As most of you know, Avery is attending a Catholic School. As most of you also know, I'm not Catholic. Not only am I not Catholic, but I have never really practiced any religion. We were that family who went on Christmas and Easter (I think?) growing up. Now, that isn't to say that I'm against religion because I'm not. It is just something that I'm not 100% comfortable with because I just don't know much about it.
Well, as you can imagine, since it is a Catholic school, Avery is learning about religion. They don't go nutso with it - she is really just learning that God wants you to be a good person and wants you to be nice to others, etc. However, she is also learning prayers, songs, the story of Jesus, etc. And, I have to say, she is really enjoying it. Now, again - I don't know much about the Catholic religion, so it is slightly awkward when she asks me if I know Hail Mary and I have to say no. But, at the same time, I have explained to her that I am not Catholic, so I never learned these prayers and that is an ok thing. While I fully support her learning about religion, I also want her to know that it is ok if some people aren't quite as religious and that we aren't going to hell because of it (ok, so I haven't used those exact words, but you know what I mean). Now, with all of that said, I knew full well that there would be a time when we would have to become a bit more involved in the religion side of things at school. And, that time was last weekend.
I had received a flyer about Family Mass at the school, which was followed by a pancake breakfast. As you can imagine, I just kind of skipped over the details and went on my merry way. Well, apparently the teachers mentioned it in class because Avery very excitedly came home one day asking, "Mom, did you know that they are having pancakes at school this weekend?" Awesome. Now, getting two of us motivated on a Sunday morning to get dressed up and out the door in time for Mass is hard enough - we weren't about to try to get all 4 of us dressed and ready. Not only that, but we didn't really want to deal with a 2 year old at mass, so it was decided that one of us would take Avery. Now, one would think that it would only make sense that Josh would go since he's the Catholic one, but shockingly, not only did he not jump at the opportunity - he didn't even flinch at the opportunity. So, this, combined with my mommy guilt for not knowing who the hell King Herod is resulted in me accompanying Avery to mass.
Overall, it wasn't too bad. Just a few minor incidents along the way:
1. At one point, Avery wanted to be picked up, so I was holding her and standing during one of the (500000) times that we had to stand during the service. Well, as I was holding her, she had her hand on my back and then came across my bra and decided to SNAP IT IN THE MIDDLE OF MASS!!!!!!!! Seriously? And, no - we weren't in the back row. We were in the 3rd row with 10000 people behind us.
2. Communion - 1) She hasn't received her first communion and 2) well, I'm not Catholic (just in case you forgot that) so, what in the hell are we supposed to do during communion?????!!!!! I was seriously panicking when the time came. Well, thankfully a friend of mine was there and she informed me that all I had to do was cross my arms on my chest and that he would just bless Avery vs. giving her communion because of her age. Ok, fine. So, we both walk up there and I have my arms crossed and I'm kind of giving him this look like, "Hey father - see these? My arms are crossed. i.e., I will go to hell if you try to give me that bread" and I tried to just kind of sneak by him until....he realized what was going on and yelled at me to come back because he had to bless me. REALLY? I had to be blessed???? Ok, so I'm blessed. I don't know what that means, but it's official - I've been blessed.
3. The pancake breakfast - this was very well done and the kids (and, who am I kidding - the moms) enjoyed it. However, there wasn't a ton of seating. Luckily, we were one of the first families through the line, so we grabbed seats at one of the tables - leaving about 6 seats empty. Well, low and behold - who comes to sit next to us????? The 6 nuns who were the founding sisters of the school and who were in town for a visit AND the principal of the school! REALLY? They pick the only table with a non-Catholic parent? Oh - and, by the way, "nice to meet you Mrs. Principal - I'm the one who wrote to you and complained about the lack of naps my child is getting at your school." Well, thankfully, the line had gotten just long enough at that point that we were able to finish our breakfast before the nuns and the principal returned. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking the blessing that I had received during mass helped me out in that situation - the big guy up above and I were clearly friends at that point and he was looking out for me...
Overall, other than the 3 incidents above, it wasn't that bad. And, I have to say that I was really proud of Avery- she really does know her stuff and made it very clear by saying every prayer and belting out every song that was sung. And, now that I've been to one, I've learned a few lessons to help make the next experience an even more comfortable one...stand in the back row, don't run away from the priest during communion and eat pancakes quickly!
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