The Church Diva

Like so many other parishes in the United States we have faced “The Change” a.k.a. The New Roman Missal, and met the challenge and found that it was greeted, at least in our parish, with a giant “Ho-Hum.”  The people were prepped and catechized, warned and coddled.  We were like giddy cheerleaders standing in front of them for five  minutes every week for 6 weeks telling them about how cool everything was going to be and teaching them the new Mass settings, and they bought into it.  They actually liked it all. They liked the music settings, they took the change in the Creed good naturedly and only one or two people groused  about the longer Gloria.   No problem.

Fortunately or unfortunately I remember the last change.  This was nothing like the last one.  I was little, but I remember how upset my parents were that some of their closest friends walked away from the church.  They couldn’t take it.  It was done so badly.

Being young I thought it was all so exciting.  I liked looking at Father’s face when he consecrated the host and I was happy when  I didn’t have to put the little doily we called a chapel veil on, or try to find an emergency tissue and bobby pin in my purse. Yet in those days the church was the center of so many lives.  People’s social lives surrounded church breakfasts and men’s and women’s groups.  I spent so many years sitting in our parish cafeteria eating pancakes, watching talent shows and listening to the grown-ups.  There was always a crowd.  So when Vatican II happened and the changes hit, people took it personally.

I was confused by the conflicts people were going through.  But as Paul Simon sings, I was “born at the right time,” and that was the moment Sister decided I should learn the organ so I could start playing for Mass.  Thus began my life as  Anna, the church lady.

This blog is dedicated to Anna.

Every year on the Feast of the Presentation the Gospel is read of Mary and Joseph proudly bringing their baby to the Temple to be circumcised and consecrated to the Lord.  They came in carrying a little dove – a sign of their poverty.  There they meet up with Simeon and Anna.  Simeon is wise and holy.  He takes the baby in his arms and prays, “Now, O Lord, you can dismiss your servant.  With my own eyes I have seen your salvation.”  Then he prophecies about the child and forewarns Mary about the things she will have to endure in her life. They weren’t expecting this.  It probably caused them a lot of anxiety and fear.  ( For some reason every time I read this I get a mental image of that scene in The Lion King where the old, wise monkey holds the cub up to show the entire animal kingdom and rays of light come down upon him as the elephants, zebras and warthogs bow before him.  I know it wasn’t like that, but that’s what goes through my mind anyway.)  

Now Anna…she’s the one they never talk about.  You almost never hear a sermon about her, but she’s still alive and going strong today.  She is the patroness of all church ladies.  

Anna was a widow who spent all her time in the temple area, probably emptying out the incense thurible, cleaning up the leftover sacrifices and putting clean linens on the altar.  It wouldn’t surprise me if she also cooked and baked for Simeon.  What did she do when she saw the young couple?  She oogled and cooed, probably pinched his fat little cheeks and done a toothless love bite on the baby’s belly to make him chortle.  She must have made Mary and Joseph smile because, like so many other new parents who bring their new little one into the church for the first time, they were proud of their son.  She then leaves the temple and goes off to tell everyone about the baby.

Anna welcomed, she laughed, she loved, she did what needed to be done, she evangelized.  And she’s my hero.