I love the old people who crack up over the "you are but dust" during the liturgy for today.

I stand corrected as to the size of the Church.

Sorry for the double post ...

My mother received ashes this morning while in hospital. I'm sure she was thrilled to hear, "Remember, thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return." (Or whatever the current wording is.)

My father went to Mass this morning and received ashes. He washed them off before we went over to the hospital. I didn't think you were allowed to do that. Several nurses were walking around with ashes.

But I digress.......

Two possibilities as to what your mother heard - either "Remember, man, that you are dust and unto dust you shall return." or "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." Maybe your mom got #2 - it would seem a little more appropriate to the setting! Hope she is improving and will be able to celebrate Easter outside of the hospital.

There's always a discussion about whether or not sporting your ashes all day is a form of "public prayer" specifically discussed in Matthew 6:5. Intelligent response I've heard is it depends on intent - if you wear your ashes to show what a good Christian you are - BAD. If you wear your ashes as a reminder of your mortality and sin , and to serve as a witness to your faith in humbleness of spirit and your need for God - GOOD.

I went to a new church last night and I did think it was a little ironic that the reading was the above passage from Matthew, and then we got ashes on our foreheads and were exhorted to make the sign of the Cross when appropriate (some Lutherans think this is just a little too Papist, some are way into it).

One Lutheran song recalled from third grade had the phrase "free spirit" near the end, and I always softly added the word "bra" thinking of those daytime women's television ads of the '60's.

I've never heard the second wording. I went to Catholic school for a few years, and we were always taken to Mass on Ash Wednesday, and we always got the "thou art dust" wording, with strict instructions not to wash or wipe off the ashes until we washed up before bedtime.

On a side note, the latest is that my mother will be discharged to a rehab facility this weekend. :)

The Lutherans here do not get ashed lest they look too Catholic, so the sign of thecross is definitely out. ;) Last year my husband went to Mass with me in the morning and we went to his church's night service and got a lot of side eye for our ashes.

I just heard that the Pope is giving up the Papacy for Lent.

DaffyKD

<-----rimshot

Very interesting! We're Catholic, but my youngest child goes to a Lutheran preschool...they got ashes in chapel that morning!?!

ETA: Did anyone see Saturday Night Live? Hilarious commercial about a financial company specializes in retiring Popes.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/457655#i4,p0,d2

There are 3 different kinds of Lutherans, and different degrees of...well...being "down" with some of the Catholic aspects in the Church. Obvi GP's hubby's church is at one end, and your little one's is at the other. :)

I was about to say, it depended on what flavor of Lutheran one was. And there are something like 28 different Lutheran denominations in the US, though only 3 or 4 big ones.

On a different note, related to this thread, I read that the Conclave might start earlier then is current Vatican law. I wonder if they will just ignore the law, or if the Pope will change it and then the new pope change it back.

Where's that .jpg of "The More You Know" when you need it?! Thanks for the enlightenment - have learned a little bit about the Lutheran Church (at least the one the little ones have gone to!) but glad to know more. Our experience with it for the kids has been wonderful & seemingly similar enough, that has made it not confusing for the kids.

Hmm...I'll leave the conspiracy theories to others, but it seems something is afoot!

Your kids are probably either in an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America school or a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod one.Never heard of WELS running schools.


Actually it has to do with timing. If they started the 15-20 days after the sede vacante, then they will be coming dangerously close to Holy Week. Since at least part of the purpose for the wait was to let the Cardinals get there after receiving notice of the Conclave, it makes sense to start the Conclave when the sede vacante starts since this isn't an unexpected event. But since the Pope hasn't resigned in 600 years, there is no procedure for this in canon law.

Just looked it up to be sure...ELCA. Interestingly, my older child went to a daycare/preschool in another part of town that was Lutheran. ELCA as well.

Makes sense.

I'm married to a WELS guy from a really WELS family and they have schools. My husband went to one for K-12, with his high school being a preparatory school.

I stand corrected. Thank you.

I think they are most common in Wisconsin and the states that touch us. I never knew the WELS was a thing until I met my husband and there was a church and school in my hometown, so it's not like they stand out. :)

As long as we're talking about the Catholic Church... This priest is being expelled from his parish over a photo of himself and another man.

http://freethinker.co.uk/2011/07/12/...sure-his-anus/

And your point is . . .?

