Healing Mass

I was just searching this blog for my last healing mass story and can't find it. Maybe I never wrote it? Maybe I didn't look hard enough? Maybe it went the way of other disappearing posts?

In short, we took Son #1 to the pediatric neurology clinic at the University of Rochester Medical Center one afternoon a couple of years ago. His Tourette's seemed to be progressing at a rapid pace and our pediatrician recommended a visit.

His symptoms started so slowly, we didn't quite notice for years. If it wasn't for my girlfriend Jacque sharing her daughter's story, and us beginning to put the pieces together, I'm not sure when it would have dawned on us. A weekend of eye blinks. (Eye drops.) An ongoing dry hack. (Allergies. Buy hypoallergenic pillows.) Expectorating. (Yuck! Will you stop that? You're grossing us out.)

Long story short, the day we were in the clinic, he described all of his symptoms to the doctor. And he was off charts behaviorally. Beeping. Snorting. Foot kicks. Hand gestures. Coughing. You name it. The list went on and on. He said that he tries to suppress his ticks in school but they come on full-bore at night when he allows them to. She asked how he knew when a tick was coming on and he likened it to a sneeze: you just know.  We were then asked if we wanted to put him on meds but he, and we, declined. Until (or unless) it was bothering him socially, why have a nine year old boy ingest a toxin?

The next night my sister and I took Son #1 to a healing mass at a local Catholic church. After the service, the visiting priest, Father McAlear (who looks a bit like Sean Connery complete with sparkly eyes), laid his healing hands on our heads and said a prayer. Guess what: the entire crazy spectrum of symptoms gone. Completely gone -- for maybe six or nine months at which point they came creeping back but, to this day, have never been as bad as they were a few years ago.

Fast forward to Tuesday night this week. My girlfriends Dawn and Meg were headed to St. Catherine of Sienna in the next town over for another healing mass. Same priest. This  year, he was touching people and they were fainting. Literally fainting. It was surreal.

He came to Son #1, chatted for a minute, prayed over him and then said to him, "Do you know what you have to do now?" Son #1 replied, "No, what?" and he responded, "Get a haircut."

Yes Grannie, you have an ally in the Catholic church.