Juvenile Delinquents

When I was in high school, I spent most of my time with friends I knew from my church.  We started out in the youth group in junior high, and then it went on from there, and they were the closest friends I had back then.

Every Saturday, we'd have a guitar mass, and all of us sang in the group for the mass.  Then afterwards, we'd usually go out as a group.

After mass one night, we were standing up near the altar, discussing where we all wanted to go and what we wanted to do.  We noticed Monsignor at the back of the church, walking back and forth and occasionally shooting dirty looks our way, but we couldn't figure out exactly why.  He knew all of us, so we couldn't figure it out.  Eventually we'd decided on where we were going and what we were going to do, and left the church.

The next week, as we were getting ready to sing for the mass, the younger priest that we all knew and who was doing the mass that night told us that we'd need to go outside after mass was over, instead of staying in the church and talking.  The reason?

Monsignor apparently didn't recognize us the previous week.  Not surprising, really, as he was getting on in years and couldn't see as well as he once could.  He went back over to the rectory complaining to the rest of the priests, extremely upset.

"Those kids are over there shooting craps against the altar steps," he said, "and that is just not tolerable!"

Needless to say, shooting craps against the altar steps had never entered our minds.  I don't think any of us even had a pair of dice.