For the 3 or so people who read my blog, I spoke about the ordination that took place on Saturday. On Sunday was the first Mass. Frank & I both went and didn’t travel with Stephen. That is because he had 2 first Masses to serve at and was heading to Alonzo’s directly from another classmate’s first Mass earlier that day.
As we passed by the Church in our quest for a parking spot (because parking spots are so plentiful in Brooklyn – note the sarcasm) I saw that the windows to the Church were opened. Not a good sign. Passing it a second time, still in search for a spot, I could see the front doors opened. Now, considering it was about 95 degrees out, this did not look good. I was pretty certain that meant the Church wasn’t air conditioned.
Sure enough, we walk into the furnace of a Church, half an hour early, because we wanted to get a good seat. Okay. It wasn’t quite like a furnace. Yet. It didn’t get that bad until more people filed in and it became more crowded. All that hot air, ya know.
The priests, deacons & seminarians come walking in as the Mass begins. Now keep in mind, I was wearing a fairly light, short sleeved dress & I was sweating bullets. These poor guys had on several more layers of clothes – cassocks, robes, etc. and those aren’t exactly made of light weight material. The sweat was just pouring off them. The ones with the forethought to have tissues and handkerchiefs mopped their heads and faces every few minutes. Those who hadn’t thought of that just suffered.
The Mass was wonderful, of course. There’s something so special seeing those young men say the words of consecration for the very first time. For Alonzo, though, it was somewhat different. Just as he’s saying the canon, we hear sounds outside. They get progressively louder until they nearly drown Alonzo out. It was a marching band. I can’t say I ever experienced a Mass quite like that.
Before the final blessing, several priests spoke, including one of our auxiliary bishops who was the rector of the seminary where Steve & Alonzo both lived. Now I’m not saying this was deliberate – it may just be that great minds think alike, but he said the exact same thing I said in a reflection piece I wrote for the diocesan website. It had to do with all these men being brothers so Alonzo’s mother just got herself a whole mess of new sons. Just sayin’…
Yesterday I got a little behind the scenes story, which is where I got the title of this blog post from. I do love knowing things that go on that most people don’t know about (until now, anyway, where the entire world can know if they were to read my blog).
At the preparation of the gifts, 2 servers go up to the priest with water, a small bowl and a cloth so the priest can purify his hands before the consecration. Stephen was the server with the cloth. He hands it to Alonzo. After Alonzo wipes his hands, he attempts to fold it neatly. He was struggling with it. Steve says to him, “Just give me the damn cloth!”
“No. I am going to fold it!”
Oh, did I mention our parish priest, who I guess played a role in the ordination similar to a best man, knew it would be hot in the Church. He made fans that there clearly weren’t enough of and that I didn’t see until there were no more. It consisted of a stick with a piece of paper attached. The paper had a photo of Alonzo wearing sun glasses, mountains in the background. I think palm trees would have been way more appropriate. Or a desert scene.





