Holy Days at Church

So, I was moved by The Spirit to dress as Tiff for the Holy Thursday Mass. I had my nice black and white zig-zag print skirt (which is longer than knee length), a white camisole and a black cropped jacket with my black and white oxford heels. I actually met up with a friend of mine that I only usually see at mass around Easter. She’s semi-retired and half deaf (litearlly, knows sign language and everything), but really nice and welcoming. Once she realized that it was me, she was really REALLY cool about me. The priests sermon was about accepting those that are different, which is probably the reason that I was called by The Spirit. I also saw some of my friends from my regular mass and they were able to see me all dressed up and what I am going towards, which I think might help the journey. Plus, I talked to the priest after mass and he told me that I was always welcome at their church, which gives me much more confidence too. Friday, I did the Stations dressed regular because it ended only an hour before I had to be at the part time gig(and I didn’t know when it would end). The part time job was interesting too, cause one of the guys is from Africa, and he and I were talking about the Easter customs over there vs here and it was just really nice. Saturday was a regular day Mass that night was really nice. I dressed up for that as well. I had a nice pair of slacks, my purple satin blouse and a black vest, it was really cute. I sat with friends of mine from the regular school mass, and it was a really really nice service. It was three hours long, but it’s my favorite mass of the year (now if it happened more than once a year, I probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much).

Pink Highlights and Church Education

So, I COMPLETELY FORGOT about my hair until yesterday morning when I was thinking of church. (for those that don’t know, I help out at church by arranging for those who being up the gifts, collection as well as being a Eucharistic Minister and Lector and I usually always read the Prayers of Petition). Now, the mass that I go to is the college mass . I had graduated from the college in 2000, so I’ve been going there for 10 years now, so when I walk in with the Pink highlights still VERY pink, I realized that I wouldn’t be filling in as a lector or Eucharistic Minister. I told both the priest and the woman who does the organizing for mass, that I realized and had forgotten about the hair until that morning. They both mentioned that they would like to talk to me after mass to talk about how to deal with the transition. So I got nervous, but still arranged for collectors and gift bearers and did all my behind-the-scenes stuff that I usually do and got really nervous about the conversation.

So mass ended and I sat down first with the priest (the woman was still taking stuff down from the choir). It seems that he thought that taking hormones was a short process and that I would be going for the surgery within a few months (like within the next 6 months). Once he learned that it is much longer, the woman had joined us and we discussed how to make this a learning experience for the community. Which really surprised me. I thought I was about to get the “We appreciate the help, but it might be time for you to not do so much anymore” speech. Instead it’s going the other way around. They did mention that with such a change as going to happen would mean that there would be some concessions on my side and there would be some concessions on the congregations side. Which I think, makes sense. But it’s where I am in my life and I did make sure that the priest, as a church authority, would be okay with me still being an active member and he said that he definitely would and he is going to double check Church policy to make sure that we don’t contradict anything.

As part of the education component, we are going to meet after mass in two weeks (I’m not going to be there for Superbowl Sunday), and decide how we actually introduce it to the congregation. I’m a little nervous about it, but that’s cause I get nervous before ANY type of presentation.

I’m just relieved and excited because I was nervous that I would get kicked out of being an active member of the mass that I go to, and instead, it’s getting turned into almost EXACTLY what I would want it to be.