Outerbanks Adventures

Teresa and I were in Corolla, North Carolina last week for our first beach vacation together. Though we've been married 4+ years we've never made it to the beach for an extended stay. We had a great time in spite of the fact we both can't totally escape from work. Here's some tidbits from the vacation.

We brought the dog. It's the first time she's been to the beach, so when we walked down the deck that goes over the sand dune and she saw the ocean for the first time, she totally flipped. She didn't quite know what to make of the noisy, salty, cold-water in the vast expanse in front of her. She finally got used to walking on the beach with us after a couple of days.

She had to sleep under the bed because that's what she does at home. Of course, she has about 10 inches of space under the bed at home and had 4 inches at the beach. She managed to squeeze herself under the bed and slept there every night.

Corolla has a 6pm Mass on Wednesday that counts for the coming Sunday obligation. By special indult from the Bishop of the diocese, there's an evening Mass on Wed. that makes it so you can hang out on the beach on Sat. in the late afternoon, sleep late on Sunday and still be totally set in terms of your Sunday obligation. We thought we were going to a simple daily Mass but when the parking lot was packed I knew something was up. The priest was an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales who gave a beach homily. A radtrad would say that it was all fluff and feel-good stuff about how God doesn't make junk, someone else would be able to see the merit in confronting your own broken-ness with the realization that everyone has a true dignity in the sight of God and God call everyone to healing.

Some liturgical mayhem: in the diocese the bishop has declared everyone should stand until all have received communion. With no kneelers in this chapel, it wasn't a physical problem, but it sure is weird to me that with the options for posture after receiving communion and with all the other postures that are mentioned in the GIRM but not done widely this bishop would make a big deal of standing (definately not kneeling) during communion. After pet-peeve - "Through Christ, With Christ and In Christ..." instead of "Though Him" - that's just silly gender-revisionist claptrap. The guitar player did his best with City of God, etc. and the priest made a huge deal of the fact we would sing only one verse at the end of Mass. I'm assuming it's very important that at the beach Mass only last 45 minutes, even if it fulfills a Sunday obligation and gets you home in time to watch Jeopardy. It's musical poverty to pare down the verses to next to nothing. It makes the music unimportant and ultimately discourages participation.

On Sat. evening, we went to Holy Redeemer in Kill Devil Hills for the 5pm Mass. The priest was AWOL (reason unknown) so we had a rather reverent communion service. Another parade of Haugen & Hass that wasn't very inspiring, but we did sing "I Heard The Voice of Jesus Say" at the opening and closing (vs. 1 & 2 at the opening, vs. 2 & 3 at the closing.)

We did some grilling, had some nice meals out, visited some friends and when we weren't on the phone or doing email managed to relax. Someday I'll be able to leave work totally behind, I hope. Same for Teresa.