9/15/23 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: We love our Volunteers!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,

In my 67 years, between Sundays, feast days and 46 years of working in Catholic schools attending Masses with students, I estimate that I have been to 7,000 services over the years.



The first Mass that I remember was in the fifties in Baltimore where I was born. I’m not sure of the church. It might have been St. Bernard’s which sat across the street from Memorial Stadium, home of the Orioles and Baltimore Colts. My parents were married there, and I was baptized in the same parish. I must have been no more than a year or two old because all four of my limbs were on the pew and I was crawling. I remember at one point all the adults stood up. It must have been winter because it was like I was in a forest of coats. At the other end of the pew was another child about my age. We started crawling towards each other before the adults sat down and interrupted our rendezvous.

I remember Masses in Latin at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Towson, Maryland in the early sixties. When I was in first grade one Sunday my family was in the first pew. The principal of the school who was, of course, a Sister, and she and another teaching Sister came in and sat behind us. I quickly leaned forward in my seat so as not to get in the way of their praying hands. But I felt those same hands gently sit me back as if to say, “We won’t bite.”

We moved to Northport, New York in 1963 and, at St. Philip Neri Parish where I was a student, I started doing altar serving training in Latin. Before long the Mass had switched to English which made it easier to serve. Communion rails were still the norm and our job as altar boys was to hold the paten underneath the chins of the congregants as they knelt, and the priest placed the Eucharist on the tongue.

I have seen every manner of priest over the years and every manner of songs and practices, from the “guitar Mass” to holding hands during the Our Father, from the Holy Ghost to the Holy Spirit, from priests at the high altar facing away from the congregation to saying an intimate Mass with one priest and a congregation of two in the rectory of a church in Pearisburg Virginia just off the Appalachian trail. I have been to many wedding Masses as well as funeral liturgies, scores of First Holy Communion Masses and Confirmations with many different Bishops. I have attended Mass on five of the seven continents, in multiple languages. I have attended Mass when my soul was heavy, and I felt distant from God, and when I felt on top of the world and walking into church was like entering the home of a good friend.

Last Friday, however, was one of the most memorable Masses of the 7,000 I have been to. It was our first all-school Mass of the new year. The student sections were packed as well as the parishioner and family portion of Our Lady of Peace Church. Our cantors for the Mass, Mrs. Erin Meats, our new music teacher, Mrs. Julie Cottrill the Minister of Music for our Parish and two sixth graders, Leannan Belding and Vivian Clark, sang beautifully and had many students and adults singing as well. Father Dooley, as he usually does, gave a homily that spoke directly to our students. Spoken responses were hearty.

We have more students this year, 250 of them. Between the young men and women coming from St. Anthony, our Kindergarten classes of 25 and other transfer students from various schools, we had about 75 new faces in our pews. We are back in buddy groups this year, so our younger students are with older students which influences the behavior of both immensely.

Transubstantiation, the turning of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus, occurred as it has for all the other thousands of Masses in which I have participated. Beyond that, for me, the words of last Sunday’s Gospel, “Whenever two or more of you are gathered in My Name, there am I in the midst of you,” was, for me, never more in evidence last Friday. It strengthened My Faith in God and renewed my sense of purpose in working in Catholic schools.

Like all the many liturgies I have been to, no doubtless some of the future school Masses this year may not be as inspiring. Some students, inevitably, will become sick during it. Some will be talking and need my special attention. Some Fridays, as happens some Sundays, my mind will be so filled with distractions that I cannot fully appreciate the miracle taking place before me. But many more, I hope and pray, will be times when Christ’s presence is fully alive on the altar and in the hearts and souls of those in the congregation. May those moments remind me that each time I attend Mass of the privilege and honor I have of being there.

If Father Dooley announced that Taylor Swift was going to be in attendance at services next weekend, people would be camped outside the church doors the rest of the week. It would be so crowded that the Fire Marshall would threaten to close us down. It would be the lead story on every local television station in town.

Let us remember that at every Mass someone far more important that Taylor is truly present each time, not only in our hearts and souls but in the real presence of our God, the creator of our universe and of each and every one of us. No offense against Ms. Swift but I wonder why, sometimes the church is not filled to capacity for every Mass.

Our School Masses are at 8:15 most Fridays during the school year. All are welcome. And if you come, you might just feel as I did last week. It is transformative!

Jim Silcott