A Pleasant Experience

After putting in a 16 hour shift yesterday (and fasting, to boot!), I couldn't wait to get to Mass this morning and thank God for the blessings He continues to grace me with.  My new company-owned apartment where I stay when in Bakersfield is close to St. Francis of Assisi parish.  The St. Francis community is orthodox and prayerful.  (Side note:  The only thing I have an issue with is that they keep the Tabernacle in the adjoining chapel, not behind the main altar.)  When I arrived at the church at 6:15 this morning, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear Gregorian chants emanating throughout the whole building.  It sounds like they have the speakers set up in "surround sound" because I couldn't tell where the chants were coming from.  What I do know for sure is that listening to the chants gave me such peace! What a magnificent conduit for prayer!  It really helped me focus on my prayer, rather than anything else that may have been going on around me.  Just before Mass began, the chanting stopped.  I was a little disappointed--but not for long!

The men and women who are chosen as lectors are very good at choosing which words to emphasize and the vocal inflections are great as well.  This morning's 1st reading was Deuteronomy 30:15-20, wherein Moses is telling the Israelites who are about to enter the Promised Land that he was giving them a blessing and a curse.  The lector was so good and had such a booming voice that when I shut my eyes and just listened, I felt as though I was in that desert those thousands of years ago and listening to Moses himself!  It was a very moving experience.  I haven't stopped thinking about it all day.  This evening as I write this I can still hear "Moses" exhorting me to "Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding His voice, and holding fast to Him." 

Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Thanks to St. Francis parish for making worship of our God what it should be.
======================================================================
Station 3
Jesus Falls the First Time
We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You, because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus, the cross you have been carrying is very heavy. You are becoming weak and almost ready to faint, and you fall down. Nobody seems to want to help you. The soldiers are interested in getting home, so they yell at you and try to get you up and moving again.

As a child, sometimes I start to do something, but then get tired of it. I hurry to get finished and sometimes don't do my work well. Sometimes I don't pay attention to what I should be doing. When things get hard for me, sometimes I give up.

As an adult, I sometimes put things off. I give up too easily, and sometimes don't do my work as well as I know I can.

My Jesus, the heavy burden of my sins is on Thee, and bears Thee down beneath the cross. I loathe them, I detest them; I call on Thee to pardon them; may Thy grace aid me never more to commit them.

Our Father....
Hail Mary....
Glory Be to the Father....

Jesus Christ Crucified, have mercy on us.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, Rest in peace.
Amen.