Musing on the discussion over at Fr Ray's about the "'Catholic' Press" in this country, my mind wandered and I started to think about words which, when uttered in a context which is supposed to be Catholic, today, in 2010, immediately make my knee jerk, make me think that here is somewhere I don't want to go.
Why don't you have a play?
Spirit of Vatican II
Vibrant
Assembly
President
Presider
Dance
Mayhew
Macrimmon
Estelle White
Priest, Prophet, King
Tablet
South Coast
Spontaneous
CAFOD
Challenging
Easter People
Young Church
Catholics for ...
Eccleston
Cool
Press release from the Catholic Bishops' Conference
CES
Solidarity
Liberation
Worship group
Music Group
Youth Mass
Ecumeni*
Liturgy Group
Parochial Church Council
We
Yahweh
Pray, my brothers and sisters, ...
"In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" "Amen" "Good Morning everybody" "Good Morning Father" "To prepare ourselves ..."
Ghandi
Martin Luther King
Football
Lay Minister
Minister of the Eucharist
Minister of the Word
Ministry of the Apparition (OK - I made that one up)
Holy Table
"We together, as God's people"
"Lord, you know ..."
Third World
Developing World
Developing countries
I'll stop there, having managed to boost my blood pressure up to the point where I know my heart is still working properly.
I did a similar kind of Devil's Dictionary years ago, which Christian Order published. I can remember only one of the definitions:
ReplyDeleteTabernacle: A special kind of cupboard for the use of Extraordinary Ministers; always in the way, no matter where you put it.
'Holy Table' is the term used by both Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholics for what in the West we call the altar.
ReplyDeleteIn our diocese everyone has been told to say "Pray, my sisters and brothers," in that order.
ReplyDeleteIn a church in Doncaster we were told that "Little Church will be with us soon." I had all kinds of images in my mind as to who, or what, was Little Church. All was revealed at the Offertory when the kiddies arrived with their banners and fancy dress. This, was 'Little Church'.
Youth Ministry is another which brings on the shakes. And Co-workers for the Kingdom.
Finally, I must admit I have a smile at the multitude of spelling mistakes in our parish bulletins which occur week after week. This week we have a large range of Christmas goods available from Pity (piety).
Most perfectly good words, once:
ReplyDeletemission
as in mission statemement
affirmative
judgemental (as about abortion mills)
peace
justice
pastoral
advocacy
any combination, of which the one we had the wheels d fallen off of:
A committed affirmative pastoral advocacy mission statement outreach campaign
I'd add plural forms of words that are usually singular, like "spiritualities." Also: "pastoral." And then there is all the grammatical gymnastics in order to avoid using the male pronoun in reference to God, as in: "May the Lord accept the Sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and glory of God's name, for our good and for all God's church."
ReplyDeleteI'd add: gather, team, celebrate and the phrases "Jesus' friends" and "pastoral area", oh an any euphamism for Sin, is is such a difficult word to say?
ReplyDeleteRita, a few years ago, when I dissected the program for the Religious Ed. Conference in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, I plugged in the word "sin" to see how many times it occurred in the program...it occurred about 4 or 5 times, all but one of which was the Spanish word sin, "without."
ReplyDeleteMoretben.
ReplyDeleteSo CHRISTIAN ORDER published your list!!!
Wow!
I still have my copy of the errors of Orthodoxy published by Christian Order.
JARay
"Divisive"
ReplyDelete"Relevant"
Yes John! Another essay too, of which I can't recall even the subject. And The Times published my defence of Archbishop Lefebvre! So grateful that the errors of Orthodoxy have delivered me from all that.
New ways of being church
ReplyDeleteThe presbyterate
Inclusive
Fairtrade
Social justice
Table of the Word
Breaking the Word together
Gathering song
Pope John XXIII
The Eucharistic Celebration
Core team
ReplyDeleteSmall Church Community
Facilitator
"A place at the Table"
Excuse me..... I must go throw up now......
Today we remember the dead in a VERY SPECIAL WAY (All Souls)
ReplyDeleteOur Lord is present IN A VERY SPECIAL WAY (Er..maybe Transubstantiation?)
both heard frequently in Southwark.
May the Adur Valley have an exemption from 'South Coast', please?
ReplyDeletelol; great list.
'sisters and brothers' really needs to appear.
Enrichment
ReplyDeleteDiversity
Bunyan
Ghandi
Evangelium
Oils of Gladness/healing/whatever
That thingy where the priest cant be bothered to say Mass on a Saturday so a layman 'leads" a "service" and distributes Communion
Albs (polyester)
Renewal
Taize (sorry)
accept (the sins of various groups)
ReplyDeleteand references to a movie that Father has seen recently
but why object to "priest, prophet, king"? is this because it's a needless variation of the traditional "prophet, priest, and king"?
Minister of the environment (aka cleaner)
ReplyDeleteFelix,
ReplyDelete"Priest, prophet and king" -- true as they are -- are nevertheless trotted out by people whose agenda includes abolishing the distinctions between clergy and laity. It is related to the unwarranted expansion of the concept of the common priesthood of the faithful.
Neo-protestantism "abolishing the distinctions between clergy and laity" is obviously wrong. However, it's essential to recognise that, as with paleo-Protestantism, "it is related to the unwarranted expansion of the concept of the ministerial priesthood over the faithful."
ReplyDeleteThe corroded rivets are popping on the Iron Beehive of Trent, that's all. Reformation Mk.II (cf Pastor in Valle's recent post on Modernism).