Fear Not Little Flock: fun at church: when your 3-year-old asks "Does Father feed us because church is so long?"

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

daughter #1 'helping' her dad in the chancery office when she was 1

Just this Sunday, my six month old pulled at a ribbon decorating a tall candle on the tetrapod - it immediately spills hot wax all over... my dress, the floor, and thank God not her little bare legs or my own! I was next for communion so I received after a quick wax check, closing my mouth on the spoon because I'd completely lost my composure. My three year old then prayed after liturgy that her family not get burned.

My husband boldly took over singing a hymn as the cantor received communion, but he didn't know the rest of the verse so he fudged it with until someone else jumped in.

Three year old regularly grabs large handfuls of blessed bread. When we visit other parishes that puts smaller trays or larger chunks out, this can cause her to take a third of it.

My kid has done the handful thing too! Or digs through the basket to find a satisfactory piece. *face palm* She's better about it now, depending on how hungry she is...

This tike, Harry, has a knack for knowing priests. I remember when I was with some folks, and Vespers had been more or less canceled. The kiddo kept looking through the door, saying "Father Michael.." When Father George came back from sabbatical, he would mutter "Father George... Father George.. Father George Gray.."

My son at about 15 months had picked up a 'salty' word from, I ashamed to say , my mother. Right in the middle of the consecration he decides to use his new word very loudly many times. So, I 'go over' another word with him loudly enough to be heard for a few pews.... "FORK, yes, fork, it goes with spoon. Can you say spoon "

In Dublin, at Fr. Serge Kelleher's Ukrainian Greek Catholic mission at St. Kevin's Oratory, in the basement of St. Mary's Pro Cathedral. He had a young parish, consisting mainly of Slavic families from all over, many with infants and toddlers. As the Oratory was not built for Byzantine worship, they had a collapsible Iconostasis, on the same level as the nave. During the Divine Liturgy (conducted in a mix of Slavonic, modern Ukrainian, and Irish Gaelic, one little boy, about 18 months old, was fascinated by Fr. Serge, and kept crawling over to the Royal Doors. Three times he crawled over, and three times one of his parents retrieved him. On the fourth try, however, his parents were distracted by his baby sister, and he managed to crawl all the way across the floor, under the doors, and right up to Fr. Serge, standing at the the Holy Table. He tugs on Fr. Serge's Phelonion. Fr. Serge looks down, and, in mid chant, bends over, reverses the baby, gives him a pat on his bottom, and sends him back out, under the doors, to his parents. Fr. Serge never missed a beat, and the Liturgy was not disrupted.