This coming weekend marks the start of Advent and a new liturgical year for the Church. Barbara Anderson believes new years are a time for resolutions, and she has a good one in mind.
Writing in the Nov. 21 parish bulletin, the pastoral life director of St. Anthony Shrine in Emmitsburg and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Thurmont suggested that parishioners resolve to get to Mass on time and not leave right after Communion.
“If someone invited us to their house for dinner,” she said, “we probably wouldn’t arrive late and certainly wouldn’t leave early.”
Anderson called it “disruptive to the community, the presider, lector and other ministers when people are coming and going as if it is a sporting event.”
“My prayer is that we will all take our commitment to pray together on Sundays very seriously and try to plan our lives accordingly,” she said.
Good advice.
It reminds me of a sign I saw posted at the back of St. Benedict in Baltimore. It reads: “Judas left early, too.”