Mass, balloons and elves

One of the many things priests often consider is the size of a congregation at any given Mass. Sometimes the number of people attending Mass is consistent and sometimes it is not.

This isn't an issue with which I am confronted, probably because the Catholic population in Virden and Girard is not very large, only about 35% of the total population in the two towns, neither of which is large (I have noticed that, as the week goes on, the attendance at daily Mass contributes a bit, but that is largely expected as few people like Mondays). But it is something a priest in a big city like, say, Cleveland, would encounter from time to time.

Exactly why the size of a congregation at any given Mass on any given day might be largely than usual is anybody's guess. Fr. V., over at Adam's Ale, put it this way:

It is a little like tossing an oblong water balloon in the air that grows large at one end at one moment and the shrinks to almost nothing the next as all the water surges to another part. There could be a game involved, nice weather, or an elf stubbing his toe. Who knows?

My guess is for the elf stubbing his toe.