Just Another Day of Catholic Carnival

Catholic Carnival 205 is up at Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering.
Next week it will be here at 50 Days After. I am envisioned a Babylonian theme.
Happy New Years!

Kudos for the best title in the Comment Box

I was bored at work and wrote this:

I'm celebrating Christmas in Iraq this year
I'm fortunate, for our priest will be here
Off to the chapel at midnight for Mass
A day different from the others at last
We pray for faith, hope, love and for peace
We know He will return and wars will cease
Until His justice reigns, we're here in this land
Defending Iraq and home in these blowing sands
Sixteen months or so they say
But I'm still here this Christmas day
Peace on Earth and goodwill towards men
Until His Second Coming. Amen

Adopt A Catholic Blog

I originally published this in September, but I decided to make it a sticky and leave it on the main page for a bit.


I came up with an idea this morning of adopting a blog. I thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that this sort of thing should start within St Blog's Parish before it moved out into the greater blogosphere.
By adopting you would keep the author(s) in your prayers and link to their site on your sidebar (if you have a site). But you would also read their blog with some frequency, maybe blog on one of their posts, and comment on his or her blog as you see fit.
Here's the basic ground rules:
1) You pick a blog and leave a comment under this post marking which blog you adopted. I am not going to assign the blogs out. I am deploying soon and I don't think I'll have time for that.
2) If someone has already taken that blog please move on and find another one there are plenty out there. I know everyone wants to adopt the Curt Jester, but lesser known bloggers need your prayers too. That's not to say that that you can't still pray for Jeff at the Curt Jester on top of your adopted blogger.
3) Tell other bloggers in St Blog's Parish. I have a lesser known blog and I don't have the visibility of the Curt Jester or American Papist. Besides, I am leaving soon and I don't know how much time I will have for blogging.

So true

Catholic Cartoon Blog hits back in the culture war with more witty satire.

Google Search: Che compared to Christ

I saw a post over at Infused Knowledge about what search terms led people to her blog.
After I commented, the next day I looked again on sitemeter at the search terms that led people to my humble blog. I noticed one of the phrases is "Che compared to Christ" which took them to my post titled "Che compared to Christ??!!"
I googled that search to see what else would come up. I found a video on YouTube that really grabbed me. Other than that there wasn't much else interesting, I thought.
Here's the video:

Quick Nap

This picture was taken a few months ago when I was still in the US.

Catholic Carnival Reaches Special 202

Catholic Carnival 202 is up at Real Life Rosary Weblog. 202 is not really a noteworthy or special number except for being a palindrome.
I actually contributed this week. I haven't done that in a while. I have been slacking.

I haven't added any pictures of Cathedrals lately. This is St Francis Xavier Cathedral in Nassau, Bahamas.

67 years ago today...

Our Lady of Akita pray for us.

Keep Mass in Christmas

Every year we see pictures and car magnet with the catchphrase "Keep Christ in Christmas". What about the other part of Christmas...Mass. Even if someone reduces Christmas to Xmas. The Mass and Christ truly present in the Mass are still in the word. That's not to say I am defending the Xmas abbreviation. I find it repugnant and a blatant attempt to remove anything religious from our culture. What I am saying is that our majority Protestant culture in the United States conveniently overlooks the Catholic origins of Christmas and denies the Catholic foundation of all Western culture.

Keep Mass in Christmas...




Adopt a Catholic Blog

Mary Moments Carnival

Catholic Carnival 200 is up at Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering.
I just discovered the Mary Moments Carnival today. Its a monthly Carnival dedicated to the Blessed Mother. Check out November
I filed it under Catholic Carnival because I didn't want to create another category (I already have too many) and its still Catholic and a Carnival.

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Not all return

Please keep 1LT William Jernigan and his family in your prayers. He was a friend of mine.

100 places

In no particular order, 100 Places I want to see in my life. Just thought I'd share.