If we want to just have general Catholic stuff, this is my nominee:
CATHOLIC SMACKDOWN!
Stephen Colbert and Jack White - feel free to play along and shout out the correct answer when they get it wrong!


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_884052.html

It's official. It is now His Holiness Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus. Interesting that they decided for Pope Emeritus instead of Bishop Emeritus of Rome.

Pretty funny spoof of the conclave (that unfortunately hits too close to home)

Hurry! To the conclave!

First ballot -- black smoke.

LOL! So wrong, yet...

As for the black smoke, I'd have been really surprised if they'd elected a Pope on the first ballot. This may take a while. Hopefully someone will be in place by Easter.

So I have a couple of dumb questions I haven't been able to find answers to.

- Do the cardinal-electors vote on Sundays?
- A cardinal-elector has to be under age 80. What happens if a cardinal-elector turns 80 during the conclave? I'm guessing he becomes ineligible as a candidate for Pope, but does he still get to vote?

Can you imagine the tent talk during the conclave?

Black smoke again. Although it didn't look that black. They need to work on that!

Lol!

Oh, it would definately have been a surprise if someone were to have been elected on the first ballot. But given recent (last 100+ years) history, I'd expect an election by Sunday.

Yes. If they vote for three full days without an election, then they go a day without voting. This go around, that means if by end-of-the-day Friday there is no election of a pope, there will be no voting on Saturday, and voting will resume on Sunday.
A cardinal-elector must be under 80 on the day before the sede vacante, the day the pope dies or resigns. So, any cardinal who was under 80 on February 27 can participate as an elector, even if he turned 80 before the Conclave started or turns 80 during the conclave.

The person elected pope does not have to be under 80, though. Theoretically/legally, at least as I understand it, any single Catholic male is eligible to be elected. But since the last time someone from outside the college of cardinals was elected was 1378 (Pope Urban VI), and the last time someone not already a priest or bishop was elected was 1513 (Leo X, a Medici -- at that time, cardinal-deacons did not have to be priests or bishops), the chances of it being someone not in the Sistene Chapel are very, very slim.

Of course, until last month, the last time a pope had resigned was 1415 (Gregory XII).

#churchgeek

We have a Pope!

#whitesmoke

I predict an Italian who is in excess of 75 years of age.

The predictions I heard from someone who has long worked in Vatican Radio were that if the election happened by today, it would likely be Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola (71), Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer (63) or Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet (68).

TEAM DiNARDO! (A very, very long shot!)

:)

You've put more thought into this than I have, clearly.

To get my support back, the Church is going to have to make some pretty big changes, starting with turning every single document related to any priest abuse over to the authorities and compensating the victims, then turn an eye towards internal reform.

Basically, I want the Episcopal Church with a Pope... I'd declare myself to be Episcopal if one of the things I respect and value about the Church is its subsidiary institutions like Catholic Charities.

Sounds about right to this cradle Catholic. :D

My mother is running a blood drive at our Church right now. She is dying to know who it is, but can't watch! There are two that I'm not enthusiastic about, but can't say for fear of jinxing!

(I find it funny that I'm worried about jinxing something to do with religion)

Not really -- I'm just, as I said above, a churchgeek (and a Presbyterian one at that) who is repeating speculation from someone who seemed know what he might be talking about. He thought they were the front-runners, and a quick election more than likely meant one of them, while if it went past tomorrow afternoon, it mosr likely was not one of them.

These are the predictions my sources said also...

*anxiously awaiting the name*

I'm kind of like Kevin except I took the leap to the Episcopal church after I married my uberWASP husband.

I wonder what name the new Pope will take? I’d like to see him take John Paul III. I’m partial to John Paul II because he was Polish.

My maternal grandma had a picture of him hanging in her kitchen and it said niech zyje nasz ojcze (Long live our father) at the bottom . She’d tell me I’d better have good table manners because the Father could see me!

Can I tell a joke I heard on the radio this morning? It went something like this:
The Papal Conclave is still meeting, and we'll be able to tell what's going on by the color of the smoke rising from the chimney. If it's black, it means no Pope yet. If it's white, it means they've elected someone. If it's gray, it means that they're burning evidence.

I know it's wrong, but it made me laugh