"Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, Our Lord, Amen."
I don't know about you, but I thoroughly and unregrettingly overate yesterday. The menu? Butterball turkey (no more store brand, this was the best, most delicious turkey I've ever roasted!), stuffing - which I don't put in the bird, but I grew up calling it stuffing anyway, green beans that I froze from my garden this year - next year's goal is to freeze enough for Thanksgiving AND Christmas, both kinds of cranberry sauce, rolls, and a yummy new dish, mashed root vegetables (hey Byzcat, when you read this, post the recipe or a link where people can find it, OK?). Oh yes, and pumpkin pie AND apple streusel pie. Why did Ocean Spray change the can of cranberry sauce so you can't open both ends and push it out onto the cranberry sauce dish? My mom, though, jiggled it and stuck a wet knife down the side of the can and slid it out with only one little gouge in it. Yay mom! Back to the root veggies - be forewarned, rutabagas are VERY HARD!!! However, the end result is well worth the effort and aggravation to carpal tunnel syndrome that results from peeling and chopping all those vegetables (carrots, parsnips, turnips and rutabaga).

Enough of that - I was going to ramble on about the True Presence.

There are priests who actually go out of their way to discourage people from kneeling at Mass, both at the Consecration and after Communion. It has come to my attention that one such priest opines that those who do assume such a posture are 'holier-than-thou'. So...what exactly is it that happens at the Consecration? The bread and wine are changed from mere bread and wine into - the Most Precious Body and Life-Giving Blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! If we weren't all so worried about what 'everyone else' would think, I imagine we would, if space were available, fall flat on our faces in adoration, and then CRAWL to Communion. I discussed this disturbing trend with my mom, who, BTW, is not Catholic.....here is a rough synopsis of her take on the situation - of course one kneels if one believes that Jesus is truly present in the Sacrament; but even if one only believes that the bread and wine REPRESENT Jesus, kneeling is an appropriate posture. Standing implies equality and surely none of us are so sure of our sanctity as to express that we are equals with Christ. Who does that priest think he is, anyway, and what's he trying to do?
It's very sad. Almost as sad as running into people who, when I tell them I'm now at an ER parish, they want to know why I've left the Church - oh, the height of pride, to think that the LR is all there is! And how starved would I be, along with my children, were there not the ER in which to take refuge from the hodgepodge that is the LR in these parts.
Coming in the near future, as soon as I remember to borrow a pew book from my parish: a comparison of the "Lord, I am not worthy" of the LR with the ER equivalent (and as you will see, equivalent in this instance only means 'in the same place in the liturgy'!).