A few weeks ago a couple came to church requesting baptism for their child. It was only at the end of the Mass that I realised that they were both deaf and used sign language to communicate. The child to be baptised and her older sibling are both hearing.
God moves in mysterious ways. When I was a teenager I was bored one evening and looked thriugh the pages of the local paper and came across an advert for classes in sign language. It looked as if it might be a useful skill to have so I went along to the classes.
At one of the classes we had to talk about our interests and our work. I made the ''mistake'' of saying that I was thinking about becoming a priest. I say mistake because unbeknown to me our teacher was a Catholic herself and involved in the Catholic Deaf Association. Thus began my interest in liturgical sign language.
Unfortunately I do not have many opportinities to use the sign language I learnt all those years ago and have become a bit rusty. With a deaf couple now coming to Mass regularly it has re ignited my interest in communication with deaf people.
Over the last few weeks I have been signing some of the Mass at St Marie's. I hope that this has been of some help to those who use this language as a form of communication.
If any one who has a skill in this area and would be interested helping at Mass then please do get in touch. Perhaps we could form a group for anyone who might be interested in learning sign language.
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