For any of you who may have heard of the \u201cwandering Armenian\u201d on the First Sunday of Lent, you should know that that\u2019s the wrong country. Where I was (no, not the abbey) it was, \u201cMy father was a wandering American.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evening office for the first Sunday of Lent at the abbey has \u201cSpare us, O Lord\u201d as the response to the petitions. Some years ago the prayer leader, after reading all the petitions in the book (\u201cFrom pride and arrogance,\u201d etc.), added a worthy petition of his own. And so we dutifully gave our appointed response to this: \u201cFor vocations to the priesthood in our monastery.\u201d<\/p>\n
A brother monk tells me that since we use too little inclusive God language in our liturgy, he especially appreciates the office collect which begins, \u201cO God, surely\u2026\u201d\u00a0 [That one may not work in regions with purer English pronunciation than Minnesota.]<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure none of this sort of thing first began with Vatican II or the vernacular. Just think of \u201cEgo te baptizo in nomine Patria et Filia\u2026\u201d of medieval lore. (That would be the Fatherland and the Daughter.) I\u2019m just glad that now the congregation is let in on the humor.<\/p>\n
awr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Any “wandering Armenians” out there on the First Sunday of Lent?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor"],"yoast_head":"\n