(no subject)
I hate weekends when I don't get to do anything. Last weekend was so much more fun, this one was just a rained-out waste. Saturday I woke up early for no particular reason, I just didn't feel like sleeping all day. I did some grocery shopping and then went over to 12:10 Mass over at the Basilica. I always enjoy going to Mass over there, and the Crypt Church (where they have daily Mass) is nice and small so it feels like you're closer to everybody. After that I headed out to Virginia to get some lunch and then came back to do some more grocery shopping (I can't handle it all on the bus with one trip) and then headed home. I managed to get home just as it was about to pour down rain, so luckily I didn't get hit by the worst of it. Rest of the day was spent in my cell of a room (seriously, becoming a monastic wouldn't really be that much of a change right now) and watching Enterprise and some other random television stuff (wasn't the beginning of Enterprise, and the "mirror universe" theme song stuff, so freakin cool!).
On Sunday I went out again to the Basilica for noon Mass, which was celebrated by Archbishop Montalvo who is the papal nuncio (basically the ambassador to the United States from the Holy See). It was an interesting Mass, they usually only have the organ music but this time they had horns and some drums (the music was still classical though, they even had some Palestrina for you traditionalists out there). As with all of the special Masses they've had over the past few weeks for Pope John Paul II and now for Benedict XVI, there were a ton of people there. It's really cool when there are a lot of people, because it is a huge church and it's a good feeling to know that your prayers are accompanied by those of thousands of other people (obviously they're also united to those of the entire church, but this is in a more physically obvious way). After that I stopped at home for some lunch (trying to keep the fast food to a minimum, both for my figure and for my wallet) and then went out to buy some dinner at Subway (I'm not doing very well with keeping said fast food to a minimum, obviously). I came home and watched Enterprise again (seriously, this episode kicked ass if only for the amount of times they put people in the pain booth, and also because of the new, psychotic Porthos). I had to work today (obviously), so I went to bed at ten as usual (I know, I'm such an old man). I'm pissed that the Simpsons wasn't on, but it was replaced by The Empire Strikes Back so it's not all bad (although I missed the last hour on account of going to sleep).
I finally got around to doing some reading yesterday, which is nice because I have between 30 and 40 books to read (plus a couple more to buy, thanks a lot jjostm) and I haven't been doing any reading at all for months. I started reading "The Courage to be Catholic" by George Weigel, which I had already read part of months ago but forgot about. It's really a good book, it looks at the post-Vatican II attitudes among the clergy that led to the sex scandals and gives some ideas for how to prevent a continuation of said scandals in the future. It's nice to see an author who doesn't dismiss what happened (in fact, he's pretty hard on the bishops for their failures) but also doesn't act like we have to change everything that makes us Catholic in order to solve the problem. Once I finish that book (hopefully next weekend, I don't have time to read during the week) I'll probably pick up Gift and Mystery by John Paul II. Hopefully I can make a dent in my mountain of books-to-be-read within the next few months, and then I can spend all my money creating a new mountain of books to read :)
I'm sorry that my life is so boring, I wish I had more interesting stuff to put in my journal. Hopefully next weekend will be a little nicer and I can actually get out and enjoy myself instead of sitting in my depressing apartment and watching television until I rot.
On Sunday I went out again to the Basilica for noon Mass, which was celebrated by Archbishop Montalvo who is the papal nuncio (basically the ambassador to the United States from the Holy See). It was an interesting Mass, they usually only have the organ music but this time they had horns and some drums (the music was still classical though, they even had some Palestrina for you traditionalists out there). As with all of the special Masses they've had over the past few weeks for Pope John Paul II and now for Benedict XVI, there were a ton of people there. It's really cool when there are a lot of people, because it is a huge church and it's a good feeling to know that your prayers are accompanied by those of thousands of other people (obviously they're also united to those of the entire church, but this is in a more physically obvious way). After that I stopped at home for some lunch (trying to keep the fast food to a minimum, both for my figure and for my wallet) and then went out to buy some dinner at Subway (I'm not doing very well with keeping said fast food to a minimum, obviously). I came home and watched Enterprise again (seriously, this episode kicked ass if only for the amount of times they put people in the pain booth, and also because of the new, psychotic Porthos). I had to work today (obviously), so I went to bed at ten as usual (I know, I'm such an old man). I'm pissed that the Simpsons wasn't on, but it was replaced by The Empire Strikes Back so it's not all bad (although I missed the last hour on account of going to sleep).
I finally got around to doing some reading yesterday, which is nice because I have between 30 and 40 books to read (plus a couple more to buy, thanks a lot jjostm) and I haven't been doing any reading at all for months. I started reading "The Courage to be Catholic" by George Weigel, which I had already read part of months ago but forgot about. It's really a good book, it looks at the post-Vatican II attitudes among the clergy that led to the sex scandals and gives some ideas for how to prevent a continuation of said scandals in the future. It's nice to see an author who doesn't dismiss what happened (in fact, he's pretty hard on the bishops for their failures) but also doesn't act like we have to change everything that makes us Catholic in order to solve the problem. Once I finish that book (hopefully next weekend, I don't have time to read during the week) I'll probably pick up Gift and Mystery by John Paul II. Hopefully I can make a dent in my mountain of books-to-be-read within the next few months, and then I can spend all my money creating a new mountain of books to read :)
I'm sorry that my life is so boring, I wish I had more interesting stuff to put in my journal. Hopefully next weekend will be a little nicer and I can actually get out and enjoy myself instead of sitting in my depressing apartment and watching television until I rot.