Going to Church, the original and ultimate social network

So I'm going to Church tomorrow for the second week in a row. And why am I telling you about this? Well, in the spirit of this blog and my recent foray into social networking, I was thinking that isn't Church the ultimate form of social networking? What gave me this realization was my daughter. Allow me to expand. First some background. I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic school. I went to Mass every Sunday with my folks. And after Mass, we would hang around with my extended family and talk and catch up. I rather looked forward to Mass just for this aspect of things. Then I went to college at Michigan. And as I suspect happens with most college kids, I lapsed. I went to Mass maybe three times. Looking back at things, it's probably because I missed the social interaction part of Mass. And also maybe I was a little busy or hung over. But then I went to Colorado State for grad school and got back into going to Church. This time I was more involved and enjoyed interacting with the people there. I even went on a Church retreat at Estes Park. (God I miss Colorado.) But, grad school was not in the cards for me, and I moved back to Ohio for work. And so began the 20 year lapse. I went to Church for my wedding. I went most Easters and Christmases. After my daughter was born, I wanted to start taking her to Mass. So I did for a time the winter of her third year. But it didn't stick. We would go, leave after communion and then go to Bob Evans.  She really enjoyed going to Bob Evans. But not Church. So I lapsed again. But now it's hopefully different. Now that my son is two, I again wanted to take the kids back to Church. And so last week I told my daughter that I'm taking them. I've "threatened" this in the past, and she never wanted to go. And for some reason, we didn't go. Actually, the reason was that I was being lazy. But last week we actually went. While we were getting our seats, my daughter saw a friend and sat with her. She then went to the Children's Mass held down in the basement. After Mass, we went to the assembly hall to have donuts. Either I wasn't paying attention before, but this was new to me. In my opinion, all Churches should have after Church refreshments to reinforce the social aspects of Church. My daughter had so much fun that she told me she wanted to go back. And so, because Church was social, we're going to Church for a second week in a row. Hopefully this time I wont lapse. UPDATE: Just wanted to let you know that I did in fact go to Mass today. I think the proper Church nomenclature for social network is fellowship. See, I was listening.