Yet Another Grateful Day

Every “semester,” our choir has a “Men Only” Sunday and a “Women Only” Sunday, giving everyone one Sunday off.  I love to go to Mass on Men’s Sunday, because it is one of the rare times I can truly appreciate the beauty of the choir, even if only half of it is singing.  Often, the men are joined by the astonishing Schola Cantorum, the St. James children’s choir, and sometimes by an orchestra (or perhaps an orchestralet, as was the case today.)  Given the whole daylight savings business, and that I worked the evening before, and had to work again that evening, I decided to not set my alarm, but to strive to wake up on time naturally.  At some ungodly hour my phone rang, and my first thought was, “It’s not really Men Only Sunday, and someone is calling to see why I am not at choir practice.”  I looked at the caller ID and it was Rachael, making this an even more likely possibility, as she is not an early morning girl, except by extreme necessity.  I looked at the clock.  If I were going to make it to church on time, I would have to leap out of bed right that minute, and scurry around like a dervish – getting dressed and feeding the furry folk with lightening speed.  But I just could not stir.  I lay there and lamented my laziness, but still could not move.  When I finally did emerge and stumbled down to make my tea and reset the clocks, I got a glorious surprise.  I had mistaken the way Daylight Savings Time works, and it was TWO hours earlier than I thought it was.  Hurrah!  Now I was able to dash around, feeding and pottying everyone, and getting dressed.  The morning was autumn-glorious, all scarlet and golden, and when I got to church, the service was as exquisitely beautiful as ever, but the music….   It was divine.  As children and the men sang Kyrie from Haydn’s St. Nicholas Mass, I had to fight back tears.  Later in the Mass, as they sang the Biebl Ave Maria, I surrendered and gave up the fight altogether.  We who go to St. James are certainly blest in our wonderful parish!

It was difficult to get good photos unobtrusively, and these were the best I could do.