At the Thursday evening christology study, we've had reason to discuss local church news, especially as regards any effort, however informal, to shift public liturgy away from the vernacular.

So, during break last Thursday, Leslie, 45, mentioned the liturgical recitation of two prayers in Latin during daily mass in her Manalapan parish. She couldn't tell us which prayers. She did not recognize the prayers. She admitted to being completely lost and confused during the Latin prayers.

Mary Margaret, 65, and I, 40, chuckled a little at Leslie's bewilderment as we both speculated simultaneously that one of the prayers was probably the Agnus Dei. We couldn't agree on the other, with Mary Margaret leaning towards the Gloria and me, the Pater noster.

Leslie wasn't interested in appreciating which prayers these were. She just wants the Latin prayers to stop! Mary Margaret suggested asking the priest for an explanation ... or at least an understanding of when these prayers were first introduced.

Me, I found myself encouraging Leslie to just learn the Latin prayers! I heard myself saying, "Agnus Dei is very easy ... you can learn it in a few days."

"But I don't want to learn them, " Leslie replied with frustrated defiance. I caught a glimpse of how her teenage daughter who's stopped attending mass because she gets nothing out of it might sound.

It wasn't as if I was suggesting she learn witchcraft. Can't she at least look at it as knowledge for its own sake? That's how I justify it.

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Knowledge for the Sake of Knowledge" - First Things, 1/2002 - quotes one of my favorite books.