1. The Holy Land
2. Arctic Ocean
3. Vailankanni
4. Indian Ocean
5. Antarctic Ocean
6. Falkland Islands
7. Lalibela, Ethiopia
8. Possible site of Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia
9. London
10. Lourdes
11. Athens
12. Thermopylae
13. Ruins of Ephesus
14. Moscow
15. St Petersburg
16. Chichen Itza
17. Pyramids of Egypt
18. Istanbul
19. New York
20. Boston
21. Philadelphia
22. Montreal
23. Australia
24. New Zealand
25. Tahiti
26. Hawaii
27. Ulan Baatar
28. Lome, Togo
29. Rio de Janeiro
30. Washington, DC
31. Lisieux
32. Rouen
33. Chunnel
34. Gibraltar
35. New Orleans
36. Gettysburg
37. Valley Forge
38. American Battlefield Cemetery in Mexico City
39. Village at the bottom of the Grand Canyon
40. Las Vegas
41. Lichtenstein
42. Andorra
43. San Marino
44. Nazca Lines
45. Monaco
46. Avignon
47. Monte Cassino
48. Kathmandu
49. Zanzibar
50. Dar-es-Salaam
51. Charleston, SC
52. Ireland
53. Fulda, Germany
54. Oberomergau, to see the Passion Play
55. Havana
56. Akita
57. American Battlefield Cemeteries in Europe
58. Crazy Horse
59. Stone Mountain
60. Dubai
61. All 50 States-27 down, 23 left
62. Pearl Harbor
63. Guadalupe
64. Easter Island
65. St Helena Island
66. Leaning Tower of Pisa
67. St Pierre et Miquelon
68. Prague
69. Budapest
70. Malta
71. Taj Mahal
72. Goa
73. Versailles
74. Alamo
75. Vicksburg
76. Transylvania
77. West Point
78. Stonehenge
79. Lexington/Concord
80. Yorktown
81. Arlington
82. Costa Rica
83. Belize
84. Victoria Falls
85. Amazon River
86. Lake Itasca
87. Amsterdam
88. Cape Canaveral
89. Dakar
90. Dodge City
91. Auschwitz
92. Marathon
93. Bataan/Corregidor
94. Naples
95. Florence
96. Venice
97. Great Salt Lake
98. Dead Sea
99. Maccu Piccu
100. Singapore

--green bold indicates I have been there since I wrote this list (6 complete so far)

Premio Dardos

Sunny from Faith and Country has honored me with the Premio Dardos award.
This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.
The rules to follow are :1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person that has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2) Pass the award to other 15 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment.
Remember to contact each of them to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
My 15 blogs of choice:

1. Catholic Cavemen
2. B Movie Catechism
3. The Curt Jester
4. Infused Knowledge
5. Transitus Tiber
6. Steve Ray's Blog
7. Dominican Idaho
8. Aussie Coffee Shop
9. Adrienne's Catholic Corner
10. Maureen Martin
11. Idaho Hicks in Austria
12. Sonitus Sanctus
13. Ironic Catholic
14. Holy Cards for your Inspiration
15. Alive and Young
    

Sunny, I still keep you and your blog in my prayers.
There are still lots and lots of Catholic blogs out there to adopt.

Sacrifice

I have decided to use this deployment to finally read the Bible cover to cover. Genesis and Exodus were fairly quite despite all the "begats". Leviticus is a bit dry to say the least and is proving a challenge.
With that said, what I have read has given me something to think about in regards to sacrifice. There is a lot said about sacrifice in these first three books.
Exodus says at least three times that I can recall that the Israelites are to dedicate, that is sacrifice, their firstborn from their animals and among their children. Donkeys however can be redeemed by sacrificing a lamb instead and their firstborn children MUST be redeemed. As St Paul wrote, Jesus is the "firstborn of all creation". While God has been merciful to His people and not allowed them to sacrifice their children, He sacrificed His Son, His Firstborn for us.
Of course, Jesus' sacrifice of Himself on the cross was the lasting Sacrifice for all eternity and His Body and Blood offered on our altars is a continuing participation in that one Sacrifice. I couldn't help as I read through these books, but to notice parallels between the Old Testament sacrifices and the Eucharist.
As Isaac carried the wood that was for sacrificing himself up the hill, he asked his father Abraham where was the animal for the sacrifice. His father answered him that, "God will provide the lamb." Over course we know that later, the Lamb of God, carried the wood of the cross up Calvary hill and sacrificed Himself and we share in this Sacrifice every time we partake in the Eucharist.
Also, Leviticus prescribes sacrifices for sins of the people, priests, and individuals. These sacrifices are no longer called for since Christ's Sacrifice is for all sin. Fat from the animals and certain organs were placed on the altar to burn, but the meat was eaten by the priests. Christ as both Priest and Sacrifice now offers us his flesh eternally as His Sacrifice of Self for our sins.
I forget where exactly, but somewhere in Exodus around the Ten Commandments chapters, Moses sprinkled the Israelites with blood from a sacrificed animal as part entering the people into the Old Covenant. I thought about that compared with receiving Christ's Blood internally as part of renewing the New Covenant. I am not sure if there's anything to that, but I thought it was an interesting comparison.
At one point the Law called for the sinner to publicly declare his sins before the sacrifice. I like confession better today.

