No Talking in Church!

In church the other day, N and I happened to sit in front of an elderly woman who was hard of hearing.

She was quite friendly, I might add.

I know that she was quite friendly and also hard of hearing because she told one lady that she liked her beautiful sweater.

Then she told another how good it was good to see her, before inviting her to our priest's birthday party, and filling her in on what kind of food they would have.

And she did all of this--quite loudly-- while Mass was going on.

At one point, after she has issued the birthday party invitation, in an otherwise silent church, several heads from the front of the church turned to look at...well, me.

At least, it seemed that way, since the elderly, hard of hearing lady was apparently sitting directly behind me.

I thought of turning around with them, letting them know that it wasn't me who was making all this noise. (And this time, surprisingly, the one making the noise wasn't even with me). But instead, I forced myself to stare straight ahead, thinking that it must be embarrassing enough for this woman to have twenty people staring at her.

She was silent for a moment. Everyone turned back around.

And then the elderly woman again leaned over to the woman next to her and loudly said "And they'll be CAKE!".

Well, of course. I mean, what kind of birthday party would it be without cake?

She was quiet for a while then, until it was time for communion. As the priest prayed, most of the church was silent.

But not her.

This time, she repeated, "Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus."

Over, and over, and over again.

I know this might be a common occurrence in some churches. But in our church, it's not. In our church, there are specific times to pray out loud, but the rest of the time we're supposed to be listening.

Prayerful.

Silent.

Reverent. 

At least, I think that's what we're supposed to be doing.

But in listening to the elderly, hard of hearing, quite friendly lady behind me, I realized that maybe, once in a while, some people are supposed to talk in church.

Maybe they're supposed to talk in church to remind the rest of us that, in addition to being prayerful, and silent, and reverent, we should also remember to tell people that it's nice to see them, and that we like their beautiful sweaters, and that they should come to the priest's birthday party, where there will be cake.

Maybe some people are supposed to talk in church, to remind the rest of us to always say Thank You.

So everyone can hear us.