Just when I’m almost certain that church-the-building is one of the last places I’ll encounter God’s grace, I receive evidence to the contrary.

Being a mystic* type, I’m okay with having my assumptions about church and faith challenged empirically. This is what happened when I got into gear for the 5:30 PM liturgy on Friday.

I almost didn’t go because of the life-threatening heat. (I blame beehive hairdos of the 1960s and the massive amounts of hairspray they required for this climatological disaster.) Also, I’d taken a late afternoon nap and could not imagine getting dressed (appropriately), getting into the car and driving anywhere. I got dressed (semi-appropriately), got into the car and drove to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.

Because punctuality has taken on new meaning in the years since I’ve become Roman Catholic, I was on time enough to trail in after the mini-procession. And as if I’d been doing so since the Cradle Catholic childhood I didn’t have, I slid into a back pew.  Unobtrusively — or so I thought until an usher’s tap on my shoulder launched me into full-bodied Uh-oh Mode.

Go ahead and fill in what happened next . . .

[To be continued . . . ]

* Not from Missouri  but “show me” is the prayer that got me into my current situation viz. Christianity.

photo credit: alancleaver_2000

Tagged as: church, grace

July 26, 2010