neato sunday, part one

Today was such a neat day. I met one of my “old kids” (she’s in college now) and we went together to an ASL Mass- that’s American Sign Language. I’ve seen Masses signed before- usually it’s a spoken Mass with a person in the corner of the screen or at the side of the sanctuary signing away. But this was the opposite scenario. This Mass was completely signed by the priest, and all the prayers were silently signed by the congregation- and a man with a microphone sat in the front row and translated what was being signed into spoken word.
I loved the Mass, although I had a mildly uncomfortable (but endlessly intrigued) feeling of visiting a foreign land, and attending a Mass in a foreign language, which is essentially what I did, I reckon. It made me pay very close attention to what was being said. I loved, too, how expressive the lector was- she gave the readings more dimension than they seemed to have when I heard them again later at my parish Mass.
One thing that we ran into was that we couldn’t tell who was deaf and who wasn’t. Most of the people there didn’t use their voices at all, the entire time we were there, and all were fluent in ASL, so it was really impossible to tell the difference. After Mass we decided against attending the social time, since all I know how to say in ASL are these words: priest, book, and play… and my friend wasn’t feeling quite up to conversational signing yet. So we took a walk to Starbucks, and then when we returned to the car, we were surprised to meet the priest who had just signed the Mass. He was lovely and greeted us warmly- he’d noticed that we were new there, and invited us back anytime. He asked about us and spent a few moments talking with us, and it just really felt good.
I left the Mass feeling really enriched by the experience. The readings were vibrant and real to me, the community was welcoming and kind, and the whole experience was uplifting. I think we’ll go back again and again.