I Noticed

...this Thursday morning when I snuck quickly to Mass after dropping JPD off at preschool, that a good 90% of the weekday Mass-goers have white hair. And that percentage would be even higher if I counted those with naturally white hair. So what's with the senior citizens at Church?

You know, I always assumed that this phenomenon had mostly to do with two factors:
1) These guys are all pre-Vatican II guys, who like their Catholicism strong and traditional, and
2) Retired people just have more time on their hands, ya know?

But we all have the same 24 hours in a day. Stay-at-home Moms, while a busy group, sure could swing by a 25-minute Mass after the little darlings get on the school bus. (Did I do this when my kids were in school? Uh, not much.) Even as homeschoolers, we don't make weekday Mass as much as I'd like.

I digress. About the senior citizens. For the first time, Thursday morning, it occurred to me that maybe they aren't just looking for a way to fill half an hour, or going to Mass because they were well programmed by the nuns of their Catholic school days, or even that as the years go by, it occurs to all of us that our lives on earth might not actually last forever.

Maybe the white-haired weekday Mass-goers know something we don't. Maybe they're actually experienced enough, seasoned enough, wise enough, well-organized enough, to have figured out their priorities. Those of us who aren't there yet are still running around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to solve all our problems ourselves, whereas the weekday Mass-goers know that checking in with our Creator (that is, the Blessed Sacrament) is the answer to...well, just about everything.

"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."
~ John 6:35