Concentration

Last night at Mass, there was a guest priest, a missionary with the Society of the Divine Word (SVD); He is a missionary in Montserrat, an island in the Caribbean.  I knew he was going to give the homily, what I did not know, until he retrieved the book of the Gospels, was that he was going to preach the Gospel.  "Oh, great, I'm going to have to concentrate really hard to understand what he's saying."  That's what I was thinking, so you can imagine that I was startled when he spoke perfect English. During the homily, he explained that he was originally from Jackson, Mississippi, so that's exactly why I understood him.

After I had left, I started wondering why it would be a bad thing if I would have had to concentrate to understand him.  It ties in to what I had been thinking about earlier in the day. Two of my friends asked my why I was going to church, couldn't I just skip it?  I told them the truth, I want to go because it's important to me.  They dropped the subject and the day went on. That got me to thinking about why I like going to Mass most of the time.  I came to the realization (again) that I get something out of Mass.  I get a sense of calmness and, most of the time, I get something out of the homily, as well as having the understanding that everything will be all right.  Sometimes I don't put much into the Mass, and I still get all of those out of it.  However, it seems the more I invest myself, the more I get out of it.  While I realize that I probably shouldn't think of it like that, right now it's a decent way to keep myself on track.  So, if I had to have concentrated, which I probably should have been doing more of, I probably would have gotten more out of it.

But today, I hope all of us have remembered those who have served our country, especially those who have died in the while serving.  May God bless them all.  Thank you for doing all you have.