As you may remember, Sarah and I had stopped going to St. James the Great in Wellesley as they had a priest in residence there who was removed due to allegations in the current scandal. The allegations, as far as we know, didn't involve St. James parishoners, but I think we had a general feeling of unease about the place.

We decided to go back today to see how things were now. Shortly after we sat down, one of the lay assistants (there's probably a more Catholic name for them, but I'm blanking) asked if we wouldn't mind bringing the gifts (communion wafers and wine) to the altar at a given time during the collection. After being assured that Sarah's not being Catholic wasn't a problem, we agreed.

The mass starts, we get to the collection, and just as we're getting ready to go to the table where the gifts are, this older guy seated 3 or 4 rows ahead of us gets up and grabs the gifts! It's kind of embarrasing to think that there was a backup plan for us in case we blew it, but it wasn't like we were just sitting there. I would also add that the directions on when to get up weren't that good. If the guy had just said "get up when they start the collection," we'd have been all over it.

Perhaps it's back to church shopping after all. Thankfully, we've already decided on using my home church, Sacred Heart, for the wedding (pending availablity, especially now that we're probably going to have to move the wedding up for Sarah's cousin whose wedding is why we're going over in December).

And whatever church-induced peace I had left was blown away by a trip up Route 9 to do some shopping. I used to think that all the talk about Massachusetts drivers was bunk, until I moved out to Wellesley. I can't get back to the North Shore fast enough, as far as drivers go. They're idiots there, too, but the roads are narrower, limiting the amount of idiocy possible.