Mark and I were both sick with the flu last week. He had it really bad, and I just had a touch of it. After a long week of fighting off the illness, we were both pretty exhausted, so we decided to sleep in on Sunday morning and attend whatever Mass we happened to wake up in time to attend.
We’re blessed to live in an area with many Catholic Churches and tons of Mass times, from 7:00AM to 6:00PM.
We finally rolled out of bed around 9:00AM and took our time eating breakfast and getting ready for the day. I used the ever-so-helpful Masstimes.org (love the site redesign btw!) to find an 11:30AM service in our area.
Shortly after entering the Church, we realized it was a Spanish Mass. Neither of us know Spanish well, though mine is spotty enough to catch about 4/20 words and piece together basic concepts, but we decided to stay anyway.
4 things struck me about attending the Spanish Mass…
1) It was SO UPBEAT.
So often in Mass, I look around the pews to see everyone looking very solemn. Definitely appropriate, but it is nice to see some joy, too. The music was snappy and people were tapping their feet and the kids were clapping. It was fun!
2) There were SO MANY KIDS.
Wayyyy way way way more than I’ve seen at other Masses in surrounding communities. I think this next weekend when I attend our parish, I’ll be struck by how many kids aren’t there in contrast. Maybe there are other variables I’m not considering, but it seemed like the population at this Mass adhered to the Church’s teaching about contraception much more strictly than the populations at the Masses I usually attend.
3) It was easier to FOCUS.
Not being super familiar with the language forced me to pay extra careful attention to each word the priest spoke. I’m ashamed to admit I’ve zoned out before during Mass and had to reign my mind back in, but there was no room for daydreaming because I was working so hard to piece together what was happening.
4) Mass is UNIVERSAL and BEAUTIFUL in any language.
Though the language was foreign to us, we could follow what was happening and share in the service. I love that we can attend Mass anywhere, in any language, and still feel right at home.
Have you ever attended Mass in another language, or even another country?