liz3564 wrote:Wouldn't you rather bless the sacrament? It is so annoying when the priests have to do it over. How hard is it to read a card?
May I share a sad little story? Prior to leaving the church, I used to think, "Isn't it wonderful how we teach these priests exactness in all things?", whenever I heard the sacrament prayer repeated. I didn't care what the cause was - an inept reader, a learning disability, stuttering - you name it, I just felt it was wonderful that we taught this exactness in following the commandments.
And then, the last time I went to church, about 3 weeks ago, a newly baptised man, probably in his 50's, was blessing the sacrament for the first time. He was of Eastern European origin, and English was clearly not the language he was most comfortable reading. The bishop made him repeat the prayer 5 times. And each time I heard this poor bastard repeat the prayer, more nervous and stressed than the last time he tried, I felt a huge sense of guilt, and felt incredibly angry. Angry at myself for putting a rule in front of compassion, and angry that no one seemed to understand that whatever semblance of spirit existed was gone, replaced only by this lonely man, worried and stressed that he'd made a fool of himself and desecrated something so serious.
H.
"Others cannot endure their own littleness unless they can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level."
~ Ernest Becker
"Whether you think of it as heavenly or as earthly, if you love life immortality is no consolation for death."
~ Simone de Beauvoir