What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

My good friend J of the UK, a matey chap if ever there was one, alerted me to a grooooovy YouTube filmette. 

It is in an entry over at the wonderful Roman Miscellany.  I can’t believe I missed this one (20 May).

Here is eminent Fr. Schofield’s description:

Change of Habit

As I sit here at my computer, I can clearly hear the drums and shouts from our monthly Nigerian Mass. For some reason it made me think of the final scene of Elvis’ last movie, Change of habit (1969), which presents the rather novel spectacle of Mr Presley singing and playing the guitar at what seems to be an interim Mass (just before the 1970 Missal). The celebrant is ad orientem and the offertory procession is unusually reverent. I love the grumpy priest! Do any American readers recognise the church?

The film is all about Sister Michelle (Mary Tyler Moore) meeting a doctor (Elvis) whilst on pastoral placement. You’ll be pleased to know that in the end she defeats temptation and dumps Elvis in order to go back to the convent.

Apparently it was filmed in the chapel of Mayfield Senior School, Pasadena, CA (USA), a college preparatory school for young women grades 9-12 established in 1931 by the Society of the Holy Child Jesus.

There is a tradition in Rome on Pentecost Sunday.  At the Church S. Maria ad Martyres, the Pantheon, at the end of Mass red rose petals are let fall in great abundance through the oculus, the dome’s "eye" which is completely open to the sky. Fireman from Rome’s fire department scale the exterior of the dome and let the petals fall.

Here are a couple shots of what it looks like inside the Pantheon when they do this.

Here is how the get it done!

Hangin’ out, waiting to drop the flower petals…

The moment arrives!

You can now send a voicemail message. Hmmm…. VOIZEMAIL?

Check out the left side bar.

I will be alerted by e-mail when you send one. 

At first the messages will be private only.  I will moderate them. 

If the messages are particularly creative or interesting… hint hint... I can make them public so anyone can hear them.  Otherwise I can including audio clips in PODCAzTs.

You will need a working microphone, either external or built in.