Done. With a sigh of relief and purse full of snacks and entertainment in hand, my four boys and I finally went back to mass this past Sunday for the first time since COVID-19 took over our lives this past March. Needless to say, I was anxious about attending an event with so many people concentrated in one place, but was assured by our padre, Father John, that every precaution was taken to ensure the health and safety of parishioners was at the forefront of newly implemented COVID protocols.

As my masked crew hesitantly walked toward the entrance, ushers carrying thermometers for temperature checks warmly greeted us. After we were cleared, we then moved to another usher who double checked our reservation and found a secure spot for five which happened to be in the front pew. After this checkpoint, hand sanitizer stations blocked easy access to seating where we were then escorted to our final destination in a family huddle.

As I looked around the congregation, I was enamored with grateful emotions. It felt nice to be amongst our church family and friends where the waves and pleasantries didn’t fall short of making us feel we were where we needed to be. As the organist began to play, I sat there and looked over my arsenal of gummies, books, and toys for the boys and couldn’t help but notice light ruckus beginning to erupt from young children and babies throughout the cathedral. The feeling I typically carry of unease and worry, wondering if my toddler will be too loud, suddenly disappeared.

I’m the first to be overly aware of my children needing to be taken out of scenarios (meetings, assemblies, services, etc.) because of the level of loudness. However, I didn’t feel the need to shelter anyone from my playful toddler on Sunday as the environment felt safe and even welcomed ruckus. It was a feeling as if we and our church community had been longing for realness for quite some time now.

Although this process of waking the boys up from their summer sleep schedule required an exuberant amount of patience, I encouraged them that this was a family decision to get back into our Sunday morning worship routine. Even with extra health and safety precautions to boot, they too lit up when they saw their friends and felt a sense of much needed normalcy.

After mass, we all agreed and were happy to take that first step as a family and look forward to next Sunday. Our ruckus felt safe to share with our church community despite years of uneasiness if and when my boys uttered a peep. I encourage you to shed any previous thoughts or actions you might have pertaining to active youngsters and welcome the ruckus as it is life as we know it. You might be surprised of onlookers’ reactions experiencing life out of quarantine.