Unordinary Lenten

Le'me tell you bout my Good Friday. This is the very first time I went to the evening mass here (after searching on the Archdiocese website try to find the evening mass for Passion of Lord, which is, unbelievable rare), cause this is the first time I have a normal work schedule on Fridays. Previously, I was always able to get off early on Fridays so I went to the noon mass. And before that, I didn't even work on Good Fridays...Yeah...welcome to US, where you can lose the meaning of Easter and when you lost your privilege to practice on your religion.

Anyway...I found a small church in my neighborhood that had evening mass today, so I went there. As I thought it would be hard to get parking, I just took the train, but in the middle of the way, we got stopped and got to get off...apparently there was an accident: a car hit another train that came from the opposite direction, but the car's position was on the middle of the trail (hope the car's driver; or passenger, were okay...) The train from both directions were totally stucked, and the train that I took got to stop. Ouch! And it was only 15 mnts before the mass started, I was 11 blocks away...What should I do? Though I was thinking to go back home and get my car, I couldn't unless I want to walk..and I would rather walk to the church...and that what I did. I was walking 10 blocks in...less then 15 mnts...walked as fast as I could....

I was outta breath when I came (finally!). And it was really a very little tiny church, literally, the smallest church I've ever been in my life, and also the most modest one. There are only 2 columns, and about, 8 rows, I guess? But, it was nice...I like the atmosphere, and the choir was good!! It went fine actually, until came the distraction: a guy who looked like a homeless (oh yeah, the neighborhood is not that nice) walked in about 10 mnts after the mass started, and sat in front of me. My thought was: OMG! I got to move, or I got to hold my breath...luckily, he didn't smell. But! The next distraction came when he just can’t sit still, and couldn't keep the silence, he kept saying: "Yeah!", put his finger with metal sign to anyone who wanted to see, kept mumbling comments that I couldn't hear it, and, kept scratching his body till I finally wanted to scratch myself. I tend to do that: scratch myself when I see someone's scratching, or cough when someone's coughing.
So, it was quite a distraction for me....then, he took out a comb out of nowhere and starting brushing his hair and his beard very hard (he has long hair)...I know it's a bad thought, but I couldn't help myself on thinking: ouch, does he have any flea? Tried to move bit by bit away from him...

In the middle of moving away from him, I saw him started to move and grab his belonging (a huge backpack and I could see a blanket inside), and he went away before the offertory. Yeah! I didn’t have to scratch then!
"try to be nice to homeless people, still I found it difficult to do, especially in the situation when I didn't prepare....oh well, hope he found a bit of peace before he left..."

So, that’s bit story from today. In overall, I must say that this is the unordinary Lenten season for me. I started my Ash Wednesday in the early morning-first time ever-, I went on Saturday for Palm Sunday-first time ever, cause I had my choir schedule that day, I didn’t know it was going to be the same like Sunday. I was thinking to go again on Sunday actually, but since it was all the same and I got my palm already, so I didn't go twice.
Sadly enough, I didn't go yesterday on the Holy Thursday...I couldn't. I got class and I really couldn’t afford to ditch. Again, first time EVER, I didn't go on Holy Thursday, in ALL of my life. Even when there were times in my life when I went to church only on Xmas and Easter, I always went for the whole 3 days in Holy week...

Tomorrow, most likely I won't go and I'll go on Sunday (my normal Holy week actually Thursday, Friday and Saturday Vigil). But let's keep that open for a while...we'll see what would like for tomorrow...

This is really the fastest Lenten. And everything was different...Yet, there'll always the first time, right?

everything changes, nothing stays the same
people come, people go...
but in search of His presence,
one thing will always be the same
you will always be
in the house of the Lord