Lessons Twenty-seven, Twenty-eight, Twenty-nine

Lesson Twenty-seven
The Sacrifice of the Mass
361.  What are the purposes for which the Mass is offered?  The purposes for which the Mass is offered are:

• first, to adore God as our Creator and Lord;
• second, to thank God for his many favors;
• third, to ask God to bestow His blessings to all men;
• fourth, to satisfy the justice of God for the sins committed against Him.

Lesson Twenty-eight
Holy Communion
To receive Holy Communion worthily you must be free of mortal sin, have the right intentions, and have fasted for at least an hour prior.  There are dispensations for the fasting bit that can be given by priests in special cases.

Lesson Twenty-nine
Penance
To receive Penance worthily there are steps, the basic progression being as follows;

1. Examination of conscience
2. Being truly sorry for the sin(s)
3. Intending firmly to not repeat the sin(s)
4. Confession
5. Willingness to complete the penance given.

~~~

I'm very sorry for my deadness last week.  I've been absorbed [read stressed] with wedding stuff in addition to not feeling well.

Some really weird stuff has been going on, but I'm not going to get into it here.  All I'm going to say is that I'm really confused, and it probably could have had better timing, i.e. after the wedding, rather than before.  I don't exactly need another thing to worry over.

We'll find out Saturday morning what's going on I think.  Or we won't and I'll be left to puzzle over yet another thing.

Things are A-changing

Two things happened at mass this Sunday: I didn't go to confession because I haven't memorized the Act of Contrition all the way yet and I got embarrassed about it (so, I didn't take communion either), and Father (basically) announced that participation in the mass by singing was now more encouraged. 

I had noticed, when I sat in the pew, a book sitting with me.  So I picked it up and leafed through it, finding songs and various prayers.  I didn't think much of it other than it was new, so when Father had us kneel and say a prayer from it, I was vaguely surprised.  When he said that he would like us to sing, I was more surprised.
My initial reaction was excitement - I love to sing - and I spent the majority of the morning being excited for it.  Now I have mixed feelings.  I would love to sing parts of the mass (only if others around me are singing, I'm a very shy singer) but I'm not extremely excited for reciting prayers in unison during mass.  I usually just follow along silently, because reciting in groups has always made me uncomfortable.  The only exception I've found for this is the rosary - which I still say silently, but the prayers said aloud don't stir discomfort.  I can't say why it makes me uncomfortable, but there's an uneasiness that has always come with it.  My best guess is that it seems sheep-ish and the rebellious side of me, well, rebels against following the crowd.
Also, there's something unsettling about sitting back and listening to a fairly large group of people say something in unison.  It's like we're hypnotized...or something.

What we can take away from this is that I'm weird.

~~~

The rest of my weekend was spent writing out wedding invitations.  My mom came down to help, and I'm very glad she did.  I couldn't have gotten them done without the help of my mom, god-mother, and sister-in-law.  And my fiance; all he has to do is be present and I'm happier about working on something (he also helped stamp stuff).  Oh, and my roommate, she helped stamp on Saturday.

I might put a picture of the finished product on here, if I'm not too lazy.

At any rate, happy Monday!