No Women Cantors

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I'm so disappointed. There are such beautiful songs about Mary: O Sanctissima, Immaculate Mary, Hail Holy Queen enthroned above, Alma Redemptoris Mater, not to mention concluding with Salve Regina Chant. But we didn't sing those. We sang songs most people couldn't sing.

Why?

The Cantor was a soprano.

Forget about fighting for women to be priests. That's a waste of time. Fight to ban women from being cantors.

I can prove that my grievance is right. Listen and watch the congregation when you have a woman cantor. Listen and watch the congregation when you have a man cantor.

Aha! See, I told you. Most people can't sing those high notes. When it's a male cantor, everyone sings.

Stop the arguing about womynpriests and girl altar servers. Take up my cause; no woman cantors. At least no sopranos.

Christmas Cards

Writing Christmas Cards is fun. I like to connect to relatives and friends, at least once a year. My address book is a file of index cards. On the front is the name, address and phone numbers. On the back, are notes. Information like their children's names, birth dates, boy/girl friend names, etc. I'll refer to this in the card.

Most of the time, I just sign my name. I just don't have time to write more. It's the card that's the gift. I'm saying, "thinking of you." But it's the outside of the card, that causes me anxiety. I try to match the picture to the receiver. I'm not sending a beautiful Madonna and Child to my Wiccan co-worker. That would be wasted. She'll get a generic Santa, or snowman.

I enjoy sending the religious ones to my friends who would appreciate it. After all, Christmas is religious. I even mail these cards with the Madonna stamps. The other cards are mailed with the pine cone stamps.

It's important to send cards before Christmas. But people who write the newsletters with their cards are always late. Did you ever notice that? I think that's why they do it--write long letters. It's to say, see that's why I'm late; I'm excused; I was writing this letter; Aren't I more special? Not that I don't like the newsletter. I like to see what your family's been up to. But have you ever noticed that the news in these letters is always wonderful. I never read about Daddy got drunk and smashed the car and the police arrested him, and he's in prison for a bit. Suzie was raped. Johnny keeps getting fired from his jobs.

Every thing is always honkey dorey. Well, if everything is so wonderful, and honkey dorey, how come you didn't send me any money with your wonderful, honkey dorey, news?

Intents Intense over Tents

OK! I had to laugh. I couldn't help it. Kudos to Occupy Melbourne. Watch the video and you'll see that the police came to take down the tents. As they approached closer, the people popped out of the center of the tents. They were wearing their tents as clothes! Very clever. An example of non-violent protest, or should I say aggression. HA! This is a new version of passive aggressive behavior. The police didn't know what to do.

I try not to pay attention to any of the Occupy Movements. It reminds me of the 60's and the Peace Movement and these kids aren't protesting a War. Do they know what they're protesting? I'm not sure. Has it been defined yet?

OK. They've got my attention with their humor. I'll pay them serious consideration now.

More Questions

Still haven't got a grasp on the Eucharist.

Don't worry. It's a mystery. Pray for the grace to understand.

I have lot's of other questions. Let me start at the beginning. Why did you and everybody else, stick your fingers in that dirty water and make the sign of the cross?

Well...in the first place, it's not dirty water; it's called holy water. We don't drink it. Don't worry. Catholics dip the tips of their fingers in it, and bless themselves by making the sign of the cross, i.e.," In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen" This is a prayer. The holy water is changed often. A drop of bleach may be added for cleaning the font. Sometimes a font will have a liner that is changed often. But in any case, like I said, no one drinks it.

This prayer is called "The sign of the cross." It's so easy to learn and the gestures make a cross to reinforce that it was our Trinitarian God who died on the cross for us.

You may wonder why or what the symbolism is. Water has always been a sign of cleansing. Many Old Testament references a cleansing with water. Other religions also have some sort of cleansing ritual. The Bible is full of them. (Ex 14:15-22, Ex 17:6-7, Josh 3:14-17, Ezek 47: 1-12, Mt 3:13-17, Jn 5:1-9, Jn 19:34, Jn 3:5) So it isn't surprising that in our Baptism, we use water to cleanse ourselves of Original Sin. Hence, when a Catholic enters the Church, you'll see him remind himself of his Baptism, by dipping his hands in holy water, and saying a prayer--the Sign of the Cross.

What makes it holy? The priest boils the hell out of it--just kidding. A priest will bless it. That's it. I've seen people touch their fingers in the holy water, then touch their child's fingers, so the child can then bless himself with holy water.

Some people have small fonts at home, so that they can bless the family as they leave the home. Kinda beautiful, huh?

This holy water is called a "sacramental." The catechism definition of a sacramental is "every baptized person is called to be a blessing and to bless...Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the same way the Sacraments do but by the Church's prayer, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it...They include blessings of persons, meals, objects and places." (Catechism verse 1669-71).

IOW, a sacramental is a reminder of something important. You've seen TV Healers put oil on people's hands to heal them. This would be considered a sacramental. A prayer shawl one puts on to pray, too. See--something to remind you of something important.

Ah! You got it.

Fifty Dollars is Fifty Dollars

Brother Tonto and the Prior enjoyed walking around the fair grounds. Every time they went,they found themselves in front of the airplane ride. Brother Tonto would wistfully read the sign, "Fifty Dollars a ride". The pilot explained that he'd fly over the neighborhood and your home--in their case, the priory. But the prior would say "Fifty Dollars!"

And Brother Tonto would explain, "The experience would be priceless."

The Prior, was aghast. "Fifty Dollars! Do you know what fifty dollars could buy? It would feed us for a week. We could pay a bill. We could help the poor. We could buy some books. Yadayadayadayadayad........"

Every year, the pilot would relive this same scenario.

"Fifty Dollars! Do you know what fifty dollars could by? It would feed us. We could pay some bills. We could help the poor. We could buy some books. We could get the plumbing fixed. We could send money to Father Tom's Kids. Yadayadayadayadayad........"

This year, however, when the pilot saw the friars approaching, he made an offer that the friars, (especially the parsimonious prior), couldn't refuse. "I'll make a bet with you."

"Eh?"

The pilot said, "I'll fly you both free, if the prior won't speak--during the entire time."

The friars were sure to win. After all, they lived in silence. Mostly. Some of the time. Well, the prior was sure he could remain silent. Sure. This wasn't even a gamble; the prior would win.

Up they went. Brother Tonto pointed out the priory and the pilot flew all around it. It was awesome. The scenery was spectacular. God is awesome.

But the prior hadn't said a word. He was sitting in back and was silent during the tour of the neighborhood, the priory, and fairgrounds.

The pilot was beginning to worry that he was going to be out Fifty Dollars. So he did some aerobatic maneuvers. He did some spins over the fair. No sound from the back. He looped over the priory. It was quiet. He was rolling over the river when he noticed that Brother Tonto was turning green. Still no word from the prior. The pilot also noticed that he was low on fuel.

The pilot had no choice, but to land. As he was taxiing to a stop, the pilot remarked that he was very surprised that the prior could keep his mouth closed, this long.

"The Prior?" Brother Tonto's voice went up. "Oh, he fell out during your spin over the river."

"What!" The pilot was aghast. "Brother Tonto, why didn't you say something?"

"Well, because..." Brother Tonto spoke from memory. "Fifty dollars is fifty dollars. Do you know what fifty dollars could buy...........................................?"

First Christmas Party

It's a festive gathering, to celebrate Christmas.

The hot buns were delicious.

MMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm

Hold the dessert. I'll just have the whipped cream.

You Tube on New Translation

This would be funny if I didn't know that people actually think like this.