NBC will be airing Midnight Mass with Pope John Paul II on Christmas Eve starting at 11:30 central time.

Snaphappy Fishsuit Mokiligon

Is a man who is finally getting what he wants...a name change. Of course his new name isn't that great either, he's changing his name to "Variable".

Home at Last

Well I actually got home Thursday night after a smooth six hour drive. I've just been kept so busy that I haven't had any time around the computer. Once I've rested up a bit I'll get back to scouring the internet for obscure news.

Heading Home

I'll be leaving here to go back to Minnesota in a bit. I'll start posting again once I get set up at home.

Theology Final

Here's what I wrote for the final paper for my Letters of the New Testament class. Sr. Agnes wanted us to reflect on the question "who do you say that I am?". What aspects of our faith affect our relationships and behaviors? And what aspects of your faith life still challenge you? I think I have everything answered in one vague way or another. It pretty much came out to be a timeline of how my faith has grown. Enjoy!

I’'ve been Catholic my whole life. My parents raised me that way and so it'’s been ingrained in the way I think and how I look at things. But having faith means claiming it for your own, and that’s something I'’ve been trying to do my whole life.
We have been attending our parish since I was six. That same year they started a new elementary religious education program and my mom started writing lessons for it, something she continues to this day. I think a lot of what I know about my faith was learned at that point in my life. This was where I learned the basic points of my faith, where I learned about the significance of the sacraments, why Mary is our mother, why only men are allowed to be priests, that there are more books in our bible than in the protestant one, and the ability to recite them all in order (something I am still able to do).
I was also home schooled my entire life. This I think may be what had the greatest bearing on my faith life and how it has formed. It wasn’t that I was really sheltered from what was going on in the world, it was that my parents were able to put into a Catholic perspective for me. It was nice not to be stuck attending the cesspool of secularism that the public school system has become. I was taught creation instead of evolution, abstinence over contraception, pro-life over pro-choice, sanctity of marriage instead of gay marriage. This education helped to give me the social perspective that I have today.
I started youth group in the seventh grade. I don'’t know that I learned as much from youth group itself as I did from the friends that I had there. The lessons didn'’t go very in-depth, but we liked to pick the topics apart and discuss them in more detail. It was at this point that I started to learn how to defend and explain my faith and it’s doctrines even if, with my lack of non-Catholic friends, there was no one to explain it to.
I was confirmed at the end of ninth grade. My confirmation sponsor gave me a copy of Christian Prayer and showed me how to pray it. That became part of my daily routine saying morning and night prayer. It helped me to grow even if it was only recited prayer.
After I was confirmed at the end of ninth grade I was finally given a good opportunity to share my faith with others. The time I spent in my youth group’s retreat team was really a point of spiritual growth for me. Working with the confirmands gave me a captive audience to share with. They were willing to ask about different aspects of their faith and talk about it one-to-one. Since they were looking for more personal advice I had to be able to relate my faith and beliefs with experiences from my life. It really forced me to make the Catholic faith my own and not just something that I believed because it was what my parents wanted.
I think another part of what has really helped to strengthen my faith is my friends. All but one of my friends back home are Catholic. They have really helped and encouraged me to grow in my faith. They are always praying for me and helping me to make the right choices. They encourage me to get involved in my parish and to live out my faith rather than just believe it. They started out being the primary reason that I went on retreats. Eventually it turned from them being the reason I was there to them just being an added bonus of being on retreat. They also are good reinforcers of our faith in small, occasionally odd ways. For example while we were all gathered at a friend’s house over break we prayed night prayer together. Also once a year some of us renew our Total Consecration to Mary.
So now here I am away from family, away from friends, away from everything that normally reinforces my faith. Between classes, homework, and work study it’s a lot harder to fit in time for having an active faith life. With having an early class and having to stay up later doing homework I lost the gumption to get up early and pray morning prayer before I go to class. I still take time to say a quick prayer and offer up my day but saying a quick prayer in the shower just isn’'t the same as taking the time out to sit down and pray before I do anything else in my day. I also haven’'t had as much time to stay in the habit of saying night prayer. I still fit it in occasionally but often forget it because by the time I hit the end of the day I’'m usually so tired that I drop into bed. I’'d say in part it'’s because there is no one to hold me accountable but myself. Aside from that I really haven'’t found anything here at school that encourages me to expand my faith and stretch myself. So far all I’'ve found is a way to keep myself from allowing my faith to atrophy completely, making it to Mass as often as possible. This isn’'t even possible on a daily basis because three days out of the week it’'s held while I’'m in class and there isn’'t any Mass on Saturdays. Next semester I'’ll be trying out Campus Ministry and helping with off-campus retreats since that’'s what I miss most about not being at home.
So now I suppose where I take my faith is entirely up to me. It'’s not the responsibility of my parents, they'’ve done their part. And it'’s not up to my friends, the most they can do is give me their support long distance. It'’s all mine now, we’'ll see where it leads...

