Tears During Mass, Revisited

I sometimes cry during Mass.  I have found that if I forget to pack tissues in my purse, there's a good chance that's the day it's going to happen.  I was going to say, "That's the Sunday it's going to happen," but these days my husband and I are daily Mass-goers (for two reasons: he took an early retirement, so he's always home now and we can do everything together; and as he likes to say, the battle for the salvation of our fallen world, of good versus evil, is being fought on the altar, and therefore that's where we need to be present as often as possible); so really, any morning of the week, you might find me sitting in the pew sniffling and wiping my eyes.

It’s usually just a matter of getting choked up and having leaky eyes and a runny nose, and I find I can't sing or recite prayers aloud until I regain my composure or I will surely lose it.  Sometimes, though, it's bad enough that I fear a true bout of sobbing might commence; but I can usually keep it under control.  I dread the day I can’t and the floodgates open up.

My heart is so full these days, weighed down by worries for the world and worries for my beloved family members who have to live in it.  But getting emotional during Mass is not really anything new. Even when my worries were fewer, it could happen at any time. 

Way back when my youngest son--now 28, married, an Army vet and grad student--was just a lad home for the summer, getting ready to begin his senior year of college, he inspired this post titled "Tears During Mass."  I thought I'd share a link to that post today rather than write a new one on the subject.  (#lazyblogger) I read it again recently and marveled at all the changes that have occurred in our ever-growing family, not to mention our ever-scarier world, since I wrote it in 2014.  We still lived in NH (we would not make our big move to VA until 2017).  Just three of our five boys were married and we had only three grandchildren.  Now they're all married and within a matter of months, we will be Papa and Grammy to 19. 

2014 seems like a lifetime ago.  (Cue the tears!)

Click on this link if you have a few minutes and want to read that old post.  (You might want to grab a tissue first.  You've been forewarned!) Meanwhile, I'll try to come up with some new content here at the blog.

Until next time!

(P.S. That photo up there is of the church where my husband and I got married in 1980.  And speaking of tears during Mass, I may or may not have gotten a bit weepy during our wedding ceremony there, when it came time to look into his eyes and recite my vows...)