Shore World

Here I am "down the shore" again and in my annual amazement of the "shore world" here. What makes it a different world than my normal one, you ask? How about these things: temps in the high 80s morning, all day and evening; traffic everywhere and at all times; sandy soil and sand in everything else; summer touristy food kiosks/restaurants/bars/ice cream shops on every corner; and general conversations, greetings and atmosphere of summer from everyone you meet. The people here who are not visitors or servicing the visitors must be a small, small minority!

Sunday Mass was at a large, seemingly contemporary nearby Catholic Church. The most interesting uniqueness for me happens right before communion--the communion ministers all come up to the left side, line up and take turns before they go to their places. What are they doing, I thought when I first saw this ritual? Answer, they are pumping a blob of hand sanitizer on their hands before distributing communion! As my friend said, "Now their hands may be bacteria free, but my communion tastes like hand sanitizer!" I say, when the Pope refers to shepherds having to smell like sheep when they are ministering, I don't know if he took into consideration sanitized hands!