I\nwould like to continue the discussion of children at worship by turning first\nto a conversation I had with a child outside of worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nwas playing Legos with my 8-year old nephew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nephew: Uncle Tim, I want to show you Brickhead.
Me: Brickhead?
Nephew: Yeah, with the Brickhead talk show.
Me: OK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[He takes a Lego character and removes\nits head. He replaces it with a small 2\nx 2 Lego brick.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nephew: Here\u2019s Brickhead. He has a talk show and all he says is, \u201cBrickhead, Brickhead, Brickhead.\u201d
Me: Really?
Nephew: Yeah, but that\u2019s not why people watch the Brickhead talk show. They watch the Brickhead talk show because of the commercials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[He removes the legs of the Lego character and replaces them with a sloped Lego brick.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nephew: Now he is a vacuum cleaner and\nthe vacuum cleaner commercials are very funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[He zooms the Brickhead vacuum cleaner\nin crazy patterns.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nephew: That\u2019s hilarious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[He giggles.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who\namong us would think that commercials for vacuum cleaners would be the reason\nto watch the Brickhead talk show? I am\nnot advocating chaos in liturgy but I wonder how many times I am at worship\nlistening intently for \u201cBrickhead, Brickhead\u201d when I should be drawn to\ncommercials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When\naddressing the importance of right intention for sacramental validity, Thomas\nAquinas wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although he who thinks of something else, has no actual intention, yet he has habitual intention, which suffices for the validity of the sacrament; for instance if, when a priest goes to baptize someone, he intends to do to him what the Church does. Wherefore if subsequently during the exercise of the act his mind be distracted by other matters, the sacrament is valid in virtue of his original intention. Nevertheless, the minister of a sacrament should take great care to have actual intention. But this is not entirely in man\u2019s power, because when a man wishes to be very intent on something, he begins unintentionally to think of other things, according to Ps. 39:18: \u201cMy heart hath forsaken me.\u201d (Summa theologiae<\/em>, III, q. 64, art. 8, ad. 3)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
It\nis true that Scripture says on more than one occasion that believers are to\nlove God \u201cwith all your heart\u201d (e.g., Deut. 6:5), but Scripture also has it\nthat God \u201chas scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts\u201d (Luke 1:51). Perhaps, then, there are times when\n\u201cunintentionally thinking of other things\u201d allows for renewed focus\u2014an enriched<\/em> focus\u2014on worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\na few weeks\u2019 time, we will hear again the summons in Joel 2:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blow the trumpet in Zion!
\nproclaim a fast,
\ncall an assembly;
\nGather the people,
\nnotify the congregation;
\nAssemble the elders,
\ngather the children
\nand the infants at the breast.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSurely, the presence of children\nhere reflects the fact that redemption is God\u2019s desire for all people. More than that, however, the presence of each\nperson old or young, tall or short, blind or sighted, nourishes each person.\n\n\n\n\n\nd0 Med<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The presence of each person old or young, tall or short, blind or sighted, nourishes each person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":45750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[3118,255],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-celebrandi-new-ws","category-children"],"yoast_head":"\n
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