The Beautiful Gate: Children and Mass - A View from the Other Side of ...

By me -
The Beautiful Gate: Children and Mass - A View from the Other Side of ...: "Earlier today I read a post which spoke about distractions at Mass along with a few other issues. Nothing wrong with this post - I understoo..."

I originally meant to post this link to my own blog, but the Association name came up in the right hand bar and before I knew it, I'd pressed post or whatever the word says that sends.

Anyway, I raced to edit or delete and then remembered a lot of Mom's read and post here, so they maybe would have a view point worth sharing as there is a lot of noise being made on blogger at the moment about the noise being made by babies and small children in Mass.

I am sure people will want to express their experiences, and hopes and sadnesses in this area, so I have decided to leave the link up. Mary is a very lovely girl and her words often bring light in the dark areas of my life.

Comments

  1. Mary N.11:33 am, August 04, 2011

    Thank you, Ros! What's funny is that I was thinking of putting this post on this site rather than my own because a lot of mothers must have circumstances similar to mine. I'm glad you put up the link - sometimes it's helpful for people to view thing from a different angle. I try not to get angry when people make comments about children and Mass but I have to admit that the term "animals" and also "creep" drew my ire. My daughter is NOT an animal and I a NOT a creep for bringing my child to church. If anything, I believed that attending Mass and bringing her into the healing presence of Jesus was (and is) the greatest thing I could ever do for her. And I was right - she has made enormous progress thanks to God's grace. Thank you, Ros, for your kind words at the bottom of your post. God bless!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fr Seán Coyle3:53 am, August 07, 2011

    I am a priest who was thrown out of a church in Dublin, along with my pregnant mother, when I was a few months short of three. It was a weekday Mass during the Christmas season. It seems I shouted 'Ba' at the Child Jesus in the crib! The priest then ordered us out, aided and abetted by an older woman. (I knew another little boy who took the Baby Jesus home and who became a priest!)

    As a priest for nearly 44 years, I figure that the priest had got out of bed on the wrong side that morning. But he never apologised. However, when recounting the incident my mother always added that four years later, when that same priest was in the parish where my mother had grown up, he attended my dying aunt, a younger sister of my mother, and could not have done more for her.

    Occasionally here in the Philippines I have found the noise of children dropping coins on the floor irritating. Once or twice when a child was clearly causing some disruption I have gently asked if the parents could look after him. This never caused offence. And small children wandering into the sanctuary have never been a problem for me. It's a situation that's not difficult to deal with.

    After my brother was born - we had moved to another parish then, nothing to do with the incident - it was my father who took me to Sunday Mass while my mother went to another one. I became aware too that he went to Mass every day, as he did until the day he died. That was one of the most formative influences on my life, and still is.

    The incident was rather traumatic for my mother, though it didn't stop her from going to Mass. My only recollection of it is of walking home. Years later, while home from the Philippines, I was asked by the vice superior in Ireland, to preach at all the Sunday Masses on a particular Sunday in Lent in the church I had been thrown out of. He knew nothing of my connection with the parish. I had a great opening line! But by the final Mass I had experienced a kind of vicarious healing for my mother, long since deceased.

    God bless you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:46 am, August 07, 2011

    Last Sunday my husband ,myself and our daughter and her husband were able to go to the 'main' mass, my daughter and her husband went in first and found a place with room for all 4 of us. This it turned out was immediately behind a family with very active children! We actually found it amusing and cute, feeling sorry for the mothers and able to concentrate on what was neccesay. My husband was having trouble hearing but that was more to do with the loudspeakers and his tinitus. However we were shocked that during the consecration the oldest child ,about 9 and her mother sat hugging and whispering to each other and writing in an exercise book.The girl appeared to have no problems or disabilitys, they just made no attempt to kneel or watch the most sacred part of the Mass. We didn't mind the crying and squabbling we had 4 little ones and know how difficult it can be but from a very young age they were shown how to kneel and be reverent by example .Our church is full of young families and we love to have the children at mass, during the summer there is no children's liturgy so a little more child sized noise is expected!
    It was also amusing that a young couple sitting in front of the children got up and moved to find a quieter spot depriving us of the charming view of the young ladies lacy thong underwear, that was shown to us when she was seated by the gap between her trousers waist band and her blouse! As I said to my daughter afterwards well that was why it was the only pew with space!
    It's what we expect at the main mass busy children and what a blessing to the church, they are the future.

    ReplyDelete

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