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Views from the Choir Loft

Don’t compare your kids

Veronica Brandt · July 4, 2015

Hands Full Veronica Brandt with two small children coming back from Communion about ten years ago. RINGING CHILDREN TO MASS DOES make a huge difference in how you experience the Eternal Sacrifice. We might get stuck comparing the before and after – or maybe the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Once I heard a homily recommending listeners to close their eyes to pray and realized that with a few small children under my care I could not close my eyes to pray. This doesn’t mean I am not praying, but in a public place with little ones I need to have part of my mind keeping watch. In some ways this involuntary and necessary distraction can help crowd out other more subtle distractions though it may not feel this way at the time.

Worse than comparing your pre-child life to the present, there is comparing your family with other families. You may have the sinking feeling that you are doing something wrong. You look at the family with seven children all staying in the pew quietly and wonder why your two or three can’t manage to keep their voices down.

But now, fifth time around, I see that bringing a few very young children is very different to a large family with some well established older children. A one year old attending Mass surrounded by a herd of siblings often has a lot more peer pressure to conform, and many more little games to play unobtrusively interacting with different family members.

Whenever you are struggling you can know you are not alone. It is worthwhile.

I found it comforting to read in St Therese of Lisieux’s Story of a Soul that she was left behind for Sunday Mass as she was too young. She fondly remembers looking forward to her sisters coming home with the blessed bread – a sacramental, not the Blessed Sacrament.

And now I go to check the reference I find an article I wrote a few years back Does Music keep kids quiet at Mass?.

The photo up the top there is blurry, but I’m pretty sure those two little boys who kept me busy in the narthex and courtyard at Maternal Heart are now an accomplished altar boy and a good choir member respectively.

Deo gratias.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Children at Mass Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Don’t You Agree About These?
    If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Choral Vowels? Yes? No?
    Here's a live recording of one of the choral “warm-up” exercises my choir enjoys. It was taken during our rehearsal on 27 January 2023. It’s good to make sure each chord is perfectly in tune and balanced before moving to the next one. That only happens when each singer has the correct vowel. If you like, you can freely download that vocal exercise.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

These prayers were not peculiar to Good Friday in the early ages (they were said on Spy Wednesday as late as the eighth century); their retention here, it is thought, was inspired by the idea that the Church should pray for all classes of men on the day that Christ died for all. Duchesne is of opinion that the “Oremus” now said in every Mass before the Offertory—which is not a prayer—remains to show where this old series of prayers was once said in all Masses.

— Catholic Encyclopedia (1909)

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