Sunday morning I take the boys to Sunday school at 8:45 at my old elementary school, St. Joseph's, and then have an hour and almost half to kill before we load up and head for church. Several weeks ago I started taking some of the books about the Church that Jamie got when we got married in an effort to remedy my really extraordinary lack of knowledge about my faith. (It's kind of like that when you were educated immediately after Vatican II, I think - nobody was sure what was in and what was out, it seemed like. Well that was out, of course, but I mean as far as the rest).
This was a really, really interesting book. It went though everything from the church year, festivals, sacraments, sacramentals (never even heard that word before), saints, and so forth, and explained where they came from and why. For many, many traditions there's a history that goes back to before the church itself, to pagan religious customs either in the Roman Empire or in the northern countries from which many of our traditions actually come from, and to how the early Church adopted and adapted the customs and traditions of the societies in which it evolved.
Actually it was this book that explained to me why I ought to be reading things like this on Sunday morning instead of working office e-mails, which was the original plan. I was reading the section about what Sunday being a day of rest meant, and it pointed out that you could do work, of course - just not work that would interfere with appreciating the significance of the religious activity that you are engaged in on Sundays (or something to that effect). So perhaps, I suddenly realized, working office e-mails and to do list items for an hour immediately before church might not be a good choice. So instead I read books like this hoping to learn more about my faith, and I have really enjoyed the change. I'm in a more receptive frame of mind when I get to church, and I am reminded at an opportune time that the Lord would likely not approve of me beating my three sons to death during church because they won't behave. Which is a reminder I need on a weekly basis, because every week we're edging right up to that line...