A reader writes with some reflections on what she saw today – beginning with the story of her parish, a traditional ethnic parish that seemed on track to be fading away. But:

What joy to see the young people coming to church. Not only do we have a wonderful young adult group but our choir (under the direction of a talented organist) has many young people as well and the music is so inspiring that  we are attracting new people to the choir all the time. But what is most wonderful is that there are so many single  young professionals in the church and young families who bring their babies and toddlers to Mass with the knowldege that our former baptistry is now a family friendly refuge if the children get restless.

At the 9:45 today there were a lot of young people with children and I heard one young man with baby (passed as usual between husband and wife)say" My mother said you shouldn’t take babies to church but no one in this church seems to mind".  I loved the young couple in froint of me with a fairly well behaved girl of four and a very squirmy boy of two who waited until the end of Mass when they sang the hymn "The Strife is Over" and he said "Good choice." Am I crazy or does there seem more young people at Mass than in years past? Of course our pastor has has quietly fostered this but there has to be more church going Catholics out there than the critics (chiefly the NY Times) realize