Obedience takes an interesting turn

Yesterday evening we went to confession as a family as we often do,only we went to our old parish instead of the new one. Some of the stuff I needed to confess was personal and directly related to persons and priests in the Parish, so I wasn't sure how it would all go down IN the confessional, I just knew I was supposed to be there. I prayed and asked God to show me WHICH priest I needed to confess to, and He did just that.

While we waited in line we saw one of the staff passing out papers which we knew were to be used in the Mass that afternoon and on Sunday morning. Upon looking closer, we saw that these papers were, as we had suspected, intended to press and squeeze finances out of those who have not yet given to the Church building project. These types of scandalous interruptions of Holy Mass have infuriated us before... so to combine the idea of being faced with another financial shakedown with the prospect of one more round of "America the Beautiful" on the 4th of July made us ever so grateful to be attending the small, orthodox parish we had chosen.
A few weeks ago on memorial day, they had elected to make us plow through the borderline idolatrous praise and glory of this nation during a liturgical service that was intended to glorify God and we jetted out the door over our waves of nausea pretty certain that we would have to switch Parishes soon if it didn't get better. It didn't. We moved on.

So you can imagine my stress levels when I sauntered into said new, orthodox Parish this morning and picked up the worship aid which contains the hymns and prayers for the day. Lo and behold, it was splattered with annoying Patriotic songs. (these songs don't annoy me because I hate America but because singing them in Church is demonstrative of an idolatrous, disordered passion for a nation which, quite frankly, is not at all worth singing praises over at the moment.) My heart sank, and I wondered what my husband was going to say/think/do.
Imagine, then, the absolute SHOCK I experienced then when the priest appeared to begin the procession which starts mass wearing vestments which were entirely white-- except for the gigantic American Flag embroidered in the center. Horror followed shock as I realized that the liturgical linens, which decorate the altar and the sacred vessels in which the priest turns ordinary bread and wine into the body and blood of our Lord... .yes, you guessed it. White with American Flags embroidered on them.

At first, I felt as though steam were coming out of my ears. I was seeing red and so totally amazed at the sickness of what I was about to participate in that I seriously considered packing up the kids and storming out. I knew my husband would be right behind me. But something in me told me to stick it out. So I did, and learned a valuable lesson.

Did we sing all of the dreaded "America is awesome" songs? Yes, absolutely. But I noticed the great care with which the particular verses and "styles" of the hymns we were given to sing. Each verse, if it happened to talk about America's glory then went on to BEG the Father of Mercies to keep our nation free and able to serve him, reminding us that we only became America by the Hand of God, that God gives and takes away, and that we must, as a nation, be Holy.
I didn't catch every word of the homily (hey, I've got three small kids to keep in line! :P) but I caught enough to get that he wasn't going to get hung up on finding ways to make the readings of the day "fit" with the Fourth of July theme.

More importantly, from the moment Divine Liturgy began to the moment it ended, a shift in the atmosphere and a holiness descended that could only have been a special grace from the Holy Spirit. These people were here to Worship God, and none of the reverence and specialness of assisting at mass was lost in the patriotic singing. Further, the seriousness of the priest and people during Liturgy (as it should be!)and their cooperation with the Holy Spirit in that mass so totally transported me that I literally forgot A) that it was the 4th of July and B) that the place and priest was decorated like something out of a cheesy Arab flea market in New York. (we go to a Maronite Church. :P)
It was truly amazing.... if every Catholic remembered they were at mass to worship God and not celebrate the Fourth with their families I'm pretty sure God WOULD bless America, what an AWESOME mass.

So I learned a good lesson in that. Yet again-- God is showing me that I am to be obedient to Him AND the Church. Likewise, that He has allowed certain atrocities to take place but that they will serve a purpose. More importantly, He is teaching me that when I am obedient, charitable, and meek, poor in spirit, the Mass truly is Heaven on Earth.

I always knew that in my head, but today my heart got it. What great solace there was in the consecration today!
In the Maronite Church, we hear the words of the consecration in Syriac Aramaic, the language actually spoken by Our Lord. It moved me to weeping to see this sweet, very faithful little Lebanese Priest, dressed head to toe in the most ridiculous American Pride vestments, chanting the very words of Christ in His language so as to bring us Jesus in the Flesh.