Midnight Mass

Christmas Eve... we let the kids open their presents so they get to play with it since we're heading out to the city tomorrow.  Lo and behold... one of the toys requires massive assembly.  So I stay up and put it together when I turn on NBC and there it was.... Midnight Mass - celebrated by Pope Francis at St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican in Rome.

In all my years as a Catholic... or Christian...I've never watched Pope John Paul II celebrate mass on TV.

Crazy random thoughts...

1) I still could recite 80% of the mass... in both Chinese and English.
2) Pope Francis - Time Man of the Year - WOW!  And his approval ratings continue to climb
3) Where the heck are the altar "servers?!"  No female within 50 feet of the main altar
4) Pope Francis carried a statue of baby Jesus and walked around the church... .what if he drops the baby?!?
5) Nobody was listening to the readings - times have NOT changed
6) Who the heck was that reading the first reading from Isaiah... "Wonderful Consoler!?"  True... Christ consoles... but it's "Counselor!!!!"  Bah... no one was listening anyways.
7) Homily was mighty boring and parochial
8) the Basilica is beautiful...massive... a sheer wonder of the modern world
9) I think the pope messed up with the censer...
10) Absolutely loved how Pope Francis will completely remove himself from being the leader of the greatest religious group in the world, smiles and kisses the little children.

And as the mass draws to an end... I'm done putting the darn toy together.  Oh...and Santa never came.  I guess I've been naughty.