From the 1962 missal:

If the consecrated Host disappears, either by some accident such as a gust of wind or by some animal’s taking it, and It cannot be found, then another is to be consecrated, beginning from the Qui pridie quam pateretur, having first been offered as above.

We are fortunate to live in a time and place when animals making off with the host are the least of our worries.

A Believable Accent: The Phonology of the Pink Panther examines the speech patterns of Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers, that is, not that usurper Steve Martin!) and the issues that make a stage accent believable.  (Adobe Reader required.)

I honestly don’t know how else to frame this. I don’t know what’s worse, that Ahmadinejad is pre-empting the Queen or the fact that the Archibishop of Canterbury could give the same speech without anyone noticing the difference.

The real Jesus Christ set out not to reform institutions but to reform people. But if some children can see Him lily white, I suppose some with the moral intelligence of toddlers can see Him as a tinpot anticolonialist.

In conversation with a former pastor, someone mentioned something about naughty children getting coal in their Christmas stockings, to which he replied, “Children don’t appreciate practical gifts.”

One of Canada’s “top five inventions” is Five-Pin bolwing. Here’s how is isn’t done:

(Wait till the end.)

A post I could have written…

I see it [indifference] in myself when I’m busy with work and my child wants to sit on my lap and I tell them ‘not now.’ It’s when my wife wants to talk and I ignore her or just put her off saying ‘I’m busy’ and we’ll talk later. It’s my own home version of trampling. It’s saying to the people I love in the clearest way possible that something else is more important than you. And that’s about the cruelest thing I can think to tell someone who loves you.

I do this, or things like this, all the time (cue wrist slap).

On the lighter side, here’s the High Anglican weather forecast.

3. Why does my church use the color blue during Advent?
Good question. We have heard many reasons why blue is now a popular Advent liturgical color. One is that blue symbolizes the pre-dawn light. Another reason is that blue is the color of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the use of blue for Advent may come from this. A third reason is that many churches are trying to distance themselves from the penitential nature of past Advent celebrations, and blue is as close as you can get to violet without being violet. Also, in many places the purple dye used to make Advent vestments and linens was closer to a blue-violet hue than straight violet. Possibly, this eventually led churches in many regions to adopt blue as an Advent color. The last possibility is that blue is a pretty color and offers more variety of color to the limited number of liturgical colors. Regardless, in the Catholic Church, blue is not an approved liturgical color, for Advent or any other season, and it should not be the primary color in any Catholic liturgical celebration.

None of the reasons cited above are valid of course. It is not for us to re-invent the litugry of our own accord. GIRM 346 specifies the following colors for vestments: white, red, green, violet, black (as an option for funeral services and Masses for the Dead), rose (Gaudete and Lætare Sundays), and gold/silver (as an alternative for solemn days).

I’m not sure if the GIRM says anything about Advent wreaths, but the Book of Blessings for the US, ¶1510, mentions only violet, white and rose. We’ve got blue candles, and I could not talk anyone out of them. Why is it so hard for some people to do things right?

The next time this happens, I will say, “If you’re going to go all Protestant on me, I may as well go back to the Baptists where I came from.”

Being President is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but stand there and take it. —LBJ

Let’s pray that the President-Elect learns how to take it. The US does not have lèse majesté laws and Americans are very vocal. Having the VP make fun of your critics or siccing the state troopers on them is not very Presidential.

If, as the co-chair (what is that, exactly?) of his transition team said, Obama is ready, “… to begin to rule Day One”, then the first thing he must learn is that he will not be ruling. We are citizens, not subjects, and he is not the king. For that matter, he isn’t even President, yet.

As Christians we have a King who is above any earthly ruler, and this Sunday is an opportunity to remember that. May our leaders remember that as well.

The always fun-to-read John Zmirak gives us this groaner:

[T]he Virgin Mary — who, ever since the early Church, had been famous for ending her time on earth by rising up to heaven, body and soul. … Would that have happened to everyone, absent the Fall? That’s a pretty big assumption.

While I’m at it, here’s what you didn’t know about Cardinal Sin.