Random thoughts

The Pope, and an interesting Sunday

Pope John Paul II has died, and everyone's talking about it. Now I don't know him personally, but I feel the loss just the same. He was Pope for 26 years so he's pretty much the only Pope I really ever knew. And thus far, all I've heard about him is good. He was great teacher, an advocate of peace, and a person with such an open heart. So I thought it would be appropriate to dedicate a post to him today.

*moment of silence*

I went to two masses today, actually. Marc invited me to go to an Agape service. When he called me in the morning to wake me up and see if I felt like going, I said, "Are they going to talk about the Pope? Because I don't want to go to a service that doesn't mention him." I wanted to make sure that whatever worship I did today would recognize the Pope and the impact he had on the world. And yes, they did mention the Pope during the service, although it was a little less emphasized than I would have liked.

The Agape service was interesting though - lots of music, and readings from different sources, and a sermon that really made a lot of sense. I guess sometimes the homilies in a Catholic mass tend to be preachy and too cerebral; it was nice to listen to something that I could relate immediately to my life. The only thing that bothered me was that they kept weaving in announcements during the service, and it seemed like they were using the service as a kind of advertising channel for inspirational books and talks. These announcements kind of threw me off, made me lose sight of the topic from time to time.

It didn't feel right making that my Sunday worship, so I made it a point to still go to the 5:30pm mass at St. Monica's. As usual, Helena was up there with her great voice. She's pretty much the reason why I go to this mass - I enjoy her solos and ad libs. The other reason is that I usually get to see a lot of my friends during this mass, but this time, I felt so cold that I couldn't hang out afterwards. I saw Alejandro when I was walking back from communion though, and he gave me a big hug and wished me a happy Easter. He's such a nice guy.

Anyway, these two services plus climbing pretty much made my day really busy, and my body really tired. The time change has thrown me off too, so I need to get more ZZZ's in. Good night, everyone!

posted by Cathy at 9:52 PM