Does anybody read these?

Oh, Mother of God!!!

I am so glad it was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, because I am pretty sure that I uttered that phrase more than once tonight. Most times I'm pretty sure it was a prayer. (I also said it in Spanish. I know Spanish. Latin, not so much.)

The little experiment called "Laura runs the choir" was absolute disaster. Before Mass Father came up to check on me and I knew what was going on. Too bad the organ has a mind of its own.

I'll explain how it works. It's a programmable organ and all the music is saved on a disk. Kind of like a new-fangled player piano. So, before it's time for the song you load up the file (each hymn has a file number) then when Father gives you the secret signal, you play the tune. In theory, I'm sure it works. When the organ is possessed... well, it's pure disaster. The opening song was fine. Then there was no Gloria on the disk but apparently we WERE supposed to have one today. But the rest of the songs, it went downhill. You see, every time I loaded up the file, it reset itself back to file #1. So, I squeaked through the first song. Missed the Gloria (normally not sung during Advent, I might mention). So then I squeaked through the offeratory song, and one person in the congregation sang along, for which I will be eternally grateful.

The liturgical music was a disaster. Because nothing would pre-load there was no time for any of it. Some Father spoke, other parts he sang a capella. I missed the secret signal for the Communion hymn, but finally got it loaded and playing. Since I don't know Latin, I decided to go up for Communion. Here's a funny story, one lady in our church (whose name escapes me), my aunt and I are behind my cousin Jeff, who is like 6'3". Well, Father doesn't see us behind Jeff and takes the Communion back and puts it away in the Tabernacle. So we wait and wait and we finally leave. About that time, Father turns around and sees us and goes back to the tabernacle and gets the Host out for us. As I go up he tells me short people shouldn't get behind Jeff at Communion. I burst out laughing. Not my most solemn attempt at receiving the Eucharist.

So, I headed up to the choir loft and finally managed to get the last hymn loaded and playing. And I start singing the English verses (I don't know Latin, remember) and Father starts singing in Latin. Disaster, pure disaster. Well, at least I love Jesus. Although my grandmother, who would have been 89 years old today is rolling in her grave, I'm sure. All her favorite songs, and I butchered every single one. The choir ran like a well-oiled ship when she was in charge. Of course, she never missed Mass a day in her life, so she'd have been there to help me if she'd been alive.

Days like today I really miss her. And funny thing about the whole fiasco? Father was not wearing an approved color for his vestments and he was more worried about that than the horrendous noises coming from the choir.

Well, God bless us all. After all, I learned today (although I was much too worried about flubbing up the music to focus on God's message) that we can all be "full of grace," just like the Blessed Mother.

posted by Laura at 7:07 PM