God be with you...

...and also with you.

We just got back form church which was wonderful. It's a very small but gorgeous church, and mass starts at 12. We walked in and sat down about mid-way through the pews. We happen to be seated right across from the gifts and a minute after sitting down the priest came over to us and asked if there was any one willing to bring the gifts up during the offertory. A boy sitting in front of us agreed and so did I. It was really cool that he just walked through the church and picked people for that. It's very relaxed. In his greeting he even extended a greeting to the "visiting American students" who were joining him. It was the best greeting we have gotten so far.

THere were a few children in the church some of them parading through the aisles. One child even made it so far as togo up onto the altar. To my surprise, the response of the priest was a chuckle and the other priest on the altar simply scooped the child up into his arms and sat him down as his lap while a woman read the second reading. It was such a nice reaction, not the way I would expect things to be in our church back home. I vaguely remember one of our priests stopping and having the child leave the chapel.

In any case it was a wonderful morning and we intend on going to this church which is righ ton campus, every Sunday for mass from now on.

I'm heading to Tesco now to get a few things and finish settling into and decorating our apartment. Then I really need to work on finalizing my classes but there are so many that I want to take! Peace!