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Holy Days of Obligation
As students in Catholic schools, we had an interesting benifit. Three days off from school not enjoyed by our counterparts in public school.
Ascension Thursday (forty days after Easter)
All Saints Day (November 1st)
Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8)
The other three, Christ's Circumsion (New Years Day)and Christmas are holidays for all Christians and The Feast of the Assumption (August 15th) summer time did not have an effect.
Explaining the Immaculate Conception to my 11 and 12 year old non-Catholic friends was impossible. I'm also grateful I never had to try to explain what being "assumed" into Heaven meant. That would have segued into a discussion of Faith.
We also received a holiday from school on St. Patrick's Day to celebrate the patron saint of our parish.
Ascension Thursday (forty days after Easter)
All Saints Day (November 1st)
Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8)
The other three, Christ's Circumsion (New Years Day)and Christmas are holidays for all Christians and The Feast of the Assumption (August 15th) summer time did not have an effect.
Explaining the Immaculate Conception to my 11 and 12 year old non-Catholic friends was impossible. I'm also grateful I never had to try to explain what being "assumed" into Heaven meant. That would have segued into a discussion of Faith.
We also received a holiday from school on St. Patrick's Day to celebrate the patron saint of our parish.
When was the last time....
You attended the Stations of the Cross. Do the churches even have them any more?
Saint Anthony's Messenger
Does anyone else remember reading this in grade school. I remember that it was in a folded newspaper format.
Fighting at School
This could be a touchy subject. Just today on the Saturday news the stations showed another YouTube "phenom". fighting at school, where the combatatants are recorded during their usually short bouts and then put on YouTube for fifteen minutes of fame if you want to call it that. But in my day fights at school were not an infrequent event. For myself, I can count on one hand the number I've been in. But back then it did not seem like that big a deal.
The reason(s)for fighting could be almost anything...over a girl, one's honor, a perceived insult, to resolve some other dispute. We would gather at a corner of the school yard relatively out of sight from the nuns. The guys would form a ring by holding hands and the two combatants had at it until it was over or we got caught by one of the nuns.
If we got caught and the pair still wanted to fight it out with fisticuffs, we repaired to the park about a block from school, after school.
No weapons were involved.
The reason(s)for fighting could be almost anything...over a girl, one's honor, a perceived insult, to resolve some other dispute. We would gather at a corner of the school yard relatively out of sight from the nuns. The guys would form a ring by holding hands and the two combatants had at it until it was over or we got caught by one of the nuns.
If we got caught and the pair still wanted to fight it out with fisticuffs, we repaired to the park about a block from school, after school.
No weapons were involved.
Catholic School Class Reunion
Well, we just had our 40th class reunion. All girl Catholic High School in Indianapolis. We held it at the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) camp. 32 girls attended and spent the night in un-airconditioned cabins! The conference center where we held our meals was Air-conditioned though.
Mass on Sunday, only 11 attended. Now to be fair, several were going to attend Mass that evening. So, I would say maybe 50% are still practicing Catholics.
I just thought it was interesting that so many have fallen away.
Mass on Sunday, only 11 attended. Now to be fair, several were going to attend Mass that evening. So, I would say maybe 50% are still practicing Catholics.
I just thought it was interesting that so many have fallen away.
Holy Communion from an Altar Boy's Vantage Point
I keep remembering this old stuff about serving Mass when I was about twelve years old.
One of the more enjoyable duties during serving Mass was "holding the plate" as the priest distributed the Holy Eucharist. As he intoned the Latin phrases with each host and carefully placed the host on the recipient's tongue, we altar boys held the plate under the recipient's chin in order to cstch any fragments or crumbs that might have fallen.
At that time, those receiving knelt along the altar rail,outside the sanctuary, as many people as could fit at a time. The priest worked his way along the altar rail from left to right facing the congregation inside the sanctuary. We boys held the plate in our right hand and kind of walked backwards ahead of the priest moving quickly and carefully as he moved to the next communicant.
We got to see our girlfriends up close as well as all of the parish members, not to mention the nuns. I always thought of this as rather personal, but no one seemed to think thought anything of it.
Distribution of Holy Communion now is much different. We can actually hold the host ourselves if we want to.
Where is everyone? We're on the downside of Summer already.
One of the more enjoyable duties during serving Mass was "holding the plate" as the priest distributed the Holy Eucharist. As he intoned the Latin phrases with each host and carefully placed the host on the recipient's tongue, we altar boys held the plate under the recipient's chin in order to cstch any fragments or crumbs that might have fallen.
At that time, those receiving knelt along the altar rail,outside the sanctuary, as many people as could fit at a time. The priest worked his way along the altar rail from left to right facing the congregation inside the sanctuary. We boys held the plate in our right hand and kind of walked backwards ahead of the priest moving quickly and carefully as he moved to the next communicant.
We got to see our girlfriends up close as well as all of the parish members, not to mention the nuns. I always thought of this as rather personal, but no one seemed to think thought anything of it.
Distribution of Holy Communion now is much different. We can actually hold the host ourselves if we want to.
Where is everyone? We're on the downside of Summer already.
More Altar Boy Lore
The archives of our group contain quite a bit of commentary about altar boys and their duties. Here's another bit of memoir.
After attenting a wedding recently and seeing the best man hand out envelopes (tips) to the servers at the ceremony, I fondly remembered the honor it was to serve at a wedding and receive a tip from the wedding entourage. In our parish, if you were scheduled to serve at the regular weekday Mass, you got to serve at any weddings taking place on the Saturday of that week, unless the wedding party had a special request for a relative who was on the altar boy roster.
The tipping custom did not extend to funerals though, at least not in our parish. When we buried our parents, we gave the priest a stipend as we all left the cemetery. The altar boys did not go along to the cemetery.
After attenting a wedding recently and seeing the best man hand out envelopes (tips) to the servers at the ceremony, I fondly remembered the honor it was to serve at a wedding and receive a tip from the wedding entourage. In our parish, if you were scheduled to serve at the regular weekday Mass, you got to serve at any weddings taking place on the Saturday of that week, unless the wedding party had a special request for a relative who was on the altar boy roster.
The tipping custom did not extend to funerals though, at least not in our parish. When we buried our parents, we gave the priest a stipend as we all left the cemetery. The altar boys did not go along to the cemetery.
Catholic shampoo
While shopping in a food store, two nuns happened to pass by the beer. The first nun said it would be nice to enjoy a beer. The second nun answered that, indeed, it would be very nice to have one, but that she wouldn't feel comfortable about buying it.
The first nun replied that she could handle that without a problem. So, she picked up a six-pack and took it to the cashier. The cashier had a surprised look on his face, so the nun said, 'We use beer for washing our hair; a sort of shampoo, if you will.'
Without blinking an eye, the cashier reached under the counter, pulled out a package of pretzel sticks and placed them in the bag with the beer. He then looked the nun straight in the eye, smiled, and said, 'The curlers are on the house.'
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The first nun replied that she could handle that without a problem. So, she picked up a six-pack and took it to the cashier. The cashier had a surprised look on his face, so the nun said, 'We use beer for washing our hair; a sort of shampoo, if you will.'
Without blinking an eye, the cashier reached under the counter, pulled out a package of pretzel sticks and placed them in the bag with the beer. He then looked the nun straight in the eye, smiled, and said, 'The curlers are on the house.'
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