High Five for Mass

At our church, when the offertory gifts are brought up, the deacon receives them at the foot of the steps to the altar.   Usually, he raises both hands similar to an orans posture, but with his palms facing the family, and invokes God's blessing upon the family who brought up the gifts.  He then accepts the gifts and passes them on to an altar server.

But, last week was different.

When our (rather short in stature) deacon raised his hands to bless the family, the little girl at the front of the group -- she couldn't have been more than six years old -- broke into a grin, jumped up in the air, and enthusiastically slapped the deacon a high five.

God bless the deacon, he just smiled and kept praying.

Wow.

Awesome!

I'd never seen that.  A child who was SO utterly excited to be participating in Mass that she simply burst with joy and high five'd the minister of God at the altar.

Superb!

Thankfully, my first and most humbling thought was, "Wow.  Shouldn't we all be THAT thrilled to be here!?"

I take the faith formation of my children very, very seriously.  So, it sometimes is equally distressing to me to see an ostensibly Catholic child be oblivious of how to participate correctly in his or her faith, especially the Mass.

But, last week was different.

Last week, this exuberant kid taught me that sometimes you bend rules and leap for joy because... because... because God loves you!  And because you're here.  And because He lets you approach His altar with your humble gifts, often enough just the gift of your lil' ole self.

Wow.

Awesome!

Shouldn't we all be THAT excited to be there!?