Benediction
I attended parochial school for five years. Most of my memories deal with good friends, playing with friends, and memorable nuns.
Sister Mildred Louise was my third-grade teacher. I was an A student that year.
Two years later I was in the fifth grade. During Lent the students at St. Kevin’s went to church every Friday after classes. After the Stations of the Cross came Benediction where the Holy Sacrament was displayed and adored. The two hymns I remember were “Tantrum Ergo” and “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name.”
One Friday as we wrapped as always with “Holy God,” I stood singing with one of my classmates. During the final chorus I sang, “Infinite thy vast domain. . .” Something made me laugh through “everlasting is thy name.” When I sang “everlasting” came out as if I was trying to sing through a belly laugh. I wasn't a quiet child.
Sister Mildred Louise overheard my outburst and told me to meet her afterwards in the foyer. She wasn't happy. When I had her as a teacher, I never recalled her as angry, just very pleasant.
As we left the church I looked for sister. I waited for a minute and figured she forgot my transgression.
Was I wrong! Every Sunday during the school year the students met in the school yard before church and processed into Mass with their classmates.
Who grabbed me after Mass but Sister Mildred Louise.
“Where were you after Benediction?”
Now I knew something was wrong. “I looked for you and didn’t see you.”
“Come with me,” she said.
She brought me back to my old classroom. Sister put me in the back of the room while she taught pagan public school kids their religion. What a punishment sitting with public schoolers on a Sunday morning. What torture to listen to her because I already knew the material.
When I got home my parents wanted to know what happened to me. They didn’t send out an all-points-bulletin, but I was about an hour late getting home from Sunday Mass.
Where were you? I told them.
Punished with the pagans because I laughed through “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name.”
I still love that hymn.