There is no "Celsius" in "Excelsis".

It's not "ex-chel-sius". It's closer to "egg-shell-cease".

But I decided it was of little importance to pass this info on to the man singing beside me at the Christmas morning service at St. Luke's. Not after he shared in the Thanksgiving time his gratitude to Jesus for hiding his keys to his gun cabinet last Friday, when the pain of his ugly divorce led him to the point of almost believing the lie (as he put it).

(That's an "ugly" divorce as opposed to a beautiful one? The most positive adjective for a divorce I ever hear given is "amiable".)

But of course a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. How do I know that "sius" was not a common mispronunciation of "cis" among ancient Latin speakers (or the original angels -- except that I imagine they were speaking to the shepherds in Aramaic or possibly Hebrew or Greek)? Maybe this is therefore an "authentic mistake".

My Latin knowledge is based on a partial reading of a DIY Latin text and watching "Goodbye Mr. Chips". According to both, the Classical Latin pronunciation would be "ekskelsis" anyway. It was the trained music teacher at TB Christian School who taught us the Choral Latin pronunciation.

In "Mr Chips" he is (in effect) instructed that from then on Cicero would continue to be "Sisero" in History lessons, but become "Kikero" in Latin class (and "Chichero" in chapel?)

In "The Passion of the Christ" unfortunately Christ and Pilate converse in Choral (Ecclesiastical) Latin, which I take to be an anachronism.

But again do I really know that? Perhaps Classical Latin was already devolving into Ecclesiastical Latin at that point especially in the provinces. (My guess though is that Mel wanted the Latin in the movie to be the same as the language which he prefers in the Mass.)

But, in any case, I doubt that any of this passed through the mind of the pain-and-gratitude-filled man worshipping beside me. Nor is it likely to.

Nor does it ever need to.