My wife and I come to Florida for the month of February (regardless of what the Groundhog predicts), renting a different place every year, and part of the experience is finding a "nice Catholic" church to attend for the four Sundays of our trip. Often, we will try a couple churches on the first and second Sundays, then settle on one for the remaining weeks. It is noteworthy that during February, which is the height of "Snowbird" season, any church we find will be majority-geezer, like us. The churches are consequently all pushing for extra donations from the Snow Birds, who are presumed to have money and will only be there during these Winter months. But that's OK.
The second Sunday this year, we found a lovely church with a nice and welcoming congregation, excellent music, a good pastor, and several enjoyable events scheduled for February (they had a car cruise yesterday morning, bake sale this morning, etc.).
We go to the Saturday evening Mass because it works best for our schedule.
But here's the thing. There is a man in church who seems to attend the Saturday vigil service every week. I don't know the technical term for it, but he was a person we used to refer to as a "retard." Down's Syndrome, perhaps? Well, he "sings" along with every singing part of the Mass, whether it is congregational singing or the Cantor. He knows neither the words nor the music, so he is "singing" gibberish at the top of his voice during literally every sung part of the Mass - which is a considerable part. He is also quite pleased with himself and always has a big smile on his face.
The congregation is used to it, as everyone just ignores him. How could one do otherwise?
This creates a moral/ethical dilemma for us. Both my wife and I find this very irritating. I'm sure if we went there every week for a year our ears would just shut him out, as we long ago learned to do with unruly kids. But for now, it's an irritation. The church is otherwise ideal for our circumstances, but there is a temptation to go someplace else to avoid this irritation. But that wouldn't be very "Christian," would it?
Only one more Sunday to go. We'll probably just go there and pretend not to hear him.
Maybe if we smoked a joint before going into the church...
The second Sunday this year, we found a lovely church with a nice and welcoming congregation, excellent music, a good pastor, and several enjoyable events scheduled for February (they had a car cruise yesterday morning, bake sale this morning, etc.).
We go to the Saturday evening Mass because it works best for our schedule.
But here's the thing. There is a man in church who seems to attend the Saturday vigil service every week. I don't know the technical term for it, but he was a person we used to refer to as a "retard." Down's Syndrome, perhaps? Well, he "sings" along with every singing part of the Mass, whether it is congregational singing or the Cantor. He knows neither the words nor the music, so he is "singing" gibberish at the top of his voice during literally every sung part of the Mass - which is a considerable part. He is also quite pleased with himself and always has a big smile on his face.
The congregation is used to it, as everyone just ignores him. How could one do otherwise?
This creates a moral/ethical dilemma for us. Both my wife and I find this very irritating. I'm sure if we went there every week for a year our ears would just shut him out, as we long ago learned to do with unruly kids. But for now, it's an irritation. The church is otherwise ideal for our circumstances, but there is a temptation to go someplace else to avoid this irritation. But that wouldn't be very "Christian," would it?
Only one more Sunday to go. We'll probably just go there and pretend not to hear him.
Maybe if we smoked a joint before going into the church...