Light On Dark Water

Getting our attention

I just returned from Mass. Yes, Saturday evening "vigil" Mass, which I don't really like to attend, but I will have some extenuating family circumstances tomorrow. Besides, my wife had suggested a couple of days ago that it would be a good place to be if the end of the world did actually occur at 6pm. (Yes, I understand it was the guy's idea that it would begin at the first place where 6pm occurred. But I reasoned that it's quite possible that this is God's favorite part of the world, and so he might start here. Or maybe his least favorite part. Depends on how you look at the end of the world, I guess.)

Anyway. We had a visiting priest who is Indian, and speaks with a pretty strong accent. And my hearing is not what it used to be. At the end of Mass he paused and I thought I heard him say

I feel like…attacking all of you.

Well, that certainly made me sit up. Then I realized he had actually said, with a slight hint of "uh" after the word "like" and a "t" rather than "th" sound, 

I feel like…(uh)thanking all of you.

Maclin Horton

9 responses to “Getting our attention”

  1. Janet

    Apparently your wife was not alone in her thinking. A conversation between my daughter and granddaughter that the daughter posted on YouTube:
    Tessa: “So the rapture starts at 6p?”
    Me: “Eastern, yes.”
    Tessa: “Guess I’d better go to four o’clock Mass, then.”
    Ha!
    AMDG

    Reply
  2. Mac

    I have to admit that the prospect of not having to go to work ever again was not unpleasing. Oh well.

    Reply
  3. Louise

    O wow! An anticipated rapture and I didn’t know? Ripped off!
    I could have spent the whole of Saturday being anxious. Rats!

    Reply
  4. Mac

    [shrug] It was boring.

    Reply
  5. Francesca

    I learned from this post that America has anticipated masses for Sunday on Saturdays at 4.30. This was confirmed by seeing today, from a cab window, aMass schedule on a billboard outside a church. If there’s a mass in Newark on Saturday near the airport, I could get to it before my flight to Europe (a 6 pm one might be cutting it fine). In England, and wherever I’ve been in SpainandFranceandItaly, the anticipated Mass would be in the evening, between 6 and 7.

    Reply
  6. Mac

    I think 4:30 is unusually early, in this area anyway. 5:30 seems to be more typical. Although it’s 4:30 at our cathedral, so the bishop must approve. I think the 4:00 one Janet mentions is the earliest I’ve heard of.
    So you’ve had enough of the U.S. already? 🙂

    Reply
  7. Francesca

    I’ve had enough of the US, yes, but I’m just going to Europe to finish the camino. The Newark churches with websites don’t look promising, so far as a 4.30 mass is concerned.

    Reply
  8. Mac

    I did warn you that this is a crazy place, didn’t I? But then you probably already knew that.

    Reply
  9. Craig

    Where will you be starting the final leg of the camino, Francesca? I have walked the segment from Sarria to Santiago — about 110 km, I think.

    Reply

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