Taking the Sunday Off....

We, (okay, I,) became entangled on the way to Mass this morning, I was running late, but I assured Himself that on the Sunday between Christmass and the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God we would have no problem whatsoever taking our usual parking space, sitting in our regular pew...

He was skeptical, but there was very little traffic, and for sure, when we arrived, it was clear that a good third of the usual congregants were giving it a pass.

He looked at me, questioningly.

"The figure they've already 'been to church' in the past week."

The sense of "obligation" is utterly lost in our society.

I remember when I was a kid, a slumber party on a Saturday, even given by a Protestant family, provision were made to schlep all the Catholic girls to Mass the next morning. Himself, from a far less Catholic part of the country, remembers the bus nevertheless taking the Catholic boys from Boy Scout camp to a local parish on Sunday mornings.

I wonder when we began to be this way.