The Verification Code Dictionary So Far!

Okay, here it is: the first edition of the Sentire Cum Ecclesia “Verification Code Dictionary”. I have my favourites, but I don’t want to prejudice anyone’s decision. Please award your prize for the best definition in the combox!

adantraw: de-punctuated instruction in Outback Survival cookbook (Vicci)
Altske: breed of scandanavian dog (Louise)
ampes MUTUAL friends (Vicci)
bandizzl: a proprietory compound for young people to take before going to see their favourite band to enhance the experience. (Tony)
bowaga: the phenomenon of the trembling hand of the archer just before the release of the arrow. (Tony)
Brizina! Raises glass of schnapps. (Peregrinus)
decti: The fragrance of much beloved flowers (Kiran)
dismoth: To get off a moth one has been riding. (Kiran)
Dizate: a corrosive chemical compound used to remove tar stains from the seat of men’s trousers (Peregrinus)
doper: ‘The doper dropped me a Mickey Finn’ (Tony)
Effugist: one who makes a whistling noise when exhaling. (Peregrinus)
Epapsyro: brand of indigestion tablets (Louise)
evism: characteristic of those (evists) who seek to live forever. (Tony)
expal David is to PE as PE is to David (Vicci)
fluillin: The miracle cure for common colds and flu (Kira)
foises vt. How moderators impart views. (Vicci)
forelug: pulling from the front (Tony
Fracksts: Minor injuries sustained in a fight between siblings over Who Said It First. (Peregrinus)
Golatie: National drink of Azerbaijan, made from fermented goat’s milk flavoured with aniseed and caraway, and topped with stuff that looks like chocolate sprinkles but sadly isn’t. (Peregrinus)
Hesper: to recite vespers very, very quietly. (Peregrinus)
loadsl: digital subscriber lines under heavy load (Tony)
mudgi: heavy duty squeegee for removing the mud from car tyres (Louise)
panon: The act of a camera in focussing on something else. (Kiran)
PC: Post cibos-after meals ,the prayer we should offer for having eaten (Matthias – not sure about this one, I don’t know what the original verification code was – but I like the meaning)
reclesin: A time of your life when leisure is hard to find. ‘He’s a young man on the move, very much in reclesin mode’. (Tony)
redge: crimson rage that takes you to the precipice of sanity (Tony)
Rutgan: of, or pertaining to, the island of Rutga. (Peregrinus)
Safijow: Silesian liqueur made from beetroots, traditionally given as a Michaelmas gift to in-laws you don’t get on with. (Peregrinus)
sectione: the Italian bit (Tony)
shmedoe: bambi overload (Tony)
soapistic: The attitude of one who views Neighbours (Matthias)
statum: as soon as possible (Matthias)
Terch: coarse fish, cross between a tench and a perch. (Peregrinus)
UNFOR - the United Nations Force Orange-Red, which promotes the installation of traffic lights in benighted parts of the Third World. (Joshua)
wadec: [anglicised Polish expression] “hail!” (Louise)
xebnuo the result of typing English on a French keyboard (Vicci)

The Pope on Fasting

I am constantly thrilled by small exegetical insights that are lying in wait to be discovered in the teaching of Pope Benedict XVI.

Today’s little “thrill” comes from the Holy Father’s 2009 Message for Lent, in which he focuses on fasting.

I have always found fasting a difficult spiritual discipline. (Actually, to be honest, I find any discipline, spiritual or otherwise, problematic…). Partly this is because while I know that Holy Mother Church – and indeed our Lord himself – urges her sons and daughters to fast for their spiritual welfare, I have probably not been convinced of it on a theological level.

Papa Benny masterfully connects two verses from Scripture:

Matt 6:18 “that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

John 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.”

He points out that

the true fast is directed to eating the “true food”, which is to do the Father’s will.

In other words, to see fasting as simply abstaining from food gets it wrong. It is abstaining from eating one kind of food in order to concentrate on eating another sort of food, the “true food”, which is the will of the Father.

I get that.