What do you do when you want to keep the Sabbath yet you have sick kids (or adults) at home?
In our home, we enjoy three blessings:
1. Online Mass
Whoever is sick (and whoever is staying home to care for the sick one) watches Heart of the Nation's Online Mass.
Sometimes, the children ask to pause the video so they can go potty, comment on a stained glass window, ask a question or share an idea about a reading or homily. The latter can lead to wonderful, unexpected exchanges, making "Mass at home" a true blessing on a day when sickness strikes.
2. Mass in Peace
If neither my husband nor I are sick, one of us goes to early Mass and the other to a later one. If one of us is sick, but not so sick that a child cannot stay home as "nurse", the non-sick parent just goes to whatever Mass seems most do-able, taking a child or two along.
Either way, being at Mass without all three of our boisterous babes is a blessing. For while we appreciate when everyone is healthy and able to participate in Mass together, it is definitely restorative at times to be able to focus on Mass without redirecting children. I admit it. I like going to Mass alone when my kids are sick.
3. Service
When one or more people in the house is sick on Sunday, it amazes me how the others step up as "nurse" and "helper". It is absolutely beautiful to hear the children ask, "Can I get you something?" and to witness them serving one another with love.
Just as special to me are opportunities to cuddle in for movies and read alouds, to lay together listening to audio books, to stroke hair and to lay on a blanket in the yard looking up at the sky together...
How do you approach Sundays when folks in your home are sick and what blessings do you find in them?
Please feel free to share about them in comment here or on our Training Happy Hearts Facebook page. If you leave a link to an idea, I will pin it on the Training Happy Hearts: A Call to Faith Formation in Young Children Pinterest board.
