Franciscan Mass

I had a fun night at the Irish pub down the street last night singing camp songs (the moose, hippopotamus, and milk songs, for those of you who are familiar with them) and dancing to live Irish music. I still managed to get up for breakfast at 9 a.m. today and make it to the Franciscan mass at the monastery up the hill at 11 a.m with Eldon. I really enjoyed the mass, and I can honestly say that it is one of the most engaging Catholic masses I have been too, even in spite of the fact that it was in Italian. It was a youth mass, so there were lots of people my age there. I'm not sure if they do youth masses every Sunday or just on certain ones. There was a big oriental rug in from of the altar, and lots of people were sitting on the floor. It was a bit hippie-ish, I suppose, but I thought it was neat...but then again I tend to be attracted to hippie things. There was a Franciscan nun who led in the singing, and someone was playing guitar and tambourine. It was very lively and modern music, and I sang along it Italian because there was a song book with all the words. I think I am going to try to get a mass book in Italian so I can say the responses during the mass too. After the mass many people were sticking around to socialize, but we didn't really know what was going on, so we left. Before we left though a Franciscan monk named Augustano who spoke a bit a bit of English talked with us. He was pretty young, probably in his 30s, and very nice. From what I have seen, I really like the Franciscan order and what they stand for.