Don't remember if I shared this this, but my choir has a new motto, courtesy of a typo in the worship bulletin for the first Sunday of Lent this year:"Bless the Lord, who forgives all our sings."
This was me a few months ago, "Please turn to #___ in your Breaking Bad hymnal." (Quickly corrected. And yes I sorrow in our hymnal and that hymns are announced at Mass)
Very glad we don't have the Breaking Bad hymnal or I could see myself making this mistake. Remember the old folk hymn "Lord of Glory?" I once sang "his FACE is lifted..." instead of "his voice is lifted, his face is joy..."
And that reminds me of another one from a wedding which I attended: the cantor wasn't sure if the verse or refrain came next in "You Are Mine." The result was, "I am afraid I am with you."
Today, the lector informed us this is "Pentecostal Sunday", and later, reading from the "Act" of the Apostles, mentioned the "Parthenons" among those present at the Feast.
I may have recounted this before, but since this thread has been resurrected it may be worthy of repetition - - -
Many, very many years ago we were talking to some people after a mass at which we had made one of our first offerings of an unaccompanied motet, and one lady said admiringly, 'Oh, I just loved y'all's avocado anthem'.
Ok, all yours are from real life and this probably isn't, but it made me laugh anyway.
'At a wedding I attended, the priest called for a moment of silence to remember the faithful dead. 'As the church grew quiet, a little boy sitting in front of me turned to his father and said excitedly, "Dad, you have some of their albums!" '
The lord-lard merger is a feature of English pronunciation in parts of Texas, I believe. A much smaller merger variant of the much more widespread cot-caught merger and its related variations.
When you come to eastern New England, remember the that thrifty Yankee Law of Conservation of Rs means that non-rhotic Rs are not wasted - they are just moved to places like Cuber and Juder. (Epiphany is always a delightful time to listen to townie priests proclaim the Gospel.)
I heard it most recently from a Pakistani pastor. It crept up on me but about halfway through Mass all I could hear was what sounded like a clear and intentional worship of THE LARD.
Well, on my second day in Charlottesville almost 40 years ago, I learned that the nickname "Bill" may be a three-syllable (it was a bit more than a mere triphthong when drawled out) name when pronounced by someone from Tidewater. BIH-uh-el.
Not as funny as some of the above, but a very young priest the other day started out with a lovely homily about St. Stephen. A few parishioners quickly corrected him, calling out "St. Lawrence!". You could see he'd written his notes all about St. Stephen, so he had to spend the first part of the homily mentally rewriting everything as he spoke. He managed pretty, well, considering.
One time I was canting a daily Mass and when I went to announce the recessional hymn, the celebrant started to announce it instead. Then he stopped himself and said “Oh sorry Sara, that’s YOUR line.” We also used to have a tiny typo in the chant for Lauda Jerusalem (the one we do for Right to Life) that caused us to negate the meaning of a whole verse. I can’t remember what it is right now, but we definitely made that mistake a couple of years in a row. Oops.
Eons ago, when I was a young altar server, the priest noticed that I was thinking through the things that needed to happen before Sunday Mass started. He said to me "Why are you so worried? I'm the one that's got to speak to everyone."
"Yes Father, but I'm the one who has to make all the moves."
My line (much to my consternation) made it into that day's sermon.
Not at Mass, but a true story: At the Baptism of her newest cousin as the Holy Water was being poured, my niece got very anxious and announced to her grandmother, "My mommy washed my hair already!"
This last Friday I was in the gallery preparing for a funeral Mass and suddenly wafting up was a dulcet baritone voice through the PA verbally initiating a said rosary. What soon got my real attention was the equally-canned voices responding and reciting their parts. It was a freaking audio file being played! I had noticed an electronic tablet girded next to the amplifier in the sacristy earlier, but paid no attention as to why it was there. Ahem. Predictably, no one in the congregation of mourners enjoined the cyber-congregation, and at one point a parishioner took to a lectern and re-started a "live" rosary, to which all participated. It was the darndest (RIP, Art Linklater) thing, not to mention disconcerting to all present.
One of the Totus Tuus missionaries was teaching the four marks of the church: "One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church." So he asked a child to repeat it wherein the boy said, "One Holy, Catholic and Alcoholic Church."
I used to cantor for Notre Dame daily Masses back in grad school. After 4 verses of O'Brien's Take and Eat This Bread I let slip in the refrain "When you drink this bread, when you eat this cup..."
A couple of days ago the priest, adding a comment relating to his homily at the end of Mass, said "The Lord can." To which the congregation on auto pilot responded "And with your spirit."
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