A little later my dad came in and sat down on the edge of the bed and said quietly that we should have a conversation
about Sunday Mass, and probably I was now old enough to make my own decisions
about attending Mass, that he and my mother did not think it right or fair to force that decision on us children, that we needed to find our own ways spiritually, and that while he and our mother very much hoped that we would walk in the many rewarding
paths of the Church, the final decision there would be ours alone, each obeying his own conscience; that was only right and fair, and to decree attendance now would perhaps actually force us away from the very thing that he and my mother found to be the most nutritious spiritual food; so perhaps you and I and your mother can sit and discuss this later this afternoon, he said, and come to some amicable
agreement.