OK, I'm just going to come out and say it."Hi, I'm Bill, and I'm a Catholic Nerd."
That's right. The Few, the Proud, the Laity Who Know What an Encyclical Is!! We are the Catholic Nerds and we're PROUD of it!!
If you can complete or concur with ANY of the following phrases, face it, YOU ARE A CATHOLIC NERD. So celebrate it! Join our illustrious group on Facebook if you dare, and you'll find love and affirmation, and hopefully some inspiring conversations and connections to boot (I love saying "to boot" at the end of a sentence).
So take the Quiz:
1. Deus Caritas Est refers to...
2. December 12 is the feast of...
3. The Rosary has ___ mysteries.
4. Concupiscence.... well, you know how to pronounce it.
5. Reposition means, not to move your seat, but...
6. Habemus Papam is the coolest phrase on the planet.
7. You feel they should make an incense scented Glade Plug-In.
8. You've ever genuflected by accident when grabbing a seat at the movies (yup, I did that once).
9. You have Catholic mags in your bathroom book rack.
10. You get excited at the Lamb of God during Mass because Communion is coming!!
Life is too short to be too serious or overly concerned with appearances. Be a Geek, read books, pray on purpose, carry holy cards in your pocketssess to stash on train seats and doctor's offices, laugh for no reason but for the thrill of breathing, or of grass, or the sound of bells (like Quickbeam in the Lord of the Rings). Face it, nerds have more fun. Pax tecum ;)
PS - If you want to take the first step in embracing your Catholic Nerdiness, just copy the badge in this post that I slaved over for like 15 minutes and post it on your blog. Be not afraid!
13 comments:
I must be a really bad cafeteria catholic! ;-) Because I don't know half of what you are referring to! Teach me!
I got nine out of ten - do I qualify for the seal of Geek blogkeeping?
Larry! YOU'RE IN! Which one did you miss?
Dawn M,
Here's your cheat sheet!
1. Deus Caritas Est refers to...
B16's first encyclical "God is Love"
2. December 12 is the feast of...
Our Lady of Gaudalupe!
3. The Rosary has ___ mysteries.
20!
4. Concupiscence.... well, you know how to pronounce it.
It's the pullin our fallen nature towards sin, kinda like Gollum's whispering for the Precioussss...
5. Reposition means, not to move your seat, but...
To place the Blessed Sacrament back into the tabernacle.
6. Habemus Papam is the coolest phrase on the planet.
It means "We have a Pope!"
7. You feel they should make an incense scented Glade Plug-In.
8. You've ever genuflected by accident when grabbing a seat at the movies (yup, I did that once).
9. You have Catholic mags in your bathroom book rack.
10. You get excited at the Lamb of God during Mass because Communion is coming!!
I don't have Catholic mags in my bathroom book rack, but only because I don't have a bathroom book rack!
I've added you to my "catablogue", btw
Larry, you NEED a mag rack in the bathroom, come on. That's just crazy. And thanks for the addition to your catablogue!
Bill, my mother was a cathecism teacher and I never learned half of that stuff. We never said any latin in Louisiana. My mother taught me that black people were descendants of Ham and Caanan..(I probably got the spelling wrong) and that their skin color and features were punishment. My father talked about burning witches. They took us to church often and as a little girl I thought these things they said were true until I was a teen and rebelled against it. I'm now in my thirties returned to the church and trying to learn the truth of what she teaches. I'm disturbed that she may have taught that lie in cathecism. I'm trying to enlighten my parents while I'm at it. I don't know the latin lingo, but I loving each other is most important. It's good to know the meaning of these things now so I don't feel like an idiot walking around in a foreign country. I've been afraid to ask these things because people might think I'm a bad catholic. I'm just gonna say "We have a new Pope" since that is what my neighbors can understand and I don't want them to feel the way I have felt...like a stranger. My pastor at St. Cyril's in Houston never talks in Latin, he talks in slang like a Texan, and that is what makes me feel at home. Listen to his homilies. www.stcyrilhouston.org He is in the Catholic Communication Campaign. When he is using big words or foreign , he stops and gives us a history of the meaning and root of the words and makes sure we understand what these words mean and he assumes that people who are stepping into a catholic church for the first time are there and caters to them. I sure do hope this does not make me a bad catholic. I have a little scruple about that...worrying what other catholics think. But I really need to worry about what God thinks.
Dawn, thanks for sharing some of your story. It certainly sounds like some unfortunate misconceptions in theology came through your educators back then, but it sounds like you are in a good place now. You're in pursuit of the Truth that will satisfy your heart AND mind. I'll have to "give a listen" to your pastor! Very cool...
The last thing I would imagine you are is a "bad Catholic." Not knowing the rich history (Latin being a part of it for a long time) is something we're all guilty of, but guilt isn't the right word. 2000 years is a long time, but it's an adventure to dive into. The culture that formed our Faith, and the Faith that formed the culture (so many cultures now) for so long is just an exciting study, and when we explore the Church Fathers, or martyrs, or writings of the mystics, we get to open up a little more this treasure chest of faith, hope and love, the Divine and Human conversation that has been going on now since the beginning. St. Thomas Aquinas (the brainiac smarty pants of all the saints) once said that all he wrote was like straw compared to the vision he had of eternity. If he's standing on the edge of a limitless ocean, then we're in good company! Woohoo! Let's dive in!
That wonderful image of JPII reminds me of the cover of one of my favorite books - one that I am sure would be in the library of any self-respecting Catholic nerd: "The Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living."
Nice! That's a keeper. I first found the pic of the Pope on a postcard that read on the back "Pope amuses himself with photographers."
Classic JPII!
Thank you for the tips. When I was a kid I was in a club at school that was a christian charity for the blind. I won't name names. One of my catholic neighbors was very active and involved with our church and did a very big outward catholic show, when I was working the sign up sheet for this club at the begenning of the school year she said that we will let the blacks and hispanics sign up but we just won't call them back. I should have turned her in to our school but I didn't I to this day I am ashamed of that. It really caused a pang in my gut. I'm learning to listen to it and I don't believe everyone who claims to be a follower of christ anymore. But I picked up Crossing the Threshold of Hope one day and recognized the voice of Christ in Pope John Paul II and I recognize it in Benedict. So here I am reconciled with the church and a little more discerning. I LOVE Cardinal Francis E. George's article on Racial Reconciliation. It's everything I was forbidden to believe in as a child but knew deep down in my gut. I know now it was the Holy Spirit causing that pain in my conscience.
Dawn M,
What a journey of healing you're on. Wow. I can't imagine how hard it is to peel off those layers, to unlearn what you learned as a child, forming and growing your own conscience. Praise God for the Spirit of Truth! He leads us to all Truth, sometimes through the murky shadows and dark alleys of human weakness and ignorance. YOU SHOULD BLOG ABOUT IT? Have you any posts on this?
First I got a seven out of ten, then after studying the answers I got a 9 out of ten. Thank you for teaching me.
Ta`
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