Saturday, November 5, 2011

The Longest Possible Route

     This morning Kevin and I were planning on going to Mass at St. Benedict’s for first Saturday.  We thought Mass was at 8:00 am, and we arrived a bit early, but the priest was nowhere in sight and the gentleman who usually does the readings and assists the priest at daily Mass left the building. 
     We figured Mass must have been cancelled for some reason, so we went back out to our car.  Kevin said I should call John and let him know since he’d planned to meet us for Mass at St. Benedict’s.  I reminded him that he also has a phone and could give him a ring (along the lines of helping Kevin recall that I’m not his secretary/administrative assistant, though I would make an awesome one). 
      I thought that Mass at St. Bridget’s on first Saturdays was at 8:30, so Kevin suggested we just go over there.  We drove the ten or so minutes over to that church.  The parking lot was pretty full, but no one was going into the church.  A moment after we walked in the foyer, we discovered why.  Mass had already started…probably at 8:00am.
     We came back out, and I suggested that Kevin call John to let him know that Mass had already started at St. Bridget’s in case he’d woken up late and had planned on going there instead of St. Benedict’s.  He reached John, who told Kevin that Mass at St. Benedict’s is at 8:30.  John called church to double check and called us back to confirm that he’d been right. 
     We turned around again and headed to St. Benedict’s.  This time we walked in at 8:29am.  Of course today was one of the few times when Fr. Kauffman started Mass a little early, so we missed the opening prayer. 
     Leave it to Kevin and me to be over half hour early for Mass, leave without asking anyone if Mass was cancelled or checking a bulletin for the schedule, go to another church, also without calling ahead or speaking to John who might know the schedules at both churches, arrive late for Mass, and only then call our friend (who, by the way, made it a little early to Mass at St. Benedict’s) while we walked in a minute or two after it started. 
     Kevin and I had to laugh.  We’re doing the Five First Saturdays devotion, and I didn’t have the pamphlet with me that has all of the requirements in it.  I joked with Kevin about the possibility of receiving an extra blessing for doing a pilgrimage on the way to Mass on the first Saturday of the month.  We certainly took the longest possible route.  If we’d just stayed where we were, we would have been early! 
     Lord, thank You for opening my heart and Kevin’s so that we are drawn to praise You through the sacrifice of daily Mass, no matter how long it takes us to get there.  Amen. 
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