This comic reminds Father Orthoduck of some errors that he has made in his time. Fortunately, none of the errors have been of lasting damage, though some have certainly been embarrassing.
There was the time when Father Orthoduck baptized a baby using the wrong name. Afterwards, the worried mother wondered whether she needed to legally change the name of the child to the name Father Orthoduck had given him. Father Orthoduck had to assure the mother that God was quite aware of her desires, of the birth certificate, and of the fact that a mistake had been made by the priest and that God would not “honor” the priest’s mistake in this case.
Then there was the time when Father Orthoduck dropped a ring during a wedding ceremony. Of course, the floor was stone and the ring landed on its edge and began to roll. There was a moment of stunned silence during which everyone could hear the clink of the bounce and then the roll of the ring straight down the aisle. That was quickly followed by the dash of the best man down the aisle periodically stooping to grab at a ring which he missed at least twice before he caught it.
Then there was the time when an unfortunate bodily noise came out just as the sermon was starting. Father Orthoduck wondered how short he could make the sermon so that he could evade all the eyes and the giggles that followed.
Inevitably, every public speaker has had the experience of having one word in his/her mind but having a wrong one, with usually inappropriate connotations, come out of his/her mouth.
There are times like these when every public speaker hopes that God has a good sense of humor!
Probably most embarrassing are the times where you misrepresented your daughters actions. Either saying that your oldest did something, when in fact it was the middle daughter, vice versa, OR when you “remembered” things they never did. Embarrassing for the daughters at least… to come back from Sunday School to “did you really (insert hilariously UNtrue incident here)?”
…should I post this as a “anonymous” guest?
Hmm, we hope God has a good sense of humor.
There once was a priest of the Episcopal Church who was heavily involved with charismatic renewal. He was loved by all who knew him. On one occasion, he was the principal celebrant at a eucharist attended by many people and concelebrated by many priests. As principal celebrant, Father was wearing a small mike attached to the collar of his alb. Because of the size of the congregation, there were several chalices on the altar.
At some point after the end of the eucharistic prayer, perhaps just before the Lord’s Prayer, this priest raised and extended his arms, sliding the oversized sleeves of his cassock-alb across the altar and tipping over one of the consecrated chalices, evidently placed in a position to which he was unaccustomed. There was silence for a moment, and then, over the PA system, one heard Father say, “Oh, sh*t!”
Oh yeah, I’ve chanted several expletives in my day…. you learn to just keep going and not crack a smile and the listeners wonder if maybe THEY heard it wrong. 🙂
By the way.. my atrocious grammar error can only be blamed on a lack of coffee!