Sneezing/blessing in church

[Cici]

I teach an adult ed class in one of the classrooms at a church. As I was setting up for class one day this week, one of the pastors came in and was talking to me about Covid. It was my first class back after my quarantine/isolation. He was asking if I'd had bad symptoms, and expressed his relief that I was ok, which I thought was so lovely and kind. Then he started to share a story about when he was sick over the winter. Mid-sentence, without missing a beat, as if his body recalled his past illness, he sneezed (it was a sweet, quiet, almost feminine ashhhooooo!) and just continued talking. (How crazy/awesome to sneeze when you're talking about being sick!)

I blessed him, which struck me as funny and a little awkward, because all these questions arose in my mind:

Was my blessing magnified in a church?

Was it more potent because he is a pastor?

Or is he already blessed enough?

He didn't say Thank You, but continued on with whatever he was saying, which I thought was weird, it was almost like he didn't notice that he'd sneezed. (Or maybe that for the reasons I've just mentioned above, he didn't require a "blessing" from a non-holy person like myself! LOL)

Anyway, just wanted to share this odd little interaction! Did you ever sneeze in church? What was it like?

[launderedlace]

Does this count as continuing this thread? It's extremely rare for me to be in a church; anyway, I was standing behind - not quite directly -  a woman very well turned out in her Sunday best. A lace handkerchief was produced; one of those, as it turned out, with a tiny centre of solid white material surrounded by a comparatively huge area of exquisitely beautiful lace ... an heirloom from the 1950s, who knows? The immaculately-laundered folds tumbled out ... was a delicate dab of some sort about to take place? Nothing of the sort!! No sneeze, but within moments the whole centre of the handkerchief had been overwhelmed by a loud torrent of snot whilst the pretty, white, deep lace border twitched around, seemingly luckily avoiding the deluge

Speculation: after a return home and the handkerchief's careful restoration to pristine loveliness via washing machine, clothes line, starch and iron, was there a repeat performance the following Sunday, and the Sunday after that? I don't know, I wasn't there; perhaps someone else was next to witness, and bless (?), this lady's weekly ritual in church with her gorgeous vintage handkerchief - if so, lucky them!!

[Cici]

🤩