I started going to mass in the morning, first on Mondays. After a couple weeks I added Friday. It seemed like a good way to start and end my week. I had not been to mass since my mom and dad died, so way back in 2008 or earlier. Sunday mass didn’t interest me, they’re too crowded and too long. Thirty minutes feels about right. At first it was easy to go, but that was during the summer when so many more things come easily to me. Fall was Ok, too, but winter has seen me miss services a number of times over the last month or so.

Why?

I’m not sure. I have some thoughts but I’m not going to jump into them quite yet since they are so ill-formed. I know why I have enjoyed going. There are two reasons. The first is the more powerful. It’s because mass makes me feel closer to my mom and dad. There’s no explaining that, but it’s the truth. The second reason splits in two ways each engaged with the way the mass makes me think and what it makes me think about.

I don’t know what caused me to break the streak. There came a morning when another hour of sleep felt better than dragging myself out of bed and making my way towards mass. So, I’m trying to break the streak of not going tomorrow…Friday. My plan is to build some things around the service, kind of like a crutch. My plan is to have breakfast at around 7:30 at one of my favorite diners before heading to get the cheap gas at Costco before there’s a line. If I can make it to those two activities getting to the 8:30 mass should be the cherry on the sundae.

Whether my plan works or not I’ll do a little more thinking about both ends of the equation; what got me to go after all these years and what made me stop…again.

Thanks, as always, for reading.