Ash Wednesday

Last night I went to the 5:30 Mass at St. Matthews Cathedral in DC. It was wonderful. The cantor sang beautifully but wasn't trying to highjack the Mass. The organist was in a zone. He really made that old organ strut. The homily was excellent. We had four priests, two deacons and a horde of eager Eucharistic ministers.(Grrrr!) The cathedral was packed. People who came late had to stand and there was a crowd of folks who attended Mass on the steps and sidewalk.

We had one weird moment before Mass started. I glanced at my husband and almost screamed. There was a young man kneeling behind us and he was leaning so far forward that his head was actually between my husband and me. For a second it looked like a disembodied head was resting on my shoulder.

And then the dude let out a couple of small belches. Under any other circumstances a man who belched in my face would get a nasty reaction from me but since we were in church we just moved. Actually, we hopped up and ran to a different pew. And later that night we watched the pope's Ash Wednesday Mass on EWTN.