priceles

Cost for a soda at the PX... $0.65
Cost of a haircut at the FOB barbershop... $3.50
300 minute calling card from AT&T... $27.00
Having a Catholic Chaplain on the FOB... priceless

Some people must have nothing better to do

Lawsuit claims California college threatened to expel students who prayed

Alameda County, CA, Oct 12, 2008 / 08:27 pm (CNA).- Two students filed a federal lawsuit this past Monday against the publicly-funded College of Alameda alleging that school officials at the California school threatened to expel them for praying...

That month, student Kandy Kyriacou visited an instructor to give her a Christmas gift. Kyriacou found the instructor alone in her shared office. When the instructor indicated she was ill, Kyriacou offered to pray for her.

The instructor bowed her head and Kyriacou began to pray. They were then interrupted by another faculty member, Derek Piazza, who entered the room and said “You can’t be doing that here!”

Kyriacou left to join her friend and fellow student Ojoma Omaga. Piazza followed Kyriacou and repeated his rebuke. The students related that they were surprised by his intimidating behavior.

Three days before Christmas, both students received letters notifying them of the college’s retroactive “intent to suspend” them. While school policy requires such letters to state factual bases for the charges, the letter only vaguely accused the students of “disruptive or insulting behavior, willful disobedience . . . persistent abuse of college employees.”

Not only did this instructor barge into the office as some sort of "Anti-Prayer Police", but then followed her around looking for something other reason. In most places that would be considered stalking. Of course, in most places it would also be considered common courtesy to wait until later and politely explain that you disagree with these other people.
It sounds like someone needs a hobby.

You are what you eat.

Another autopost for my readers:

St George pray for Soldiers

I set this post to publish after I have left:

Off to that ancient land
From whence came Abraham

Like Saint Joan of Arc before
I am going off to war

Jonah preached in that land
And I shall walk that same sand

Like Father Emil Kapaun before
I am in an Army at war

Gov Palin's speech

This is a video of Gov. Palin's speech this afternoon at our deployment ceremony. After a month at Ft Irwin baking in the Mojave and another month at home we had our deployment ceremony this afternoon. I will post once more, but after that will be posts set publish on certain dates until things settle down.
Btw, that thing hanging around her neck is a medal given to her and her husband, Todd to recognize them as Honorary Members of the Brigade.

September 11, 1683 Christian forces under the protection of Our Lady of Czestochowa defeated Muslim forces besieging Vienna.

Organ-ic Carnival

Catholic Carnival 189 is up at Organ-ic Chemist.
Among the many great posts is the Chant workout (appeals to my dry sense of humor), a couple of posts about Gov. Palin (it will be neat to see her in person tomorrow at our deployment ceremony), and a post on the Epistle of St James.
Oh and of course yours truly also had a post featured.

I love reading Pearls Before Swine. Its one of only a few comics out there that I still find funny as an adult.
Rat has decided to take down the Communist regime in Cuba. If only...

--Contra

Like a liberal with a baseball bat...

Bucky Katt with the funniest quote that I have heard all week:
"The winter Olympics are like a liberal with a baseball bat: You may not like him, but you have to respect him."

Because Ijust can't stand Che t-shirts.

H/T to Pundit Kitchen

My Adopted Blog

As part of the Adopt A Catholic Blog project, I adopted Faith and Country. Maybe its my short attention span, but I like that her blog has lots of pictures. I also really enjoy her posts on faith and politics. It was on her blog, for instance that I heard about Sam Brownback. I really wish that he had won the nomination; it seems to me like he would have brought great Catholic values to the White House.

