You wouldn't believe what I saw this morning!

After a bunch of decades have passed as one has journeyed over the hills and through the dales of the vicissitudes of life, one pretty much has come to the conclusion that just about everything has been seen, or at least, heard or read about. Au contraire!

This morning I saw, for the first time, something that I just couldn't believe existed - an altar boy, bald as a billiard ball, in cassock and surplice! St Agnes was having an all night prayer vigil sponsored by the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima. I had never been to one and thought, being that it was Lent, it might be good for the soul to get up early (2:45 a.m.) and partake of the Scriptural Rosary, Benediction and then Mass at 4:00.

Being a trained but rusty altar boy myself, I have to give the fellow credit. He did a great job, especially considering that he pulled a triple shift, serving alone and also serving as lector and sub-deacon, assisting Father Altier by helping him put on the "humeral veil" over the cope for holding the monstrance at Benediction. (I had to look that term up. In my day, there was no need to know the name of that vestment because if we had even touched it, we probably would have gotten 50,000 years in Purgatory). If I had been the server's supervisor, I might have repositioned the angle of his otherwise properly folded hands.

Being that St Agnes has a high school, I wonder why the nuns didn't order four of their best over for that special event. But a major advantage in having a "chrome dome" like myself serving Mass is that he was attired in a nice pair of shiny black oxfords. No need for me to have my eyes riveted on white over-sized Nike clown shoes on a tenth grader. Father Altier, a diocesan priest, but also a Carmelite Tertiary, was discalced.

I suspect that I had better mention in my next Confession that I was composing this review rather than paying the strictest attention this morning.