Dear me ..!

At Masses all around the country so many of the good Sisters are busy, systematically denuding the prayers of any male references to God, and doing so at the top of their voices.

"Glory to God in the highest, and peace to 'God's' people on earth."

"It is right to give 'God' thanks and praise."

Dear me! If only they would apply their fervour to something worthwhile instead of this obsession about not referring to God with masculine pronouns.

I once stopped just before the Preface and asked everyone present to confine themselves to the words the Church had given us to say. I assured them few of us were in any doubt that God was neither male nor female. One of the Sisters present, sitting right under my nose, looked up and shook her head slowly and defiantly as I spoke. It was an ugly moment, and yet, I was somehow grateful to see the disobedience so clearly exposed.

The thought later crossed my mind that this shaking of the head, this refusal, is precisely what young women, prospective postulants, do when investigating such religious orders. "No, not for me. I can do better than that one."

Maybe we should organise a few parishioners, at the end of Mass, when the priest says: The Mass is ended, let us go in peace, to respond: "Thanks be to HIM."

On second thought, maybe not.