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First, before I get going.. a brief warning to my readers who don’t know much about me.  This will be a religious post.  The purpose of my blog is to write up whatever I please… If you don’t like religious stuff then just skip it, or read it and ask my if you have any questions about what or why I wrote it.

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I’m surprised the payforaprayer.com domain is not taken.  By some catholic.  Who wants to charge people for praying for them or someone else.

OK, I hope this post doesn’t offend anyone… but I’m going to rant a little bit about the Catholic church and how surprised (or not surprised?) I am about something.

Last Sunday there was a mass for my dead Uncle.  He died about 6 months ago or so, and the mass marks the "end of mourning" when my Aunt is now allowed to start wearing colors besides black.  I’m not sure exactly how it all works, but I was told this mass is the public "showing" that the mourning period is over. 

Anyway, so we all went to this mass.  Even my communist Aunt and Uncle went.  Of course, he sat in the back row and I’m pretty sure I saw kleenex in his ears.. but he was there.  That’s how important this mass apparently is.  It’s a family thing, so all the immediate family and many of the extended were there.

Great.  So what has that to do with payforaprayer.com?

Well, we (Cara and I) were told that this mass was for our dead Uncle.  Of course, we were expecting some kind of prayer to happen or some ceremony or whatever.  Sure enough, during the "we remember [insert name here] in prayer" part of the Mass the Priest mentioned my Uncle’s name.  (It was in French, so I have no idea what he actually said, but I know it was during the prayer part, as I’ve been to many many catholic masses and they’re pretty much all the same regardless of the language.)

After the mass, we were back at my Aunt and Uncle’s for lunch and chatting about the mass. I don’t remember how the subject came up, but we started talking about money and giving to the church. Oh ya, my Aunt asked if we gave anything for the offering basket.  Before we could really go much further in the discussion, my Uncle mentioned that the priest was PAID to mention my dead Uncle’s name in his prayer.

Paid. 

Yup.  As in my Aunt (the grieving one) had to PAY the Priest to put in a good word to God for her dead husband during his prayer.

Amazing.  I have a really hard time holding back my tongue against a religion that requires PAYMENT to a Priest for a prayer.

While I realize that for most people this "Mass stuff "is pretty much just "tradition".. it saddens me even further that none of my family here know they can simply talk to God themselves.  No need for a priest.  No need to pay a priest.  According to the Bible, God sent his son Jesus to earth so that he would die for us… and it was that action that restored our previously broken relationship with God.  Thus, we can now simply talk directly to God and he will hear us, since his son Jesus stands "in the gap" between us (sinful people) and God (sinless).  Jesus even went one step further and modeled "The Lords Prayer" for us, as a guide on how to pray.

There is no need to pray to Mary. Or to St. Martin.  And no need for payment to any Priest to pray on our behalf. 

My relatives tell me that the priests charge a fee, because they need to make enough money to eat. To them, it’s basically just a business transaction - nothing religious.

I guess I’m not Corsican enough yet, because I’m not able to just look at the catholic church, shake my head, and then move on with my day.  No.  The Corsican people need to know the truth about God, not just the traditions of a church.

And now, back to our regularily scheduled blogging. 

No, my transformer isn’t here yet. My software beta testing is going very well - only a few big bugs found and lots of little ones.  I’ve been keeping some pretty long hours, and getting a bit run down.. but there’s only one big problem left and then I think it’s ready for release.  And then hiring translators, and then redoing the website, and then the order system, and then the integration of my credit card merchant account, and then I’ll start adding on all the other features people have been suggesting… phew! 

My Aunt suggested that I should spend a bit of time outside each day. "Maybe getting firewood", she says. 

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We have a nifty fireplace here that actually is designed for heating the place.  The temp is finally getting a bit chilly, so I think I’ll maybe go find some wood and see about making some fire.  I feel so rustic, living in a place that uses WOOD for heating.  Sheesh, do I have a city-boy’s heart or what?

I tried to explain that in our house in Vancouver there is a wood fireplace, but it’s for decoration. You can’t really use it for heat.  It’s for those little logs you buy at the gas station where you light the packaging and it burns in 2 hours and makes a nice cozy little ’show’ fire.  I think they might think we’re a little nuts.

Actually, they were quite surprised.  My cousin was somewhat shocked, in fact.  He told me that the normal image of a Canadian is someone who wears a lumber jacket, heats his house with fire, has sled dogs, and raises beavers for meat.  Oh ya, and we all hunt cariboo, elk, and moose. 

That’s ok.  Before I got to France I thought they were all nuts.  Now I see it’s only a few of them.  So it’s only fair we each have our own stereotypes. 

heh.

Hey, if you’re read this far yippee!  Here’s your prize.  Let me know, by posting a comment, what you’d like me to write about.

And Ros, I haven’t forgotten about you.  I’ll reply to your email about adsl soon!  I promise!