Catching a few rays

This week I went to daily Mass by myself for the first time in YEARS. Mass here in Cortland, NY, is 7 am and I figured that I could sneak out and get back before the kids were really coherent enough to damage themselves or the house. My oldest is almost 12, so she is "in loco parentis."

It was amazing. Let me say first that daily Mass was everything that I remembered it to be. . . the echoes of prayers said in a Church that is mostly empty, the cold pews, the three sentence homily. At first I found myself wondering how it could be that this handful of folks could be lifting up the Church with their prayers. It all seemed, if you'll excuse me, a little pathetic. But then, after communion, I felt such joy at the real presence of Jesus within me. With no little children to distract me, He seemed very close. . . "more inner than my inmost."

I pray often for the "radiation" of God's fatherhood. If you have not read the play "Radiation of Fatherhood" by Karol Wojtyla, then I highly recommend it. I have read the whole Theology of the Body and all of the encyclicals, but my favorite is "Radiation."

I yearn to feel this radiation, to behold the face of the Father. Like everyone else, I guess, I want to be chosen, to be anointed. In Mass today, it seemed possible.