After the opening prayer, we sang the Gloria. Here was the entire student body gathered in the gym, built for athletic events, praising God in the highest form of worship at Mass. In the midst of the Gloria, looking down at the basketball lines under the chairs, I was reminded of a cheer from my high school days. From the bleachers, when our basketball team scored or rebounded, we would “raise the roof” and cheer with great exuberance!

The phrase “raise the roof” came to mind as the students sang the Gloria. Our little congregation, in the unconventional space, was “raising the roof” with praises to God. Maybe more theologically correct, God chooses, during Mass, to remove the “roof” of this world and connect us in a mystical and real way to heaven. We, of course, are looking forward to the end of renovations and Mass back in the church. Until that time, it is a consolation that God still comes “through the roof” of even the most unlikely places where we choose to sing our praise to Him.   

In the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus,
Sister Marie Caritas, CK