post mass, mother's day stuff...
post mass, mother’s day stuff…
Last night I deaconed for the gnostic mass. One of these days I’m gonn have to figure out how to tell my folks about this stuff I do, preferably sometime before I get ordained so I can tell them about it. My mom and dad have never heard the phrase “OTO” or “ecclesia gnostica catholica”The mass was the mass, there were some small issues that made it fun (spilled wine on the altar, me discovering half way through the mass that I was missing a page in my mass book and wasn’t off-book, etc). M & I discussed whether I would/could/should get ordained yesterday. I’d only deaconed once betore, and as I said, I’m not off-book. But I do need to get that if I am to be an ordained priest, so it’s time for me to get this done. It’s customary for folks to do their deaconate during their II* but for whatever reason I didn’t do in the time leading up to about January, 2006. Next time I do it, I’ll get ordained, and I’m sure that I’ll spend a little more time learning the part. I wasn’t planning on doing this this montth but realized that my community needed someone to step up and i just decided to be that someone. There’s a Robert Heinlein story called “By His Bootstraps” in which this guy gets wrapped up in a weird paradoxical knot in which he is intaracting with himself at several different ages, and that by the time he is old and performing the role of the older person in the story, he realizes that he has a role to play, which if he doesn’t do it and do it right then his entire past can’t happen. Lately when I have been to OTO events, I’m realizing that I’m in a similar situation, having played the person who had just seemingly stumbled into this situation, when in actuality it’s designed by those who are already in it to encourage a certain kind of enthusiasm. I’ve become one of the “elders” in our body somehow, if somewhat by attition - When I deaconed last nite, I got to be the first person to officially acknowledge the cookie nudge wink in the pre-mass deacon speech. I really think i need to work on this, it should be something in a Dr Seuss meter. Here’s my first cut at it (be kind, I’m not usually a poet and I did compose this on the spot) Of the contents of the cookie might be bloody, might be nookie if you make a cookie crumble, then burn it down and humble, then you take that bit of ash and you roll it into your stash of dough that contains wheat, with the afrementioned ashy treat thick leavings of red wine, to make a cake of light divine. it feels kinda stunted so far.. but maybe someone a bit more lyrical than i could improve it. In other news, I just learned (as in since I started writing this entry) that my friend Big Will is a new father. Jen had Amanda Eugana yesterday at 1:10 at st joe’s. She was a little early and is in ICU but everything’s supposedly gonna be fine. Guess we’re gonna trot off to the hospital later on. Oh and I talked to my dad about sleep apnea. He’s been using a mask since 2001 and thinks I should