Word: rite
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Meanwhile, in Ireland, a score or so of monks dwell in an ancient monastery, living as if Vaticans II, III and IV had never occurred. They celebrate the ancient rite of Benediction. They believe that the Holy Mass is indeed a sacrifice, and what's more, they offer it in the forbidden language of Latin. They hear confessions in private, rather than granting the mass public absolutions that have become de rigueur. These bizarre rituals become an international cause célèbre. Jumbo jets fly in from the States with fervid pilgrims hot for worship...
...avoid harming innocent people. Like members of the Mafia, they took a blood oath that was not broken with impunity. For failing to live up to the yakuza code, an offender had to show penitence by cutting off his little finger and presenting it to his oyabun (boss)-a rite that still prevails in the Japanese underworld...
...been 16 centuries since the Roman Emperor Constantine outlawed crucifixions, but the practice has been preserved in some parts of the world, not as a punishment but as a macabre stunt or commemorative rite. The latest to undergo the ordeal of the cross is a French husband-and-wife team of yoga practitioners in the Dominican Republic, who offered themselves up in the cause of world peace and to demonstrate the "power of mind over matter." French-born Mystic Patricio Tamao, 33, who is the founder of his own philosophy, Tamaoism, was the first on the cross, which...
...this folksy fatalist into critical stepping-stones to tenure. The book's lengthy bibliography-which should prove finally that Vonnegut is no longer a neglected writer-lists scores of articles, reviews and scholarly probings about him. There are even five doctoral dissertations, including something called "Quick-Stasis: The Rite of Initiation in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut...
Vatican liturgists pointed out that other changes, though seemingly minor, reduce the sometimes frightening "cloak of magic" that has surrounded the sacrament. The rite will no longer be given to persons who have died before the priest arrives, because the church now emphasizes that the recipient should have a positive faith in the sacrament's grace. Says liturgical expert Father Secondo Mazzarello: "The aim now is to comfort the sick person. Pain and sickness are seen as the problems of the entire man, body and soul together. The new rite gets away from the Platonic concept, which for centuries...