On the Tiber's shore

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Wow. I sympathise. But people do sometimes behave in a completely non rational manner, particularly when there’s an underlying conflict. It must be hard.
 
Michael16 said:
My Dad refuses to call priests Father; but he asked me what else he could call a priest.
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For @Michael16 and everybody else, and completely off-topic :

I have a semantics question. Are there indeed other ways to call a priest in English than “Father” ?

I ask because I realized, reading Michael’s post, that I actually almost never call priests “mon père”, which would be the equivalent of “Father” in French. “Mon père” sounds really formal, and I only use it with priests I address with “vous” (formal politeness level, as opposed to the priests I address with “tu”, which is informal, friendly politeness level) or in a formal setting like confession. And even then, if I’m friends with the priest I’m confessing to, I always find it weird to say “Bénis-moi, mon père, parce que j’ai péché” (“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned”), so using “mon père” and informal language in the same sentence.

The priests I say “tu” to I usually call either “abbé ___” (insert Christian name, like abbé Joseph, for example), or just by their Christian name. What’s interesting is that abbé of course derivates from abba, the Aramaic for “dad”. So same meaning, different formality level.

Is there an equivalent term in English ?
 
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OddBird said:
The priests I say “tu” to I usually call either “abbé ___” …

Is there an equivalent term in English ?
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Here Father “first name” is informal and Father “last name” is more formal. Having said that, it’s not a hard and fast rule. Some have a strong preference for either first or last name whether they are in formal settings or not. Additionally, in some cultural settings, parishes, or diocese there is already a norm for whether you use first or last name. Just “Father” is the safest bet.
 
Again, I’m sorry for what I said. I shouldn’t have included that in my post. Not Christian of me.
 
Usually, I call a priest Father. I’m still learning proper Catholic etiquette; so thank you for your post. Father last name is the formal and Father first name is the informal. Gotcha.
 
Made it to Mass. Wife wasn’t thrilled. And honestly, it felt stale to me. We might need to try another Parish a little further away.
 
Or a different Mass at same parish assuming you have other options. They can be quite different.

Peace!!!
 
This is in no way intended as a judgement on whether or not you should look for another parish but something for all Catholics to keep in mind. We don’t go to mass for the homily or the singing. We go to mass to show fealty and love for our king, to receive Him in the Eucharist and most importantly of all to offer the sacrifice of the mass along with the priest to the Father for the salvation of the world.
 
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I agree with Torolf. Remember: You’re there to hear the Gospel reading and receive Our Lord Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

Hearing a homily is fine; but it ain’t the whole point of a Mass.
 
I feel for you.

And yet, I agree with the other posters who said not to let yourself be put off by the staleness.

There was an interesting thread on here recently on women preaching (created by @(name removed by moderator), if I remember rightly) , from which I refrained participating because it’s something of a sensitive topic for me right now, being a woman who preaches and all that ; let’s just say it’s an area where I have some serious work to do on myself. But the big question this made me ask myself is : how serious am I about wanting to convert ? Am I ready to do this even if I was to be fed dry toast sermons to the last day of my life, sermons I listen to while thinking “I can do much better than that” ?

Because of that, I’m actually happy when we have a guest priest who is not a great preacher (the three resident priests here all deliver homilies that range from good to really excellent). I see it as a kind of real-life test about my own seriousness and what matters most about Mass.
 
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Yeah, agree with others who say we aren’t there for the homily. It’s great we get one, but it’s all about the Eucharist. It’s all about Malachi 1:11 being fulfilled right in front of our eyes. Being there at the foot of the cross with our Mother Mary and the others.

Mitch Pacwa and some others on EWTN are great. And they get to speak longer than the 15 minutes Father gets during Mass, so I will listen to these guys in my own time to get a good solid message for the week.
 
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Just to point out that swimming the ‘Tevere’ would be an act of gross silliness (distinctly unhealthy) and, I believe, illegal.

🙃
 
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