I've had several experiences with the monastic life - strange as I'm female, let's not go down that road, but....A new thurifer (chap who carries the smoking handbag) was being used at an important service at a small though quite well known Franciscan friary in Dorset. This chap was young and enthusiastic, and given to moments of vanity and pride. He was giving the thurible (the smoking handbag) a few experimental swings in the sacristy (dressing room) end of the chapel that was made in a converted barn, this end being the short arm of an L shape..... He was quite happily swinging it this way and that, the arc ever increasing, up to shoulder height, over his head, that sort of thing..... All well and good until the procession reached the main body of the chapel, the long arm of the L, with its cross beams.......
Suffice it to say, there was burning charcoal everywhere, and frocked friars were heard to say various prayers ranging from 'Fuck, fuck fuck' to 'Oh sweet Jesus on a No. 9 bus, take me now.....' One of those moments you can never really recreate..... And that was just the frocked friars - the "civilian" members of the congregation were, if anything, more restrained!!
LTS. who will tell the other stories if bribed with sufficient quantities of chocolate.....