Blessed are thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb

I have recently been going to church. Not consistently, every week, but as many Sundays as possible (and usually hitting the feast days, or the really long services, including the first communions a few weeks ago.)

It started in February when mom and dad came down here for the amniocentesis. Sometimes I go with my friend B, as the church is down the street from his house, and he was raised Catholic. Sometimes, I go by myself. Today, I went by myself.

Religion is a very personal thing, and yet a very public thing. It’s a personal relationship with god, and also a relationship with the community.

About a month or so back, I went to church on the Sunday that they were celebrating all the first communions. I ended up running into one of my roommates and her boyfriend, and sitting in the same pew as them. As I returned from the communion blessing, I saw a woman I had been in prenatal yoga with, and her newborn and family. After church, I went over to say hello and met her husband and other young daughter. This particular woman teaches the Bradley method of childbirth, something my mom did for years when I was a child. This woman had also just had a home birth with the local home-birth CNM, an online friend of my mother’s. We chatted for quite a while after church that day.

The next time I went to church after that was with my mom and sister and friend B on Mother’s Day, the day after my baby shower. They had a special recognition of mothers during the service, and I went up to the front with Mom. Again, I saw this woman, S, and her baby. After service, we got to chatting with them.

I can’t remember if I’ve been since then. I think, maybe, once.

Today I felt the need to go. I had a mitzvah befall me yesterday, and wanted to share and recognize God’s part in it. Plus, I’ve had a couple of stressful MFM and OB visits, and wanted to go and be a part of the community. So, I went by myself. When I walked in the church, the ushers greeted me warmly. Then the head priest himself, Father Val, came over and took my hands and welcomed to the church. Then, an usher reassured himself that I wasn’t going to give birth at church in a very amusing conversation.

I got seated, and as I was sitting there, saw someone walk by that I met about a month ago, and now I run into everywhere. (I met him at a baby shower for a girl from the salon I go to, then ran into him at Starbucks, and this week at church. Midtown, and Memphis, is a small world.) The service was good, there was no kids’ service, so there were tons of children and families around, which I find reassuring at church. I walked up to get my communion blessing, and Father Val laid his hand on my head and asked for peace for me and the baby. On my way back from communion, I saw the Bradley teacher couple, S and M, gave a little wave on my way back.

After service, I was feeling blood sugar shaky, so went to downstairs for juice and a donut, and then returned up to the church to try to say hello to S and M. I got to chatting to M, a little about theology and my beliefs and confusion and all that. He told me how wonderful Father Val is as a priest, and how he encourages community, and told a few anecdotes about S’s recent birth. M remembered that Father Val had performed an impromptu blessing over S when she was pregnant, and wondered if I would want one too. He set off to ask Father Val. Father Val returned with M, asked me a few questions, and then we all met by the baptismal font. Father went to find his book of prayer, and S and M and their two children joined me for the blessing. It was a moving experience, to say the least. Father Val asked how long I had left, if I knew it what it was (a girl), and to please be let known when she is born. I told him I knew a priest friend of his, and his face lit up. I’m pretty sure at the end of it all he hugged me.

Quite honestly, it was a moving experience. A very special one. I’m really beginning to feel like I’m part of the community at this church, and it has been years since I’ve felt that way. This is the church I want to have Emma baptized at, and I think that, having met Father Val, I can get her baptized there (as well as possibly getting some hospital visits from him).

And who knew there was a prayer in the book of prayers for pregnant mothers / unborn children?