An additional thought about my talk on Thursday evening at the Conference Dinner.
I had worked out an attention-catching phrase with which to start my talk, but then I forgot what it was; I remembered it ten minutes after I had sat down! The words about 'sending in the clowns' popped into my head, and I used that. What I had intended to say was: "Reverendissimi Patres et Fratres. I am an Old Voccer". I could have had fun with that, insisting that it was a "V" and not something else.
And then the explanation! When I was at Ushaw, if we saw a unknown priest in the College, someone of my present advanced age, we would say to each other, "Whose the old voccer?" It was not intended as an insult; it simply meant, "Who is the priest whose Vocation to the priesthood has lasted for such a long time?" An old priest is an Old Voccer.
I wonder if I should have that as my new password. Or else just call me An Old Voccer!
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