall when we had high winds our parish along with the surrounding area had no power for 3 days. As I turneed down the street that my parish is on I was relieved to see houses with outdoor christmas lights as well as inside lights shining brightly. That is until I was a block away from the church. The entire block around and including the church was completely dark. No power. It was still pitch black and not looking to brighten anytime soon because of heavy cloud cover. I went inside but stood in the hallway leading to the church since it was too dark to go any further. Since we were having a visiting priest I hated to call the pastor but it was his decision as to what to do. He called the power company and they told him that we had no power (No, really?!!). We called back and forth to each other deciding what to do, - would people show up, would we have ministers, lectors, communion service or mass, etc. As it turned out it did get light enough that with the candles lit we could go into the church. The ushers told people to sit up front so that they could hear and see better. Since 8:00 am mass is mostly elderly we didn't use the gift table so that nothing was in the aisle. I flipped some of the light switches on before mass started so that if the power came on we would know. The power did come on just as the lector started the first reading so I went back in to the sacristy and turned the rest of the lights on. The rest of mass went on as usual.
Sometimes I think God has a sense of humor and just tries to keep us on our toes!!

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