Saturday mass (Post 10)

Laurie Rossnagel

Mass was on Saturday afternoon, in an outdoor chapel. The entire Ranch attended, hundreds of kids and adults, and many grandparents (abuelos), who we hadn't met yet. The abuelos appreciated us greeting them. We all dressed up, so did the kids from the Ranch.

Not being Catholic, we didn't know what to expect in the service. And everything was in espanol, so when it was over, we still didn't exactly know. But that was ok. The service was somewhat like ours with 3 scriptures, a sermon, communion. We split up and sat in ones and twos scattered among the hundreds of kids. I sat by myself in the middle of high school boys who didn't seem to speak any English. So I just copied what they did. Pattie had a girl next to her who pointed out words in the songbook for her.

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The priest was down front, along with 4 or 5 kids assisting. At one point, a dog wandered around the stage for 5 minutes. The priest didn't miss a beat, and Fido moved on. I was glad to see the girls got to help the priest. And small kids brought down the elements for communion. And Sister Kolbe (COL be) with a great sense of humor translated the sermon. We sang a lot, all from a songbook in espanol. The boys didn't sing anything till we got to the song that Lainey, Derek, Madeline and Megan had prepared. They brought flutes here on the plane, practiced ahead of time, and sang accompanied by a guitarist. They led everyone in "In the Lord I'll Be Ever Thankful" in both English and espanol. Everybody sang, including the boys with me -- the only time they sang.

During communion, those of us who went down front got a blessing from the priest instead of taking communion from Sister Kolbe, because we aren't Catholic.

The whole service was very joyful, lots of singing, everyone was friendly and welcoming. I'm glad we got the opportunity to go.