Matthew Monday: Easter Mass

I took Matthew to Easter Mass yesterday.  Unfortunately I didn't take a picture, but he just looked so adorable.  He had on a stripped green and white, long sleeved polo shirt and tan slacks.  He just looks so handsome with his dark hair combed nicely. 

I think this was his third mass, other than his baptism.  The first two times we sat in what my church sort of isolates as a section for people with children, in the back corner with glass encasing.  I've never seen anything like that in any other church, but it's helpful for noisy kids.  Those two times we stayed through the homily and credo.  That's about the point he couldn't help being too active.  There's only so much constraint a two or three year old can take.

This time I took him into the main pews to where I normally sit.  I kind of wanted to show him off to the people who normally sit around me.  I will say he was very shy, but he did talk to the woman who normally sits next to me.  I don't even know her name, and yet we're usually both there every Sunday.  I do know she's a grandmother, and she started talking to him like a grandmother, and Matthew just loved it.  I told her he was adopted, and she in turn said she had been adopted as a child.  Isn't that something? 

What hooks Matthew with church is the music.  He doesn't understand anything else, but he does listen intently, hoping to hear a song he knows.  He keeps wanting to hear "The Wheels On the Bus," LOL!  No he didn't hear it.  The other two times at Mass I had to leave because I thought Matthew was getting a bit rambunctious.  This time, sitting in the crowded pews on a packed Easter Mass, he got intimidated and began to well up and cry.  It was a silent crying.  He pushed his head into me and his hands covered his eyes.  And when it got to the standing parts I had to pick him up and hold him. 

I got him to stop crying by taking out a pen and paper from my jacket pocket and having him scribble.  He did it quietly, thank God.  I got the idea from two children slightly older who were sitting two pews ahead who had crayons.  On the kneeling parts during the Liturgy of the Eucharist, I had to kneel on one knee and put him on my other.  Try that some time.  And then I got him to shake hands on the sign of the peace.  He was shy but I think he liked that.  There were two teenage girls sitting behind me that I think were ogling him the whole time and insisted on shaking his hand.  He's got such a way with the ladies. :)

We left when everyone was going up to receive communion.  He almost made it through the whole mass.  Next time I think I'll have him sit by the organist and choir.  I think that will keep him interested longer.