Monkling’s Blog

I am not terribly familiar with other Christian denominations & how their services are, so I’m not too sure how widespread the whole ’sign of peace’ thing is. If there’s a lot of you out there who have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s a brief description. During Mass, there’s a part where you’re supposed to turn to the people in your immediate vicinity and shake their hand or offer some other sort of ’sign of peace.’

Now some people are very enthusiastic about this. They jump over the pews and give everyone a huge bear hug. Some pretend they didn’t hear the priest say, “Now let’s offer each other a sign of peace.” (Don’t quote me on whether or not those are the exact words. I’m tired.) Those people don’t want to shake anyone’s hands.

Yeah, y’all are thinking that since I’m the reserved sort, I probably am one of those pretending I didn’t hear it so I don’t have to shake anyone’s hand. I don’t mind it. I’ll even turn around to the people behind me & shake their hands. Hubby gets a kiss, as do my kids. If I’m near people I am friendly with, they may even get a hug. I do not, however, go running around the entire Church.

But that’s not the point of this blog post. It’s about kids. Now I love shaking hands with any kids that around around me. I think the enthusiastic ones are adorable. I think the shy ones that sort of stick out their hands are adorable. Here’s the thing, though. Say you’re sitting there in Church and there’s a kid about 5 years old in front of you. During the Mass, you see the kid oh, let’s say licking their hands or picking their nose or something. Now you have a dilemma. You don’t really want to be touching their hand after that. Then you have to be sneaky about avoiding them. That’s the time you have to suddenly be intent on shaking the hands of everyone behind you until they priest gets to the next part of the Mass and the kid is safely facing forward, eh?

Aren’t you all so glad I shared this little tip with you? Now tomorrow when you’re at Mass, I know what you’re going to be on the lookout for!

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