General update

[simont]

Back at work today, after two days of a cold. Except that when I came in this morning I had a horrifying sneezing fit which made it quite difficult to drive: I hope that's hayfever (for which this is roughly my peak season) rather than the remaining cold, in which case it should go away now I'm in the air-conditioned office. If it's the cold I might have to go home again, and I was getting restless.

Being off work with a mild cold is terrible for guilt, because I sit on the sofa, do nothing, and feel fine, making me feel bad that I'm at home. Fortunately (ish), at one point I ran out of food and had to go out shopping, and then I felt headachey and dizzy and that reminded me that I really was ill; but it's difficult to remember that when you're sitting on a comfy sofa and feeling OK.

In other news … the other day mpinna sent me a draft of the puzzle he's working on for my collection, which is worryingly good fun; I can tell it's a good one when my code review goes slowly because I keep stopping for just one more go. Then I sent back a mail which said ‘I'll be happy to accept this into the collection provided the following corrections are made’, which made me feel worryingly like a PhD examiner. Perhaps I should award a qualification for successfully submitting a puzzle. Puzzle Developer, or PzD for short :-)

At the weekend I watched cjwatson and ghoti get married, which was nice. The wedding was disturbingly Catholic; the congregation kept being expected to mutter ‘amen’ and ‘and also with you’ and similar miscellaneous stuff at various points, and in the absence of the usual cheat sheet I had absolutely no idea when it was appropriate to do any of this. Then they said the Hail Mary, of which I know virtually nothing beyond a vague feeling that I can guess the first two words. Then the Lord's Prayer showed up and I thought ‘thank goodness, something I do know’. Except that I didn't even know that, it turned out, because their version was two lines shorter than the one I knew. All of which, I think, conclusively demonstrates me to be a Protestant atheist.

Still, that wasn't a big problem. And there was a silly photo session, a mead-enabled reception, caterers who had specially provided gluten-free food for me (and a terrifying quantity of it too!), and all the usual good stuff. At one point my umbrella became filled with confetti, which was odd.

Anyway. Now I need to wade through a rather scary quantity of e-mail backlog from the two days I've been off work.

Comments

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

"And also with you" confused the hell out of me too. It's Modern for "and with thy spirit."

I suspect the congregation was full of atheists muttering about it being too Catholic, and Anglicans muttering about it being not Catholic enough.

[hilarityallen.livejournal.com]

Mm. Well, when, after Vatican II, masses in English were permitted and the liturgy was reformed, the first version was rejected in the UK for being too suspiciously Protestant. No Hail Mary, less random genuflection ...

[lnr]

"And also with you" to "peace be with you" I've got fairly used to these days, and isn't just Catholic, so I coped with that and the Amens. Though they're harder to spot without a crib sheet. But I didn't know the Hail Mary or the Allelujah and the responses to Becky's prayer asking for blessings caught me out too.

"too Catholic" would be a daft thing to call it though, since it was in a Catholic church. Just because it's unfamiliar doesn't make it bad.

[simont]

I thought Becky's prayer was the one thing that was given in the cheat sheet?

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

I was mostly being flippant. But 'Catholic' is not the same thing as 'Roman Catholic'. It is not daft to say that my Anglican church is more 'Catholic' than the average Roman Catholic one. Though some people might quibble about the size of the 'c'.

[simont]

... so that a Catholic church might be one which still does everything in Latin? :-)

[karen2205]

What does 'catholic' mean when in sentences like 'I believe in the holy catholic church' used in a CoE service?

[mtbc100.livejournal.com]

"universal" or suchlike — the whole church, in an inclusive way.

[meirion.livejournal.com]

oooh, i appear to be making progress ;-)

(correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe that i told you that a couple of weeks back!)

-m-

[mtbc100.livejournal.com]

You are absolutely correct. (-: I do appreciate the window into such matters that you can give me!

[meirion.livejournal.com]

am i being dreadfully evil for using ancient language at SMM? it does bother me quite a lot that it's all in modern language. (don't suppose i'll ever dare say that to fr groves though).

-m-

[senji.livejournal.com]

And at least one Methodist who thought it wasn't any more confusing than any other service he'd been to based on a different litergy than the ones he grew up with.