My fault, my own fault, my own grevious fault…

…is the English which my priest and I use every Sunday to start the Mass. Unlike the traditional western Christian mass in which these prayers were said at the foot of the altar, we say them in the sacristy prior to walking around the church building and processing into the church proper to a hymn. Our sacristy must be negotiated by anyone wishing to enter the church a bit late and often we have one of our people to walk past as we are saying the Preperation for Mass or the Confiteor or the prayers at the foot of the altar of whatever you might want to call them. We have had many folk startled by the seriousness of the brief prayers and surprised at the fact that we actually take the time to say them. I believe they expect us to be talking about the previous day’s sporting events or the previous evening’s festivities. Instead, we are praying and I have witnessed people being moved by the prayers. I wonder if they might be better said in front of the people. More reflections from haligweorc… with some corrections by the Young Fogey.