Random Catholic Trivia

Can anyone name the one country that does not have a Latin Rite diocese? Every nation on Earth has a Catholic diocese or eparchy, but this nation does not have a Latin rite diocese.

50 Days After

Today is Pentecost, the namesake of this blog (50 days after Easter). Along with all other Christians, I rejoice at the birthday of the Church and the descent of the Holy Spirit.
Veni Sancte Spiritus!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

I saw this pic on a blog called Orthodoxie... Southern, Orthodox, Convert, Etc. When I saw it, I thought of that footprints story (only one set of footprints when Christ carried you). Its in Chapel of St Lazarus, so it might be St Lazarus, but it almost looks like it might be Christ as the Good Samaritan carrying the victim to the inn.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Psalm 128:3
Thanks to Kkollitz for pointing out this Psalm in the last post

"Behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb. As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so the children of them that have been shaken." --Psalm 126:3,4 (Douay-Rheims, 127:3,4 in modern translations)

Saint Quiz IX

Tomorrow is Mother's Day.With that in mind I decided that this Saint Quiz should have an appropriate theme. Of course, I haven't written in this blog for nearly a year so the answer may not come up for a while.

Mom was right

I was listening to the local Air1 station on the way into work this morning and there was a discussion that caught my attention. The hosts were asking listeners to complete the sentence, "My mom was right about _______." The first thing that came to me and the answer I am sticking with is "My mom was right about GOD." God is great and loving and my mother always emphasized that. I remember once she told me that God would grant anything if I prayed for it, except for him to kill someone. I don't remember why that last part came up, but I specifically remember it. I am extremely grateful that she brought me up to love and to worship God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
God bless her. Mary, mother of God, pray for her.

2 Stories About Dead Catholic Army Chaplains

First, there is the story about the death of Chaplain (Major) Tim Vakoc. Fr. Tim Vakoc was an Army chaplain wounded in 2005 who finally died in 2005 from his wounds. Before his injury he wrote, "The safest place for me to be is in the center of God's will, and if that is in the line of fire, that is where I will be." May he rest in peace. Full story here.
The other story is about a possible miracle from Bl. Fr. Emil Kapaun's intercession
"The Congregation for the Causes of Saints is preparing to investigate an alleged miracle in Wichita, Kansas, where doctors are baffled by the unexplained recovery of a young man who had suffered a severe head injury in an accident that had broken his skull."
Maybe someday in our lifetimes their will be a Saint who served in the US Army. Many of the Church's saints have been Soldiers (St Ignatius of Loyola, St Sebastian, etc.)

New blog

I haven't posted here in quite a while. For those of you who still check this blog or follow it on some form of RSS, thank you. It is good to know that my rantings and ramblings have an audience.
I don't know when the next time will be when I post here, but I have begun another blog. Its going to be short stories that I write when I am so moved. I already have one short story posted.
The blog is Short Storey Mountain. The name is my homage to Father Thomas Merton. Please stop by and comment with your opinion of the story or criticisms.
Thanks again for reading.

LOL Saints Submission

LOL Saints posted one of my submissions. Its a post about St Sebastian, one of the patron saints of Soldiers.

PT uniform at Mass

The drought is over. I know that I haven't posted much lately. I need to start taking more time for myself to do these sort of things before I go crazy.
I have seen on other St Blogs where people have complained about attire at Mass. I have a similar rant, but with a somewhat different angle.
It drives me nuts to see Soldiers come to Mass wearing their PT uniforms. I understand that we are deployed and didn't bring our Sunday best, but there are 2 primary reasons a Soldier wears PTs: sleepwear and working out. So more than likely they either just rolled out of bed and walked to the chapel or Mass is worked around their workouts.
ACUs (the digital gray uniforms you see on the newscasts from Iraq/Afghanistan) aren't anything special but they are the only other clothes that Soldiers have over there. And they are certainly a more respectful outfit than your sleep/workout clothes.

Her First Piece of Chocolate Cake

She had her first birthday a short while ago. My wife, I'll use the code name Hephzibah, gave her chocolate for the first time.
Like you, I must be content with pictures.
Before...
And after...

A New Year and a New Catholic Carnival

I had thought about a Babylonian theme, but then I thought about it still being the Christmas season, with Epiphany and New Years not too far behind us. Babylon would have just been sad and kinda depressing. So I decided to categorize the week's posts with short prayers.

Blessed be Jesus in His angels and in His saints.
Daily Gratia has a post on Blessed Father Damien.
At Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering she is Aiming for Mary.
Father Tabb died in 1909. At View from the Core we see some of his poetry.
Chris gives us a post about his family at Sanctus Christopher (Great name btw!).
Astrid sent in a post about those who knew Jesus during his Earthly ministry.
Paul has a post on Samurai Saints.
Easter A. had a great post about the Holy Family.

There's a post at Ὁι Λόγοι regarding Christ's teaching to be in the world,
but not of it.

Blessed be Jesus true God and true Man.
Catholic Fire has a post this week responding to the claim that nothing is wrong with abortion. Remember Jesus Himself was once a fetus.
At A Catholic View there's post on Kennedy changing from pro-life to pro-abortion.
James Hahn reminds us to follow Christ's example and love our enemies.
Homeschool Goodies has a great post about the Gift of Friends.
Aggie Catholics has a post reminding us that Christ calls us to humble ourselves.
This, That and the Other has a review of Anne Rice's book The Road to Cana.
Christian Personal Finance submitted a post on 6 reasons to give more this year.


Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
At Christus Vincit there's a post with a New Year's resolution.
Catholic Land has another New Year's Resolution post.
Ebeth shares with us that BXVI reminds us not to be afraid of the new year.

Blessed be Jesus truly present in the Eucharist.
The Catholic Roundup posts this week on how attending Mass away from home deepens his sense of being part of the universal Church.
At Catholic Journeyman, Dave tells us how a Kennedy Assassination buff found the truth of Catholicism.
At Prepare for Mass there is a post about the Mass celebrated on the Epiphany of the Lord.

And lastly a plug for Adopt a Catholic Blog.

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.



And one late entry from Broken Alabaster entitled Word was Made Flesh.

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.