Memed again!

Hey look, I got an early Christmas present - courtesy of the So Many Devotions blog.

Looks like (for once) I'm on the beginning end of a meme tag. Weird. Anyway, here you go, it's the

Catholic Devotions Meme!

1. Favorite devotion or prayer to Jesus? Adoration, natch. As for prayer to Jesus in particular, I like the Jesus Prayer a whole lot - "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

2. Favorite Marian devotion or prayer? Angelus. In Latin. Sung. Like the Pope does it (with the three Gloria Patri's at the end for the Trinity).

3. Do you wear a scapular or medal? Uh. Both! :) And my other medal that I wear (of St. Josemaria) has the image from the OD chapel in Rome on the back, Santa Maria della Pace (Our Lady of Peace).

4. Do you have holy water in your home? Yup. I used to have a little font by the door, but somewhere during my move to Italy for a year it seems to have vanished from my possession. So little bottles all over it is.

5. Do you 'offer up' your sufferings? Yes, well, I try to. If I remember. Somewhere back there I read this phrase in one of St. Josemaria's books - "Christ. Christ on the Cross!" Without really thinking about it at the time, it seems to have stuck in my head. So frequently whenever I'm going through something that phrase pops into my head and helps me to remember to offer things up. Must be my guardian angel. Or St. Josemaria.

6. Do you observe First Fridays and First Saturdays? No, not so much. I am continually surprised when I go to daily Mass on First Fridays - "why's there so many people today? Ohhhhhhhhh." And First Saturdays? Not even an "Ohhhhhhh." Too bad.

7. Do you go to Eucharistic Adoration? How frequently? Yes. Well, I'm committed to an hour a week at my local parish's perpetual chapel. I typically go to another weekly Holy Hour at another parish across town. And the rest of the week I pop in and out for varying amounts of time, but at least some time each day - I mean, come on, I have NO EXCUSE, I work at my local parish with the Perpetual Adoration chapel down the hall from my office!! It's a travesty that I don't utilize it MORE often! I've started trying to go in every day at noon to pray the Angelus (see #2), and that's been nice. But I can't sing in there - there's other people present trying to pray!

8. Are you a Saturday evening Mass person or Sunday morning Mass person? Uh, "C. - Sunday evening Mass person" :) Honestly, I prefer Mass on Sunday morning. But since I work at the local parish as a DRE, I typically have to be around there working in the mornings on Sunday. At the same time, I am still an active member (by choice - personal parish I guess) at the Cathedral way across town in St. Paul - which has a very nice 5pm Mass on Sunday. So I've worked it all out that way; I'm usually at the local parish for the morning Masses, though not personally attending them usually, and then after the youth group meets at noon I head off to St. Paul to my own parish's Mass and gather with my friends afterwards doing a Theology of the Body study group. How's that for more info than you needed to know? :)

9. Do you say prayers at mealtime? Absolutely. And it doesn't matter who I'm with either. It's nothing special though, just the old standby "Bless us O Lord..." with public Sign of the Cross (none of that quick "under the tablecloth" signage going on here!). Sometimes if I'm really feeling devotional I'll even pray the AFTER dinner prayer!

10. Favorite Saint(s)? Ooooo boy. Pretty much impossible for me... But I'll try. How about, in no particular order: St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Maria Goretti, St. Athanasius, St. Dominic, St. Josemaria Escriva, St. Tarcisius, Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, St. Faustina, St. Catherine of Siena, Bl. Fra Angelico, St. Stephen... and on and on and on.

11. Can you recite the Apostles Creed by heart? Yes, I can!! That's because for whatever reason I'm always the one asked to lead the Rosary. However, I can still be led astray by OTHERS goofing it up - but I'm not alone in that, as the 3000 kids and adults at this year's Children's Rosary Gathering will attest too after being led in the (oops) Nicene Creed with three attempts to switch us back before giving up! LOL!

12. Do you usually say short prayers (aspirations) during the course of the day? Yes. See #1 & #5 for starters. I also will sometimes spout off random Bible phrases, often from the Psalms or from the canticles from the Liturgy of the Hours (not that I pray that as often as I'd like either...).

13. Bonus Question: When you pass by a automobile accident or other serious mishap, do you say a quick prayer for the folks involved? Yes and no. Yes, if I actually SEE the accident I do. No, if I just see an ambulance or fire truck responding I don't usually think of it (this is likely because of my former life experience as an EMT... nothing brings out the cynic in you like realizing that 95% of the "emergency" calls you get are not at all as advertised).

Why is this a Bonus Question anyway? It's #13, does that have something to do with it? One more than the Apostles? One more than the tribes of Israel? The "unlucky" number? And just what do we win anyway, that makes it a "bonus" - what are the other questions worth? What's the prize? Did I get it?

Ok, I'll stop now. :) Guess it's time to tag some other people - let's see if we can get this meme out into the big leagues! I tag Amy, Zadok, Mark, and Jeff. Merry Christmas guys!