Daily Mass

I went to church this morning – to meet the Lord ( though I can meet him and be with him anywhere, anytime going to the church always energises me) and to receive him in Communion. I really get energized at the thought of participating in the mass and receiving communion. It is a sign of receiving Lord and somehow I feel strengthened more on the days I receive communion. It is as though he is with me physically then, and not just emotionally.

The Sunday Mass is something that I would never miss for my life. I should have a really good reason to miss a Sunday mass. And no reason is good enough to miss a Sunday mass, unless there is something as bad as a communicable disease that you may infect other people with, there is no excuse worth its salt to miss a Sunday Mass. Not just for me, for anyone in the family. To me I draw the entire weeks’ spiritual strength from the communion I receive and I make it a point to avoid taking my mobile along with me. Its dedicated time for the Lord and I wouldn’t want anything to come between me and the Lord.

With a maid who has come in for cooking – yes finally I have a real good cook who comes sharp at 6 am in the morning everyday and cooks for us and she is really efficient that she completes breakfast, lunch and dinner for us in an hour and 15 minutes and leaves the place spic and span, without making much noise about anything and without disturbing us for anything at all. In fact, she doesn’t talk much. Nirmala, that’s her name and she is a blessing to us. Baiamma, our maid who does other chores at home comes by around 6.45 am and does the other work, that leaves me out with absolutely nothing to do. Am I happy? I have reasons to be happy.

Initially when both the maid and the cook started coming in, I lavishly spent my time on reading paper, watching my darling fishes, watering the garden, talking to Joe ( morning conversations are otherwise very limited and if at all there are any, they are heating expressions of verbal exchanges as everyone is hustling and bustling in their efforts to go to offices and school), until one day I felt so guilty of the fact that I am wasting so much of my otherwise busy and useful time. That’s when I happened to speak to Jigie, you know the heart to heart kind of talking, and she was telling about Austin and her going to church every morning and how they have become role models for many families in her Parish.

Jigie is my cousin, and we were brought up together from when we were 8 months old to our pre marriage days. In fact, our birthdays almost fall together June 14th is hers and June 18th is mine and we were almost like twins. We fought so much when we were really small and grew up in friendship when we were adolescents ( partners in every crime, then) until education took Jigie away from Chennai and later marriage.

With a church so close by at a walkable distance and mass on most mornings, I decided to go for Mass whenever I could. And I have made that into a practice. We do not have daily mass, Mondays and Tuesdays the mass is the evening and so on the other days I make it a point to go for mass and meet the Lord in person focus my energies in prayer for all my loved ones ( with whom I am in constant touch and for some with whom I am not in touch too) and most importantly to receive the Lord in communion.

Today when I went for mass, I was reminded of my Yercaud days – there I used to go for mass everyday. Every single day. Rain, storm, landslides, cold weather, no power nothing mattered – I went for mass every single day. Yercaud was my first experience in living away from home and I missed family so much, going to Church used to make up for not having my family closeby. I used to love going for mass, so much so the nuns in the convent thought that I would end up in the novitiate to become a nun. When I went for their Centenary celebrations, Sr. Bernard, the correspondent asked me “ so, Vincy, When are you coming to take the Veil?” I had to tell her “ I intend taking the Veil, but not the one that you are thinking of, Sister Bernard” and we laughed about it.

Joe still makes fun of me saying that I got a good husband (?) ( I forgive him for his ignorance ha ha ), only because of those every day masses that I attended. Anyways, till my Yercaud days, I never had a church so closeby to go for a mass on a daily basis and when I had the opportunity I did not want to waste it.

So, Here comes yet another blessing that I can add onto my list of blessings. Meeting the Lord and receiving him in Communion, every day – every possible day !.