We remembered to turn back our clocks, last night, so settled in to enjoy that extra hour of sleep. This plan worked until 1:30 in the morning. A strange humming/vibrating sound woke me up. I sat up to listen closer but it didn't return. I figured it was probably a truck or something passing by the house. I had just drifted off when the noise happened again. This time, I was facing my bedside table and saw my cell phone light up . . . telling me it was low on power. I had to wonder why it could be so loud if it was supposedly so weak? I attempted to turn the phone off entirely but, for some reason, at that hour of the morning, I couldn't remember exactly how to do it. By this time, my husband woke up and he spent several minutes trying to figure it out. Finally, success! We shut up the irksome phone. Just as I was slipping back into sleep, I noticed that my new alarm clock hadn't changed time as the packaging had promised. I decided to NOT bring this to my husband's attention as he was already sound asleep, again. I figured that if it didn't actually change to the Daylight Savings time, the worst that would happen would be the alarm would go off an hour early. I guess it had it's own changeover schedule because it rang the alarm at the correct time.
It's funny. I know there will be a crowd at Mass this morning. Many people will show up at 8:30 or so for attending the 9:00 o'clock Mass . . . only to discover they are just on time for the 7:30 Mass. Happens every year. Of course, we have a sparse, peaceful Mass when the clocks 'spring back' as many people are 'late'.
People and their arrival for Mass is always interesting. We always joke that we have a 7:30, 7:45, and 8:00 o'clock Mass because that is how people tend to trickle in for it. One woman just about always comes in during the Readings. She clumps down the aisle to get a seat near the front, plops down in the pew, unpacks her purse, gets out her prayerbooks, places her reading glasses on the ledge of the pew, and looks around. Within seconds, she reverses all these preparations and finds another pew to sit in.
Meanwhile, there is this sweet, elderly couple who show up early for Mass and sit in the front pew every week. And, every week, during the Readings, this hefty woman arrives and has to sit front and center in this pew requiring the couple to get up and move into the aisle so the woman can claim the seat. Everyone settles down and during the sermon, another well-endowed woman shows up and she has to sit next to the first woman so the couple and the first woman have to move out so she can get into the chosen place. The early Mass isn't that crowded so these women could have gotten a good seat just about anywhere in the church and been able to slip in without attracting attention. Me, I'm embarrassed the few times we've been late and tend to scuttle into the first available pew and hope no one is disturbed or notices.
Week day Mass has it's interesting side, too. Since there are seldom more than 30 people there, we could actually have half a pew to ourselves. I like the peace of morning Mass so always sit at the far end of the church in an end seat. There are a multitude of empty pews yet there are always several people (and always different ones!) who clamber in next to me or behind me. I don't hold hands at the Our Father so, eventually, they move on to more 'religious' territory for their needs.
Keeping our attention on the prayers at hand can be difficult, at times. I wonder if God sends these distractions to keep us praying for everyone that comes into our lives in whatever way they might? I'm learning to grin to myself, send a prayer their way, and then get back to my own prayers.
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