Father Joseph's Mass

Today, my cousin is visiting and spending time with my three brothers and I.

My cousin, Margaret, was discussing Church with my twin brother and I earlier this morning. She was questioning us about the responses at mass, since she has recently been regularly attending mass.  Joseph, the youngest brother of age seven, joined into the conversation, and was inspired by it.

"Let's play Church!" he exclaimed excitedly.

Before we could even respond, he began to collect his plethora of stuffed animals and arrange them in the living room.  Due to the fact that Joey is the youngest of us, we are often expected (mostly by him) to accept everything he says and play whatever game he demands that we take part in.  With this, and seeing the hard work that he was putting into it by writing down hymns and arranging his "altar", we had no choice but to go along with his idea.

The living room "chapel" was soon finished being decorated.  Margaret placed a white blanket over the coffee table "altar" and lit a small candle, while Matt set up the church organ and choir demo music programmed into our electric keyboard.

"You've got to record this." Margaret said to me.  When Joey began to get upset by our lack of seriousness toward his mass, she quickly added, "It's so you can watch this years from now.  Marisa, go get a camera!"

So, I turned on the video camera on my cell phone, and the procession began.  The choir music played as  Joey entered in wearing his blue bathrobe and a red scarf around his neck.  He held up a small crucifix until he got to his altar and set it down.  He looked at us awkwardly and turned around to turn off the background music.

"Welcome to Mass."  Joey addressed his audience of three family members, and then lost track of what he was supposed to do.  After we made the Sign of the Cross, he grabbed his children's Bible and read out loud.  "The First Rainbow: Many years after Adam and Eve...."

After he read the story of Noah to us, Father Joseph prepared the communion (with our reminders of how it is supposed to be done at mass).  We said an Our Father together as a family and gave each other the sign of peace.  As the church organ demo played, we ate our cookie Body of Christ one by one.  The mass soon ended, and we watched in amusement as Joseph led his Beanie Baby altar servers and organists out with the processional hymn.

With this little anecdote, I would like to conclude with just a couple of thoughts.  For some odd reason, this stupid little game made me realize the value of family and religion.  It's nice to see that religion brought all of us together today. In addition, I am glad to see that although he did not understand much of it, Joey has shown a genuine interest in religion and the Bible.  Coming from a very Catholic family, this meant a lot to me.

God bless my family! I love them more than anything.

EDITED: Hurricane Preparations Are No Joke

Especially when lawn ornamentation is involved.

Yesterday, my best friend since at least 2004, and I had a long conversation via text message. We talked about all kinds of things. Naturally, the hurricane came up since we live right in Sandy's line of fire. And while flashlights, non-perishables, bottled water, and a fully-charged cell phone are all important, my friend Alexa's priorities were elsewhere:

Me: That's the other thing that's worrying me.

Alexa: The storm?

Me: Yeah

Alexa: I have to bring my gnomes in =(

Me: Lol

Alexa: They're like my cats.

Me: Except they're in animate objects

Alexa: That's what you think

Alexa: My gnomes love me, I'm their mama gnome.

Alexa: My gnome that releases the butterfly is missing

Me: Well I'm sure that was a coveted piece of lawn decor on Valentine Ave.

Alexa: It was in the flower box

Me: Oh good.

Alexa: It's not good. I can't find him

Me: Oh I thought you found him.

Alexa: No, but I did notice an animal defiled my jack-o-lantern. Her eyes and mouth are now one =(

Alexa: She was legitimately raped =(

Alexa: Squirrels are evil. They are probably the ones who ran off with Butters. (Butters is my missing gnome. I named him Butters because he releases butterflies.)

Alexa: You are ignoring me in my time of need.

Alexa: I feel suicidal.

Alexa: Why is God punishing me this way?

Alexa: I'm so empty without Butters.

Me: Chill, I was taking a shower.

Alexa: You could've warned me. I'm on edge.

Me: Sorry, it was an impulsive hygiene urge.

Alexa: Ben said ew.

Me: I needed a shower!

Alexa: I needed someone in my time of need. I was there when Jasper died.

Me: Jasper was also a living animal...

Alexa: Butters and my pumpkin were living in my heart.

Me: I'm very sorry for your loss.

Alexa: Thank you.

Me: You're welcome.

Me: Is there anything  I can do?

Alexa: Unless you can bring my pumpkin back to its former state and return Butters, idt there's anything that can be done.

Me: I'm sorry. =/

Alexa: I'm sad.

Me: Don't be sad. Look on the bright side: at least you're not that girl whose water broke during pool.

Alexa: Yeah.

Me: Maybe Butters will turn up?

Alexa: Yeah but what about my pumpkin?

Me: Without eyes it doesn't have to see the storm!

Alexa: It has one eye.

Me: Well it can't see how deep the storm is.

Alexa: Why?

Me: You have no depth perception with one eye.

Alexa: It's just a pumpkin. It can't see anything anyway.

Me:...there's no emoticon for what you make me feel