Yes, you have to call him Father. Would you not call a young-looking doctor Doctor, even if you weren't?

Yep, you're right. Although I do reserve the right to occasionally laugh at myself about it. Although, dammit, I have two Master's --people ought to be obligated to call me Mistress G!

Hmm. I have lots of questions -- I know I'll have more now that we're in the swing of Lent to Easter. Attending my first mass was interesting; they used more incense than potheads in a college dorm. I really almost choked on it.

Is it a sparticular kind of incense? And the priest has to drink what was left of the wine after whatis....communion? Is that SOP so that something holy won't just get poured down a drain?

Waaaah. I have been looking at dancewear online and now I am all sad because not only can I not be a ballerina now, I am not shaped like one any more.

You drink the wine, wash out the cup with water, and drink that. If the wine has actually gone bad, there's a special drain you can dump the water down, but I forget what it's called. Piscina? Anyway, it has to connect directly to earth, not to the sewers.

Makes sense. In Wicca, any leftover water or wine is poured on the earth, not down a drain. Now I'm trying to think of analogous things in other religions.

I have ordered a chicken club sandwich. Oh, cool, a symposium on modern Catholicism while I wait. t settles in to absorb knowledge

Is it a sparticular kind of incense?

Yup, but I forget what. t /not really helpful

And the priest has to drink what was left of the wine after whatis....communion? Is that SOP so that something holy won't just get poured down a drain?

Uh huh. Though at a mass with grown-up, legal age servers assisting the priest, they're usually the ones who finish up the wine.

OH! Another question, rather query/observation. This mass was overseen by a archbishop and one of the altarboys' jobs was to hold the crozier, it appeared. He had what looked like a special extra flap of his robe, so that he wouldn't touch it with his bare hand.

Am I right? No touchee by the laity?

Is it a sparticular kind of incense?

It's blended from the resin of certain trees and may occasionally be blended with other perfumes to produce a thicker smoke and sweeter smell. It is always burned over charcoal. And yes, there are many who are allergic to it.

I believe Betsy's right re: the piscina.

I could smell it in my hair all day long. Wasn't bad; didn't mind.

Just all so strange to me! I was raised Baptist, and now am totally non-religious, so it's all quite interesting, academically.

Am I right? No touchee by the laity?

More like no touchee by anyone besides the (arch)bishop to whom the crozier belongs. It's a symbol of the bishop's duty to keep watch over the flock of the faithful.

Ah, so anyone besides him can't touch it. Got it.

So do Catholics learn all this stuff in cathecism (what IS cathecism) or just through, well, being CAtholic?