Weekly Update: 5/15

Last week:

- TEQ Volume 6: The Shores of Tifingor: Equations (Chapter 80)
- The Curse of Knowledge: Among the Stars (Chapter 5)

New Map: Thadusar

Behind the Scenes:
- *sigh* Just... Nothing new since the last weekly update. Between my day job ratcheting up to 10 and the state of the world, I'm absolutely beat. I just feel so beaten down, so broken. So tired. I've gotten almost nothing done this week, at least not compared to what I was planning on getting done. And guys... That's not the worst of it.
Anyone following me for very long knows that I'm kind of a bleeding heart Catholic. Well... Masses are finally starting to re-open in my area. I know I've made a number of these posts asking that they be brought back, but... Not like this.  
If you're not familiar with the Catholic faith, allow me to do just a bit of explaining (I'll make it short, I promise). While most Protestant denominations take communion only periodically (some do it once a month, some quarterly, a few do it weekly), the Catholic Church gives communion every single day of the year. In fact, the entire mass is focused around the consecration of the Eucharist, which we believe to become the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. It is the source and summit of our faith, the entire reason we gather in the first place. 
Ever since Vatican II, there's been somewhat of a battle over how we should receive the Eucharist. Most of the church advocates for the reception of communion in the hand, where the priest (or lay minister) places the Eucharist in your palm, and you consume it from there. Traditionalists, on the other hand, advocate for communion on the tongue. I.e. the recipient kneels before the priest, and the Eucharist is placed directly on the tongue. I fall into the latter category, for a wide variety of reasons. Like I said, it's been somewhat of a battle ever since Vatican II, with the war heating up once more in the wake of Covid. Some bishops are banning communion on the tongue entirely, some are allowing for it under certain restrictions, so on and so forth. Regulations vary from diocese to diocese.
Well... In my diocese (the archdiocese of Kansas City), the regulations are a bit different. Here, reception on the tongue is allowed... BUT, if receiving in the hand, the Eucharist must be DROPPED into the recipient's palm. The justification is that, with this manner, there is no skin-to-skin contact and thus less chance of contamination from Covid.
The problem is that... Before Vatican II, a dropped host was a MASSIVE deal. If a priest happened to drop the Eucharist, the entire mass would grind to a halt. The area would have to be purified, the host consumed, so on and so forth, because Our Lord had just landed there. Any and all particles had to be removed from the ground, to avoid inadvertently treading on them. If the chalice (wine) was spilled, the section of the affected floor would have to be CUT OUT and disposed of. And now, our Archbishop is mandating that all hosts in the diocese be dropped. I could go into far more specifics of why this is a bad idea, but... This is a mockery of our faith. It just makes my gut ache to think about all those hosts being dropped, the widespread desecration that's being instituted starting TODAY. May the Lord have mercy on us.

Next week:

- TEQ Volume 6: The Shores of Tifingor: Exposure (Chapter 81)
- The Curse of Knowledge: Deep Void (Chapter 6)

Behind the Scenes:
- Look, I... I don't know. I honestly, truly don't know. Everything that I've listed above is absolutely killing me. I'm desperately praying that the policies listed above be revoked, and I still hope they do. I know that a lot of people don't like this theory, but I firmly believe that this entire situation has been a chastisement from God, stemming from the horror placed on display at the Amazon Synod (see my earlier weekly updates for my thoughts on that event). If He is punishing the entire world for that crime, I shudder to think what he might do to the Kansas City Archdiocese for the desecration about to occure. 

Oh yeah, and I'm also planning on releasing Apocolyps Squad next week. Stay tuned for more updates there. Please pray for the Church, we desperately need it.

Until next time,

Dakota