Anointing of the Sick Practicum in Penance, Anointing, and Marriage class

as mentioned a few days ago, i had my anointing of the sick practicum for my penance, anointing, and marriage class. as one of the key sacraments of the catholic church, i find it important to experience this practicum first hand, knowing that i will surely experience numerous sick calls and anointings in the near future. though i would really prefer to be part of the matrimony practicum, i might as well make the most of this experience.

i personally made some research and prepared the rite for the group, expecting that i would get the "easier" part of the rite. however, as i was grouped with two foreign students and another filipino student, i was unfortunately brought to the situation where i had to be the priest in the practicum. argh. after getting the nod from my professor and rounds of practice and briefing, i felt ready to take the challenge. but then again, the practicum was scheduled in the same day as my canon law 2 midterms and my report for resilience class. looks like a long night was ahead of me then, and i was right.

our grading for this practicum used the system we had in the holy eucharist practicum, where each mistake, depending on the gravity and repetition, would merit a minus to a perfect 100.

well, the result? rather tragic, though. our group scored -15, tied for the lowest in class. and interestingly, most (actually, all) of the mistakes were made on my part. in fact, i committed the mortal sin of any liturgical rite: i forgot to wear the stole during penance and the early part of the anointing rite! it merited a -5, though i was expecting something worse than that. upon sharing what happened, my former parish priest even commented: patay, bagsak! most of our common miscues included the reversing of the white and purple stoles for the rite of anointing and penance respectively (so even the priest in the video above will get a -5 in the practicum!), and genuflection to the blessed sacrament before the celebration for another -5.

since this practicum was juxtaposed with my canon law exam, there were instances when i kept on asking about liceity and validity in terms of the non-wearing of the stole. i even harped my canon law professor's favorite terms "ecclesia supplet" and "ex opere operato". oh well, i was expecting the worst, but i am relieved that it was all over. in the end, i learned important things that would surely be useful for my future pastoral ministry in this practicum.