Double the Fun

It's 8:30 on Sunday morning and I have a short reprieve before Chris picks me up for our marathon morning of church services. When we first started dating we didn't change what we did on Sundays -- I went to my church, he went to his, we met up for lunch. But, because we both see dating as a direct path to marriage, we soon realized that we needed to figure out what to do on Sundays as a couple.

So now he picks me up for the 9am Mass at his parish, then we speed across town to catch the 10am liturgy at mine. We're usually about 15 minutes late. This morning, however, I've procrastinated on picking up my supplies for coffee hour so we're going to have to do that between services and be even later.

Sunday mornings are, without a doubt, the biggest source of stress in our relationship. Neither of us feel much connection to the worship style of the other. Chris, however, being much more secure in his faith, can worship God anywhere, while I get thrown off at the slightest distraction. Somewhere in the middle of his mass I invariably find myself ready to break up with him and bolt out the door, and sometimes I even find myself scouting the parish for eligible Catholic women to fix him up with. It's no good.

I don't know what I'm hoping for right now. Catholicism is so much a part of Chris that I don't feel right wishing he'd convert, but we spend so much energy being indecisive about how to raise our future children that it would certainly be easier if we were in communion with each other. We both pray for the reconciliation of our Churches. It is unlikely to happen in our lifetimes (and certainly not soon enough to solve this decision for us), of course, but we feel as though we're working out a bit of that reconciliation in our relationship. It can sometimes be a lot of pressure on two kids who just want to love each other.