Thursday, December 04, 2008

willfulness

When I was a child I hated spinach and most other green vegtables. I was also quite anemic so my mother made sure there was some stewed veggie on my plate at every dinner. I tried to avoid the spinach, or to toss it in the trash when she wasn't looking but that never worked. I'd have to sit at the table until everything on my plate was consumed including the rapidly cooling spinach, cabbage or brussel sprouts. I was hard headed and could stay at that table for a loooong time.

Today I went to St. Matthew's Cathedral for the noon Mass and was reminded of those days. The visiting Jesuit priest seemed absolutely determined to get his personality across. He seemed to refuse to just do and say what was in the missal, he had to add his own little comments and say his own dismissal instead of what the Church provides. It was the same way with the visiting priest from yesterday. They just would not say the Mass any other way but their way. I wonder if they even realized it.