Not a good showing

After the movie on Friday, some of us went to Atomic and played scattergories. With the letter J having been rolled, we proceeded down our lists. One prompt this round happened to be "people in the Bible." Joseph was the first to pop into my head, and other responses were Joshua and the popular "blank." We remarked on how difficult this round had been, why there weren't more Biblical names that started with J, until I suddenly exclaimed, "Oh my God...JESUS!"

Don't argue with a priest

Perhaps you're shocked to see me posting today, since I should of course be spending all day at church (and if you're reading this on the 15th, I certainly hope you're not one of my Catholic or Eastern Christian friends!). Well, since it also happens to be my name day, I of course grant myself a dispensation for today.

Many of my relatives share this with me, as a bunch of us were named for my grandmother, who was a Mariam. As it happens, I am named for both my grandmother AND my mother, all with my first name! Now, my relatives are probably very confused, as the name my mom went by was nothing close to Mary. That is true. However, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, specifically the Archdiocese of Mexico City, her name is Maria. How did this come to be? When my grandparents went to arrange for her baptism, the priest argued that there was no Santa Lucia, and demanded they give her another name. Figuring they couldn't possibly argue with the name of the Virgin Mother, my grandmother went with Maria. And so I'm the third of the direct line.

And no, I don't know what the hell was wrong with that priest.