creed

First, gather the flowers.  At Mass a few weeks ago, my oldest boy leaned into my side while we stood to say the creed together. I recited the words on the projector screen, still prompting us with the new translation of the prayer after decades of The Version We Used To Say. Absent-mindedly, I stumbled as happens so often, tripping over clumsy words that once were clear: "...he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was born - dah! was incarnate! - of the Virgin Mary and became man." Without thinking, I rubbed the basketball of my belly in that unconscious instinct of expectant mothers. I thought about birth and babies and started to grumble about why we didn't say "born" anymore, why the abstract theological was deemed better than the concrete physical. Then I felt baby's quick jab to my right side, sharp enough to make me wince. And I felt my son's tired lean into my left side, heavy enough to make me shift my footing. And I realized. Maybe incarnate was a truer … [Read more...] about a bouquet of incarnations for mother’s day