Why Does Santa Wear White Gloves?

A friend posted that her kid asked the question "Why does Santa wear white gloves?"
That got me thinking it must have to do with St Nicholas being a bishop. Then I found this:

Liturgical gloves (chirothecœ, called also at an earlier date manicœ, wanti,) are a liturgical adornment reserved for bishops and cardinals. Other ecclesiastics, including abbots, cannot use them without a special papal privilege. They are worn only at a pontifical Mass, never at any other function, and then only to the washing of the hands before the Sacrifice.

 The colour of the gloves must correspond with the liturgical colour of the feast or day in the services of which they are worn; episcopal gloves, however, are never black, as they are not used on Good Friday nor at the celebration of Masses for the dead.

Awesome! And now you know how to answer that question if your kid asks. :) 

Pope Impervious to Spiders!

The Pontiff recently visited Prague, Czech Republic, where he gave a speech. The AP reports that

A large arachnid appeared on the pope's white robes as he addressed politicians and diplomats in Prague on Saturday afternoon. The pope didn't seem to notice at first — but journalists following the speech on a large screen flinched as the spider inched toward Benedict's neck.

It disappeared from view for a moment, but then could be seen crawling up the right side of the 82-year-old pontiff's face.

When it reached his ear, Benedict gave it a swat.

Apparently the spider was telling the Pope that he didn't agree with the upcoming revisions to the GIRM.

But it didn't go away — it reappeared on the pope's left shoulder and scampered down his robe.

As the pope left the medieval Prague Castle's ornate Spanish Hall, the spider could be seen hanging from a piece of web.

Ooooh, ominous. Kinda like those people who like guitar masses and liturgical dancing.

A Good Kind of Change

The Church has been working, for some time now, on perfecting the imperfect translation of our English-language mass from the original Latin. Other countries, with mass in their vernacular language, have a more exact translation. The English version is woefully out of synch! So here is a link on the upcoming changes, present vs new.

http://www.usccb.org/romanmissal/examples.shtml

Changes are in bold. This is kind of exciting! I bet there are going to be people screaming about it, though! Some people will see this as more "Traditionalism" crammed down their throats. But really, let's just think of it as a more correct version.

example:

Priest: The peace of the Lord
be with you always.
People: And also with you.

Priest: The peace of the Lord
be with you always.
People: And with your spirit.

See how much cooler that sounds!?