Palm Sunday

OK, so we haven't been the best about keeping up with going to church since we moved over here. The English Mass at St. Antal's is at 4:00pm on Sunday. It sounds like a good time, but usually we've found ourselves in the car returning from whatever errands we were running that day.

So anyway, we decided to recommit and make a better effort to get to mass. In retrospect, perhaps Palm Sunday was not the day to ease back into things.

This happens to me every year. I think..."Palm Sunday Mass won't be that much longer than a regular mass." I mean they have to bless and hand out the Palms, but that won't take too long, right? Well, that does take longer than I think, but that's not really the issue. Another name for Palm Sunday is Passion Sunday. The Gospel reading is "The Passion of Christ." Which is REALLY long.

Mass started at 4:00pm and we only made it to the "Our Father" (5:20pm) before we had to leave since Katie's bladder was about to burst. The Church is an older church (but not that old) and no restrooms were in evidence. We'll have to ask around next week.

Other "highlights":

The whole congregation was "invited" outside for the beginning of Mass. The Palms were passed out and then the holy water was sprayed to bless them (and us). VJ thought it was raining.

VJ: "It's raining." Looking up at the sky.
We of course don't say anything. Then he gets sprayed again.
VJ: "Hey guys, it's raining."

Then the priest breaks out the incense.
Katie just makes a face and holds her nose.
VJ: "What that 'mell? That's stinky!"

Other than that, they were very well behaved. It helps that this is a more "family friendly" crowd with lots of other kids (including one of Katie's classmates, David). So any ruckusing on their part tended to blend in.

One final note. At no time did I actually see any "palm leaves." Maybe Hungary can't get real palm leaves, I don't know. We got some branches from some tree. Kinda hard to hang them behind the crucifixes in our bedrooms.