My Church is Warm -- a Warm Building is Good...

 I just wish there was more young Life in the pews. The few babies, the families are good, but sometimes I wonder:  Where is the Joy?

When I was younger, our family was a member of Holy Ghost Parish in South Holland, Illinois, but the closer one to us that we often worshipped at, especially later in life, was St. John's in Glenwood, Illinois.  Both closed in recent years, due to declining numbers and growing bills paying the heating/cooling and upkeep maintenance.

We went to Holy Ghost for CCD, and to receive our first sacraments, I think, because the CCD was an evening weeknight class and my regular-school classmates went right after school for CCD if they were members of St. John's... It was nice, actually, because by the time my sisters and brothers and I started high school, we knew a lot of the children from South Holland already, who went to bigger junior high schools than ours feeding into Thornwood High. (ie/ McKinley)

Holy Ghost had one of the very large parking lots, with only a few outlets though... So you'd sit (and sit and sit) in your car after Mass waiting to exit.  Then, they offered a "guitar mass" in the school building that started at 10:15am, for the families mostly, with one musical family with teenagers, leading us in song.

I LOVED it!  My Dad -- very much raised a traditionalist from the Old Country where there was no separation of church and state:  state schools were Church schools there -- liked it because we could park on a side street, and have a nice walk to the school and you weren't merging and waiting and "competing" to simply exit that huge parking lot...

Long story short:  today, I still recall and sing in my head many of the songs I was raised on.  A lot of converts -- the conservative men who want to be the heads of conservative families with defined gender roles that kind of focus more on roleplaying than love of Christ really -- who find in today's Church something missing in secular society, HATE those types of songs...

They want the Mystery of Faith to be in Latin, or with YeOldeHymns, I think.  None of this joy and love in singing, and participation for all.  That is the theme of today's readings:  if we're not coming together for Christ, in Christ and with Him, we're really just a community center.  I get that.  I try to bring Joy and happiness when I worship.  So here's a song I recall from those guitar Mass days, you'll either really love or loathe because it's simply too much fun!

"Jesus is the Vine, and We are the branches ... His banner over Me is LOVE! His banner... over me... is love!"  Rock on.  (And don't tell me the spirituality and joy is missing the scripture part...)

Song of Solomon 2:4 says, “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.”

 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please. The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.  For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;  The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

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The readings today remind us:  before Christ, one went TO the rabbi, asked to be a disciple, to study under him.  Christ came to us.  Like a shepherd, he chose us, called to him his disciples, asked us to cast away our nets and simply follow Him.

Is your Church service making you more a man like Christ called us to be, or merely a way for you to check the boxes, confident that you have fulfilled your calling -- joylessly often -- simply by doing what your religion tells you is right? Is your Church building a warm one for all?  Do you see Joy in the pews, and new growth sprouting from the Vine?  Maybe, today, sing a new song unto the Lord?  You could do worse than starting here...

"Jesus is the Vine 

and We are the branches

His Banner over me is LOVE!

His banner ... over meeee, is love."

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Added:  We didn't really clap, or dance, or wave hands/bang our heads even at the 10:15am guitar mass, but home alone singing, I do! In almost a shouting, joyous tone. I don't think He would mind... I get what the scripture means, and celebrate it in my full body. Judge me not:  it makes me happy, and when I am happy, I am good, good to others, and isn't that what the Vine is trying to nurture in all of us, even today?