And then, through the silence, there came.....

I'm going to post this, even at the risk of sounding curmudgeonly. You have been warned.

I appreciate music in church as much as the next person (maybe more, if the next person happens to be...never mind ;-P). However, I'm also very protective of some good old post-communion silence. When that's not possible, I at least like being able to tune out the music and pray in my "interior silence". Having grown up in a parish that's quite attached not only to the communion song, but also the post-communion (and sometimes post-post-communion), I've gotten pretty good at ignoring the music.

Every so often, however, even my mad skillz are put to the test. Today, for instance. There was a group at 5:15 Mass from some conference, and well, they were of the age that both loves to sing in church and yet is exceptionally bad at it. So there I was, praying, when suddenly, breaking through my carefully placed, nearly impenetrable mental barriers, there came:
"And I will RAAAAAAAISE you up on the last day!"

And so, instead of prayer and reflection, I must admit that I found myself instead bracing inwardly each time I knew it was coming from the woman behind us. (And don't even get me started on that song or any that uses first-person pronouns for God. Ugh...)