Do they still do all those wonderful old rituals?
They say that smell is the most memory evoking of the senses.
If I smelled that distinctive odor again, I know I would be transported back into time and find myself back in church with my little Latin missal and rosary, watching the processional with the light glinting off the cross, and hoping that the priest would swing the censer my way just as he passed so I could see the little puffs come out and I could get a good whiff of that "odor of sanctity".
Thinking about this reminds me of a dinner conversation (and I use the term very lightly) we had. A few years ago I was researching something and came across the information that the odor of sanctity originated in an Egyptian ritual and that's why they used all those spices in enbalming-- so Anubis would smell them and find them worthy.
That night I tried to elevate what passed for dinnertime conversation in our household with this bit of information and was rewarded with the following,
Ammo said, Isn't Anubis that black fox god in the Ten Commandments?"
"It's a jackal", said my husband."He guards the underworld."
"We should call Blue (our black cat) Anubis." said Ammo.
"Blue didn't find his dinner worthy. He's trying to cover it up." said CW.
"Last night he threw it up." said Ammo.
"How did it smell?" said CW.
Undaunted, because good mothers can't be, and still full of educational and interesting facts, I added that the odor of sanctity had miraculous powers and when they dug up the body of St Stephen, seventy men were healed.
"Cool. Was he gross?" said Ammo, who loved anything dead, the grosser the better.
"Why were seventy sick men standing around watching a dead body be dug up?" said my husband.
"Because rotting bodies are cool, Dad," said Ammo.
The attempt at intellectual exchange died completely when CW said, "Mom do you really think rotting bodies are an appropriate dinnertime topic?" and Ammo said to him, "Ask her where she got the meat for this meatloaf."
Anyway,I bet I would be a believer again, if only for an hour, if I relived a formal Catholic mass with all the trappings. |
