Doing more

02/21/2026 • View profile

Before we get started, please see my previous article here; Making the decision to get fit this Fat Tuesday, and, if you'd like to see my latest on Locals, go here; The reality of closure

So, in between finding a unicorn a week before Lent started (and you thought they were only a legend)! And being in a packed church on Ash Wednesday, I thought I would take this time to write about something (and not just complain about the guy that stole my seat, it's okay, I like the narthex better, anyway)!
I don't even want to talk about ashes.
I want to tell you how uncomfortable it is to be in a crowded church for an autistic man with sensory issues
Now, I actually like the smells and bells. This is actually why I have an interest in Byzantine liturgy, and sometimes go to an Eastern Catholic church.
But, a small church, even a crowded one, still isn't as loud as a big, crowded church.
So, why do I put up with it?
So, my mom is part Jewish (Hi Ma) (Confession is biblical), and I have Mexican Israeli family members.
When Tevye explains in Fiddler on the Roof that he flat out doesn't know where the traditions (The dreaded "t" word, Tradition!), he does touch on one thing, “And because of our traditions, everyone of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do”.
I do it, go to loud crowded churches, even on days I don't actually have to be there, because God expects more than the bare minimum of me.
“A dispute arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest, and he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
You are those who have stayed with me in my trials and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
(Luke 22:24-30).