Warning: theology/spirituality talk ahead.

For a variety of reasons (some of them mercenary, I must admit), I usually go to church at the parish where my kids attend school. Because we've been travelling a lot over weekends lately (and because of a rash of parish politics following the unexpected departure of the pastor), I hadn't been to mass in a while. So yesterday, we went with our neighbor to the local parish for mass instead, at the request of our two-year-old daughter–she had gone to mass there last week with Anna (our neighbor) while we were in New York City enjoying a child-free weekend.

The experience was everything I don't like about the Catholic church all rolled up into one miserable service….

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