Sunday, May 8, 2011

Just Be A Queen

Last night, I took Shef to my cousin Emily's first communion. While I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school from ages 3 to 17, and served as an altar girl in my family's parish; Shef actually knows nothing about Catholicism.

Here are just a few of things I had to explain to him while we sat through the (interminable) first communion mass:
  • The first communion dresses and suits
  • The sign of the cross
  • The golden loin-cloth wearing Jesus ON the cross
  • The "on my mind, on my lips, and in my heart" thing that you do before the Gospel
  • The kneeler
  • Proper kneeler etiquette
  • The peace sign
  • Proper peace sign etiquette
  • The missalette
  • The reason I know all of the signs and prayers by heart
  • The baptismal font
  • The sprinkling of baptismal font water over the heads of the congregation
  • The procession of the gifts
  • The gifts
  • The robes of the priest
  • The sacristy
  • Genuflecting
  • Eucaristic ministers
  • Getting a blessing from the priest
  • And of course, the transfiguration
There were probably more. Catholicism is like a second language. Shef was kind of amazed, but also kind of bored. Oh, well.

3 comments:

LH said...

So many things to wonder about there.

You're bringing back a flood of memories with this post.

jdoc said...

I would have asked you to explain 2/3 of these things as well. The Lutheran church has fewer rituals it seems to me.

StreibProjects said...

The only thing that I know about going to Catholic church, is that you have to stand up and sit down a lot.