Chrism Mass Tailgate!

So our youth group at church is pretty awesome. We've been tailgating the Chrism Mass for several years now. What's a "Chrism Mass"? It's the annual Mass where the bishop blesses and consecrates the three oils used in the sacraments throughout the year by the Archdiocese. Priests can bless the first two oils (for baptism and anointing of the sick) but only a bishop can consecrate the oil of Chrism, used for the sacrament of Confirmation. Our youth group has been going to this Mass together for I'm not even sure how many years (I think we started in the early/mid 2000's), and we've been bringing our Confirmation candidates for the last several years since this is where the Chrism that will be used for them is consecrated.

I was very happy to be able to go this year. In past years, I've had to get up super early the next day or been up super early that day. Today, I was feeling pretty good when I got home from work and since Dan is working evenings, I figured I'd actually get out of the house instead of sitting alone until bed. I didn't even have to drive through the city to get to the cathedral, we had enough drivers that I could hitch with a bunch of other adults.

Mass was beautiful, I love big Masses concelebrated by lots of priests, it's like a reunion. Being Catholic can be a small world, and it's awesome. When the "collars" heard we had free food in the parking lot, we had a rather large group of them show up after Mass as well as a few nuns. One of the sisters I met at Mount 2011 was there and she recognized me and we were talking for a bit. I'm sure I was easily recognizable as my stomach is now gigantic. I found out later that not only was that group of sisters from Mount DeSales high school, but the one in particular that I was talking to was the principal! She's very nice and I'm sure I'll end up seeing her again at some function. The picture above is me with one of our favorite priests. He spent a couple of years before being ordained with us at our church and with the youth group specifically. The kids loved him (of course) and he also concelebrated our wedding when he was a deacon and when the now-Monsignor Jarboe of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen was our pastor.

As soon as we were telling people that we were pregnant, I e-mailed Fr. Cibelli and asked if he would be free for a baptism. We set a summer date for Baby Gibson's baptism and we are super excited. My parents offered to host the after-party at their house where everyone will be able to go swimming--which is totally an awesome concept for a baptism party ;)