Yesterday at Mass, while I was taking up the collection, I saw something I'd never seen in my more than two decades of ushering. A guy held up a $20 bill and asked me if I had a ten he could take back as change. I was so stunned I just answered his question with a "I don't know. I don't keep track of what people put in." He then reached into the basket and found two fives, dropped the twenty in and sent me on my way.
I told that to another usher, who's also been ushering a long time. and our associate pastor and neither of them had heard of it, either. Telling my girlfriend that night, we formulated a new (11th?) Commandment: "Thou shalt not make change from the collection basket."
She then proposed an additional one: "Thou shalt not allow thy cell phone to ring loudly during service." (She's Baptist.)
Later, a related occurred to me: "Thou shalt not answer thy cell phone during Mass/service." (Which I've sadly seen a number of times, including by a US Senator.)
So, any other suggestions?
I've crossposted this at my blog (http://www.gazizza.net) and will bring good suggestions from there over here and vice versa.
