Catching up on my goofing off, and could not agree more with this post by Fr. L on Anticipating Advent.
Our preparation: Yesterday took the kids to Target to get them decent black slacks that reach all the way to the tops of shoes, after the, er, interesting things that appeared on our altar last Sunday. Yikes. Had to do that fast before the shoppers arrived.
So I’m reading Fr. L and thinking, yes, yes, yes! And then I thought, “that theme seems vaguely familiar.” Wow I should totally write down what that lady said on Sarah’s blog, gosh I bet she’s so pulled together. [See: Things That Appeared On Our Altar]
**********
Advent PSA: If you’re on the fence about darkening the doors of a Catholic Church.
Topic that came up last night:
Let’s say you are a lapsed Catholic or non-Catholic who is looking for a church to attend after a long time away. Perhaps you have noticed there’s a Catholic parish near you, and you have a vague idea about maybe dropping in sometime. But you’re nervous. You’ll stand out. You can’t remember (or never knew) how the whole Mass thing works. People are going to laugh at you when you say or do the wrong thing.
Is that you?
Come this Sunday! Everyone will be just as lost! We’ll all have our eyes glued to the handy pamphlet in the pews! We’ll be mumbling! We’ll say the wrong things! The new (old) hand motions will feel so weird! The music will be really good or really bad or just really strange . . . to all of us together!
That’s hilarious! We went to a Lutheran church last Sunday (our group wasn’t meeting) and it was pretty obvious we were new.
Ironically, on any given normal week a fair number of the regulars are lost or silent. And wow, if the cantor doesn’t lead off all the music, epic fail. We are liturgical lost sheep even when we know what’s going on. If it weren’t irreverent bordering on sacrilegious, I’d sneak in a hidden camera.
(And I like the new translation. I’m thrilled with it. Do you know how long I have wanted an excuse to use the word “consubstantial”? Major geek happiness. But still, I’m worried I’m going to bust out laughing.)