Sunny, know that you are in prayers.
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam,

Catholic Carnival 188

Catholic Carnival 188 is at just another day of Catholic pondering.

What the...?

H/t to Ken88

H/t to Stained Glass Buffalo

Sober

First a plug for my fellow Sober Catholics:
Adrienne's Catholic Corner
Sober Catholic
Fallen Sparrow

I don't write many personal posts. I am a private person, but I saw a mention to Paulcaholic (author of Sober Catholic) on Adrienne's blog and remembered her series about the 12 Steps of AA and I was inspired to write. Longtime readers will notice this is considerably longer than most posts. Sorry, I tried to keep in mind as Laertes quipped that "[b]revity is the soul of wit."

As some of you might know, I don't drink. I mentioned it in passing once before on this blog. I made the conscious decision to stop drinking. I never went to meetings nor was I ever confronted by anyone about the problem. I decided one day that enough was enough.
Before I get much further let me just state that I have nothing against alcoholic drinks per se or against the people who drink them. For instance, I am happy for Bill and the Saint for their new found mutual appreciation of beer. Btw, Happy Birthday Bill! Not to mention that the Savior chose for His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity to appear in the guise of wine. I believe that alcohol is not evil as it was created by the Lord, but what we do with it can easily become sinful.
I quit drinking once before in college after having blacked out. Its never good to have to have your friends tell you what an a@# you made of yourself. That lasted about six months and I was back at it.
Then after I graduated college and I had gone to the Pre-Theology program at Mt Angel. I think many parishioners would be scandalized to know how much some Seminarians drink. I didn't have a car so I didn't get out to bars and drink as much as some, but the socials that were held always enough and I wasn't shy about getting tipsy or worse. Most of the others were responsible but myself and a few others were not.
At a fancy dinner for something or other (we were always having nice dinners, so between them blurring together and my blurred memory I don't recall what it was for) I started out outside with about 4 or 5 glasses of wine and a beer. Then we went inside and kept going strong.
I'll just say about the events that followed that no one important found out and that I made a fool of myself. Of course this lead up to a RAGING hangover the next morning. I was so sick and hurting so bad that I skipped morning prayers and daily mass. I barely managed to get myself to class.
Everyone in class could see my color and tell that I was very ill. Most knew why.
Strangely, I didn't decide to quit then. But that night was the last time I drank. A few months later when I had left the Sem and I was making a Eucharistic Visit at a parish near my hometown, I remembered that I had quit before, realized again that I have a problem, and that I had promised as penance that I would swear off the stuff and I resolved to do it for good this time. I prayed for the Lord's help because I knew that I couldn't do it alone; I had already tried that.
The difference this time is definitely my wife. I met her about 2 or 3 months later and since I have known her she has always been VERY supportive of my resolution. No one actively supported me before, but she has since I have known her. There are many reasons why I thank God for her and this is one of them (not a small reason either).

When others ask me for a reason why I choose not to drink anymore, I always think of the Savior's words:
42 And if thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life, maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into unquenchable fire: 43 Where there worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished. 44 And if thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter lame into life everlasting, than having two feet, to be cast into the hell of unquenchable fire: 45 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished. 46 And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee with one eye to enter into the kingdom of God, than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire: 47 Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished.
Mark 42-47 Douay Rheims Translation

And as St Paul warns us in Ephesians 5:18, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury; but be ye filled with the Holy Spirit"

Oil import sources

For all the talk of our energy dependence upon the Middle East, I think it is notable that only 1 of the top 5 sources of oil in the US is from the Middle East. I got this table from the Energy Information Administration which is part of the Department of Energy.
...and yes, that is right. Canada really is our #1 source of oil.
So of the top 10 sources of oil, only 2 are in the Middle East (3 if you count N. Africa as Middle Eastern). And of the top 15 only 3 are on the Arabian Peninsula and 6 are Muslim countries. While on the other hand, 2 of our top 3 are right next door and 5 of the top 15 are in Latin America.

Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries) (Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country	Jun-08	May-08	YTD 2008	Jun-07	YTD 2007
CANADA	1,883	1,840	1,888	1,905	1,881
SAUDI ARABIA	1,479	1,579	1,523	1,501	1,407
MEXICO	1,124	1,116	1,193	1,392	1,454
VENEZUELA	1,085	1,030	1,012	1,135	1,109
NIGERIA	946	851	1,036	893	1,022
IRAQ	693	583	674	573	476
ANGOLA	636	464	496	502	568
BRAZIL	280	318	221	121	158
ALGERIA	269	440	319	504	494
RUSSIA	228	119	109	29	135
KUWAIT	179	263	219	263	193
ECUADOR	178	162	192	166	195
COLOMBIA	177	245	182	143	108
CHAD	107	57	101	80	69
LIBYA	89	96	76	144	66

Did you know...?

A random bit of trivia here, The CSS Shenandoah (yes, CSS as in Confederate States Ship) was the only Confederate ship to circumnavigate the globe. It also raided Union commerce in the Bering Strait of all places.

Married Baptist Minister Converts and Becomes Priest

H/T to Steve Ray

The first known married Baptist minister turned married Catholic priest is about to be ordained (September 6).
David Harris is the only man to be ordained as a priest in the Archdiocese of Louisville this year and only the second Protestant convert ordained as yet in that Archdiocese.
The article is here.
One part I found very interesting about the article:

His wife and sons remain Baptist, but support him, as do other relatives.

"I'm real happy for him," said his brother, Mike, of Louisa. "My brother has always had a fantastic heart for people."

David Harris said his mother had the most difficulty with his conversion.

"We talk about it, we pray about it," he said. "At this point she's real supportive."

It has to be an awkward family life. Dad/Husband is a Catholic priest while everyone else is still Baptist.

Holy Card of Me Meme

Therese tagged me for the Holy Card meme.
What picture would I use for my holy card, should I make it to sainthood, and of what cause(s) would I want to be patron of?

I would want to be patron of Soldiers and military families. I should probably also put myself down for patron of procrastinators, but I'll do that later.

I tag:
Sunny

Rachel

Paul

Mark

Feast Day of St Christopher

If you look at a Saint of the Day site, you would know that today is the feast day of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. He is a great reformer and a Doctor of the Church, but today is also the feast day of Saint Christopher.
In case you didn't know, his name is Greek for "Christ Bearer". That is because according to his biography he literally carried the Christ child accross a river. However, it can apply to us Christophers today in a more metaphorical sense. We may never carry around God Incarnate, but we can carry Christ spiritually to others and to the world at large. Its a very missionary name when you stop to think about it.

St Gilles & St Maurus

As I was writing the post about St Christopher, I looked for pictures and I found the picture displayed in the St Christopher post. I like the portrayal of St Christopher and the Christ Child, but I wondered who are the saints on the right and left.

Because the picture is actually the center panel of a triptych (Moreel Triptych), I was able to look up info on it and identify the Saints as Sts Gilles and Maurus. I know that St Gilles was a hermit and he took an arrow for a beloved deer who kept him company, but that's about all I know. I don't know anything about St Maurus.

I will probably look up these two later, but if you are like me you have to know who the saints are and what is significant about their iconography.

"Is, Is" problem

Saint Picture Quiz VIII

Yes, he's holding his skin.

Saint Quiz 7

Saint Quiz 6

The patron saint against oversleeping.

Doubt

I, like everyone else I bet, doubt from time to time the Catholic faith and even God himself. But I some relief in knowing that even the apostles doubted. In today's Gospel reading, Peter doubted as he walked out on the water toward Jesus and he almost drowned. At the end of Matthew it says that the eleven were on a mountain worshipping Jesus, but some doubted. I mean they saw all the miracles. For crying out loud He was even raised from the dead, but still they doubted. Even still He chose these doubters as apostles. There's hope for me yet.

Saint Quiz 5

This time I didn't leave the name of the saint as part of the file name.

Saint Quiz IV

Not surprisingly this Saint is the patroness of breast cancer sufferers.

Not sure what to think of this

Cardinal Levada's Letter to Traditional Anglican Communion

I found this letter on the for the Traditional Anglican Communion. Its only a few paragraphs so I will not quote it here.

No more posting for a month

I have to go away for training. I am preparing to deploy with my brigade to Iraq. I will not be able to post until sometime in August.
With that said, here's the second saint quiz. This time I decided to add another saint pic just for fun.