My grandmother came from Poland and when I was a kid and did something wrong,
she would tell me she was going to give me "Pater Noster." As an adult, I asked my mother what that meant and she didn't know any more than I did. Tonight on Jeopardy, there was a category called Literal Latin. The clue was "Meaning 'Our Father', it's another name for The Lord's Prayer" and the answer was the Pater Noster. What do you suppose my grandmother meant by threatening to give me Pater Noster? Maybe instill the fear of God into me?
Who knew that Jeopardy would give me an answer to something I've wondered about for so many years? Or is this common knowledge and I should be embarrassed that I didn't know it? It wouldn't be the first time I was clueless about something that everybody else knows.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I was afraid people would think it was an uninteresting or dumb story.
Probably pulled it from my very distant memory of Chatechism classes. 
I had a Polish grandma, too, but I never heard her say that.
You would think my mother, who went to Catechism as a child and took Latin in high school, would've known what Pater Noster meant! She probably just forgot.
We followed the Mass along in either a book or a printed card …. ? And when it was time to say the Our Father, in parentheses was printed (The “Pater Noster”). I was a good reader even before first grade and I always read everything.
"Wait until your father gets home!"?
Good one!