I'm not so sure that these would be that effective

Target is marketing these new "Chastity Underwear" complete with a lock and key design on the front. They even go so far as to have "safe and secure" written on them. The full description is quite humorous.

Fr. Valerian must be a little tired from writing finals...

because he kept talking about Gaudete Sunday and how it is this great feast that comes along as we move through Lent. Lent huh? Are you sure about that Fr. V?

Done at Last!!!

Well sort of. I still have a paper, two tests, and a speech before I am truly done. But classes are over and that's good enough for now.

A Winter Wonderland

Or at least a nice dusting of fluffy white stuff. Yesterday, after about a month of just plain cold weather, we finally got snow up here! Not enough to really count, but there is about a quarter inch of it out there. I'm betting against a white Christmas.

Rome Takes on the Devil

ROME (Reuters) - Forget the new "Exorcist" film, the Vatican is offering the real thing.

A Vatican university said on Thursday it will hold a special "theoretical and practical" course for Roman Catholic priests on Satanism and exorcism in response to what the Church says is a worrying interest in the occult, particularly among the young.

"In the last few years there has been a lot of interest in Satanism and it develops because of the media. It's not that the devil is in the media, rock and roll or the Internet but the media can be damaging when it is used the wrong way," Carlo Climati, one of the professors of the course, told Reuters.

The two-month course, which begins in February and will be limited to priests and advanced students of theology, will include themes such as Satanism, diabolic possession and "prayers of liberation."

The whole article

In Keeping The Last Post's Theme

From left to right: Samuel L Jackson, Hugh Grant, and Graham Norton as the shepherds, David and Victoria Beckham as Joseph and Mary, Tony Blair, The Duke of Edinburgh, and George W Bush as the Three Wise Men, and Kylie Minogue as the angel.

Madame Tussaud's has built a waxwork nativity scene with the characters replaced by celebrities, thankfully they didn't touch Jesus. Now that's what Christmas is really about.

O Night Divine

Thirty-two pastry chefs collaborated to make the largest nativity scene ever made entirely out of chocolate. The creche is six meters wide, 3 meters high, and contains 3300kg of chocolate. There are over 100 figurines in the scene and the Madonna alone took two hours to make.

Most Americans Believe That Mary Really Was a Virgin

A nice piece by Newsweek with all sorts of surprising statistics about what Americans believe about the Bible and it's contents.

Failed Ideas

John Scalzi over at Whatever presents us with The 10 Least Successful Holiday Specials of All Time.

Notre Dame Loses Meyer to Florida

Urban Meyer has decided to accept Florida's offer rather than coach at Notre Dame. Read about it in this article.

Dude...

"A German film crew in the mid-90s believed they caught footage of a ghost or some paranormal being while filming a car commercial which was never aired. Watch for it as the car rounds the bend, and listen for a faint 'sonic boom' signalling its appearance."
See for yourself.
Thanks to Brian

A Buttery Blaze

A butter packaging plant in New Ulm, Minnesota caught fire and oozed melted butter.

$10,000 Drink

The Algonquin Hotel in New York is now offering a $10,000 martini, complete with a loose diamond in the bottom of the glass.

Another Step Downwards

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A hospital in the Netherlands - the first nation to permit euthanasia - recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives.
The whole article.

Bye-Bye Ty!

Notre Dame fired head coach Tyrone Willingham today. The press conference is at 4:00.

Back at last!

At the risk of not posting for an entire week I am pleased to inform you all that I have recovered from the play and have returned from Thanksgiving Break. I hope to be actively posting again soon.

Template Issues

I finally figured out that my header wasn't appearing due to my switching the comments to Haloscan. I ended up rebuilding my template and re-adding the comment program. So that should all be better now.

Finally Done

I will tell you about my weekend as soon as I have recovered from it.

Photoshop It

Some rather interesting images of Michael Moore.

Virgin Mary Appears in a Ten Year-Old Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Jewelry designer claims that she saw someone staring at her from her sandwich. Bid for it on ebay.

The Pope Movie

Just a little bit about the upcoming movie on Pope John Paul II.

How to Address A Dissent

This listing of mock addresses for dissenters is great! Especially the addresses for Call to Action and St. Joan of Arc Parish.

Which Monty Python and the Holy Grail Character Are You?

