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

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

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

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.