Does it Burn??

Big week, followed by a big weekend. But the biggest and best chortle inducing moment came at the Family Mass that was held at the start of the school's annual fundraiser auction. Let me say that this tiny little school smack dab in the middle of the city was slated to be closed in 2005 due to low enrollment and overall high costs of running it. The parents and teachers rallied, found donors and then held an auction to raise money. Well, they raised enough to save the school, and they've been doing it every year since. Some of the cool things they had up for auction were: pair of stained glass windows (more on that in a minute), court side seats for a Bulls game, a week in Ireland, 2 plane tickets to anywhere in the world, dinner for 10 at an architectural gem of a home in the neighborhood, an hour of guitar hero for 2 kids after school, principal for a day.... and they had things like 192 bottles of Green River, 30 different bottles of craft beer and cooking lessons. Our family won front row seats at the next Christmas concert, a get out of homework free pass, the 4th grade cook book and a bucket full of cool gardening stuff. Not a bad night.

Anyway, at the start of Mass, Father so-and-so walks down the aisles flicking holy water on everyone. Yes, I tend to make jokes about how much it burns my skin, BUT I don't make them in front of the kids. It's one thing to be open about beliefs (or lack thereof) but it's another to openly mock them. So, I'm holding Belly up on my hip so he can see (see what? The backs of other people's heads?) and he gets hit with a few drops of holy water and he jerks as if he's been electrocuted. He's stunned. I told him to relax, it's just water. It's called holy water, but there's nothing in it but water and a blessing. And he said....
"But I'm allergic to holy water."

Turns out he just heard that someone in his class is allergic to something, and he's been using the word as many times a day as he can.

One more thing... may have mentioned before, but I love love love religious art. You see, back in the day, the church was the only place with enough money to commission some of the world's best artists. Last week I was fortunate enough to view some stained glass produced by Tiffany. It was so beautiful. Breathtaking. And it was displayed at ground level so you could get up close and see the textures and colors better. Then I went into the church on Saturday and in my best snooty voice, said that THESE stained glass windows just don't compare to Tiffany's stained glass windows :)