Which Monty Python & the Holy Grail Character are you REALLY?
brought to you by Quizilla

A Nice Long Weekend

Yesterday I had theater from 11 to 9:30. No actual rehearsal happened, we just spent the entire time hanging and focusing lights. Today I managed to get out of doing any work with the light. However, I only managed that by taking a header down a flight of stone steps in the science building. I'm doing alright, I've had a little bit of a headach all day, I think I bruised a couple of ribs, and my sacral vertabrae will never be the same again. But our rehearsal went well, there were hardly any lines missed, and the crew got all the props out at the right time. I think we'll be more than ready to open on Thursday.

Mmmmm My Favorite Flavor!

SEATTLE -- Bottles of Turkey & Gravy soda and Green Bean Casserole soda sit at the Seattle headquarters of Jones Soda Co. Capitalizing on the unexpected craze of last year's Turkey & Gravy Soda, the company is launching a limited edition pack of five unique soda flavors: Green Bean Casserole, Turkey & Gravy, Mashed Potato, Cranberry, and Fruitcake. (11/05/04 AP photo)

Wednesday Mass

So today we celebrate the feast of Pope St. Leo the Great. Today's Mass had about 70 people in attendance, probably because this is the one that they push more. Fr. Valerian celebrated and Fr. Victor concelebrated. Fr. Valerian gave the homily which included these gems.
"What do Attila the Hun, Leo the Great, and John the Baptist all have in common? Their middle names of course!"
"November has a lot of "all S" feast days celebrated in it. The first of the month is for all saints, the second is for all souls, and the rest of the month is for all sorts; which would be us."
"So we should try and live our lives the best we can and maybe, someday, someone will decide that we should be given the title of "the Great", and maybe even be saints. In fact, you might want to save room on your tombstone for that a blank at the front and the back, just in case."

Joke for the Day

So a Franciscan, a Dominican, and a Jesuit go to visit the Holy Family. The Franciscan walks up to the child Jesus and says "hey do you want to go out and toss a ball around?" So the two of them go outside and play ball. The Dominican walks up to Mary and asks her if she'd like to pray a rosary with him, so they go off to pray a rosary. So the Jesuit walks over to Joseph nudges him and asks: "so where are you going to send the boy to school?"

Tuesday Morning Mass

Well I was stunned at the attendance, I expected it to be a small group, but 8 was a bit short of what I thought participation would be. Actually, at the time Mass started there were only five participants in the chapel; one nun, one brother, two above average age students and me. A few minutes into the Mass three more students joined us. Fr. Valerian talked about church architecture and how the Church is really the people and not the building. His basic point was that since we are the Church, the appearance of the building that we celebrate in is completely unimportant. Now I would beg to differ on the grounds that if the structure is not conducive to worship due to it's distractive architecture, then the architecture does matter.

Sunday Night Mass

Well there were about 60 people at Mass tonight, which is about as full as I've ever seen it. Here's just a couple of the great lines from Father Valerian's homily.

"So as you see in the first reading there are seven brothers and one woman and in the second reading there are seven brothers and one woman, but I don't think that's why they put these two readings together."

"Is that the college experience? Paying big bucks to barf on your shoes?"

An interesting find

A recipe only Emily would like

Portabello Mushroom Chili. Actually it looks pretty good for something with mushrooms in it.

Silly Songs With Kerry

The Hairbrush Song left wing style.
Thanks to Tim Drake

Spring Courses

I visited my advisor this morning and set up my schedule for spring courses. I'll have seven of them this semster, but it's still only 16 credits. Personal and Community Health every day except for Friday at 8 am; Prevention and Care of Injuries on Tuesday and Thursday at 9; Medical Terminology on Tuesday and Thursday at 10; lunch break at 11 all week; Anatomy and Physiology II on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at noon; the lab for that at 2 on Thursday; Leadership class at 1 on Thursday; and Elementary Statistics at 1 every other day of the week. With work study on top of it all. But Personal and Community Health doesn't start until sometime in February. Also, I don't have class until noon on Friday. It's going to be 3 credits less than I'm taking this semester so how hard can it be?

Artsy

It's down to two weeks before the opening of our fall theatre production, Artsy. To date I haven't seen any backdrops, minimal props, and our lighting designer only started coming to practice a few weeks ago. On the plus side all of our actors have parted with their scripts and have their lines down pretty well. In the next couple of weeks we have 46 hours of rehearsals, including a weekend with two-eleven hour practices. But it'll all come out great.

Kerry Concedes Election

Senator Kerry conceded the presidential race to President Bush at just after 11:00 EST. Kerry will formally concede at 1:00 EST.

I have arrived!!!

Welcome to Doubleshot Thoughts, the home of a Catholic freshman at a Benedictine college located in the middle of nowhere (North Dakota). This blog is, for the most part, about the religious goings on at my school and what it's like going to a Catholic school that seems to have an incredibly small number of practicing Catholic students. I may also at random times wander into the realms of politics, current events, and other random things. I hope you come back soon!