By Alex (age 10)

Mass in Ireland

On Sunday, in addition to doing the daily things we do, we went to Mass (as usual).  When we entered the church, I noticed a few things:

1. There were no music books which made me sad.
2. The church was very beautiful
3. The priest was very quick with his words and had a thick accent. (My brother said that the priest sounded like Donald Duck’s uncle Scrooge)
4. There was a choir loft (with a big organ)
5. There were no hymnals or guidance books

Later when we did communion the priest gave the Eucharist to me from the chalice (that was cool). After Mass we talked to the priest he was super nice. I really enjoyed Mass – it was AWESOME.

Dad’s foot notes:

Part of our plan for homeschool on this trip is to have the kids journal about their daily experiences and our hope is that at least once a week we will get a blog post from each of them. We do help with grammar and spelling and we may have an editorial suggestion or two but Alexander is the other of the post above. As this is my first post as well, I’ll add a few details.

As Alex says we do usually go to Mass every Sunday and I’m very excited to see churches around the world. I’ve been listening to the Catechism in a year podcast with Father Mike Schmitz and the reading on or about this Sunday included paragraph 1346:

The liturgy of the Eucharist unfolds according to a fundamental structure which has been preserved throughout the centuries down to our own day. It displays two great parts that form a fundamental unity:
– the gathering, the liturgy of the Word, with readings, homily and general intercessions;
– the liturgy of the Eucharist, with the presentation of the bread and wine, the consecratory thanksgiving, and communion.

CCC 1346

Of course Father Mike explains it better but my short take is that the Catholic Church is like McDonalds – in the best possible way.

McDonalds is known throughout the world for delivering a consistent product

(and in Europe it is a free bathroom for American tourists).

In the same way, the Catholic church has had the same beautiful Liturgies that were instituted in the first century by Jesus Christ and they are faithfully and consistently celebrated all over the world every day. The décor of the church or the accent of the Celebrant may change but the Sacraments are as they’ve always been.

In addition to driving on the left and trying to keep up with laundry and dishes…

I’ve been working on adding a photo gallery to our page that will be a collection of churches where we’ve attended Mass. I’m hoping to get it posted while we are still in Ireland and once it is up we hope to update it weekly. Please check back often.

God Bless and Cheers from Dublin – Chris