Maybe, though, these Easter/Christmas churchgoers are, in fact, looking for something, trying to find something ... Maybe to them, church is a chore, a duty, whatever, and maybe they don't know the rituals, maybe they aren't as "serious" or "solemn" as you think they should be. But your attitude wouldn't welcome them back to the fold, Robert. Just know that your welcoming attitude actually could make a difference to somebody.

Food for thought.

There is always that hope, of course. Note that I'm doing my ranting here. Helps to get it out of my system. I solemnly promise not to spit poison at anybody on Game Day.

One must get the curmudgeon out of one's system somehow!

But I tell ya - when I've gone home at holidays to my parents, and I go to church - the unfriendliness and snobbiness and unwelcomingness of the regular parish can be so feckin' obnoxious that I sit there FUMING through a service that I should be paying attention to.

I go to church where I live now, but when I go to church with my parents, it's assumed that I'm "one of those" who only show up on holidays. Talk about having the entire atmosphere be ruined.

I'm not currently attending church (won't bore you with the details) and I make a point of not going on holidays because it makes me feel horribly guilty. A friend of mine convinced me into going with her this last Christmas Eve because her kids had bailed on her and she wanted company. The entire service -- when I wasn't cringing over how bad the choir was -- I felt guilty for being there.

At least at the 9:00 service won't be as crowded as those later in the morning.

You forgot to mention another reason to hate it: incense. Allegry season, and incense.

robert, robert, robert
do remember mother's favorite parable--the one abt the workers in the vineyard. surely you have figured out at which hour you can be considered to have signed on.
never mind how awful the herd behaves--at least they're not at home surfing the net.

I will spend the Easter Mass trapped in the cry room (that architectural wonder of modern Catholic churches) with my five year old son (who can actually behave in church), and the eighteen month old (who cannot). And I will be reminded yet again why I deserve every minute in that purgatory - for all the years when I was single and I glared at parents who couldn't control their kids in church sure in the misguided belief that when I had kids, they would behave.....

They will. Eventually.

I'll be attending the 12:30 mass Easter at my church where not only will the liturgy be the beautiful Tridentine one, but also the choir and orchestra will be performing Beethovern's Missa in C, op 86.

Let the envy burst forth.

I completely agree. We have missed Christmas Mass the last two years because we have a small child and depite arriving 40 minutes early, were standing near the exit doors each year. Sorry, but there's no point in that...we left.

This year we're going to Martha's Vineyard, which has few people this time of year, maybe we'll be able to sit down for Easter. Next Christmas we'll drive an hour back to our old Cathedral Church in Boston, which seats thousands and has half that many people in the parish. It's a beautiful place. I wish the C&E people would either come all year...which would result in bigger churches or more of them, or stay at home.

Hmm, guess no one was envious. And here I thought y'all were classical music fans.

I do envy the Latin Mass. It is rairly celebrated in the Diocese of Arlington, and the few times I have been to one, I wish I had taken Latin in high school instead of French.