Catholic "stuff" picked up on my way to Iraq

[Tonks]

Hello all,

Thanks for your kind words in the other thread. I head to Kuwait on Friday and should be in Iraq on or around the 21st.

A substantial amount of this "pre-deployment" nonsense has to deal with getting forms signed by various folks: financial, legal, medical, IDs etc. One of the folks that I had to meet with was the chaplain.

Now...the chaplains in the military are probably 95% protestant Christian...but they do have a hard row to hoe as they have to minister to all religions. Given the fact that I had to pack my life in two bags (one being nothing but body armor) and a backpack...there is little room for some personal stuff.

Whilst meeting the chaplain he had a lot of free "goodies" (crosses [catholic, protestant, orthodox], Bibles, hebrew scriptures, qu'ran etc...). It seems like the Catholics were quite well represented and - given our nature - had lots of "stuff" - far more so than the other branches of Christianity represented. All of the below have been approved and / or blessed by the Military Archdiocese (there is such a thing) so I felt OK while taking a sample:

From the top:

Medals: St. Michael, St. Mary, St. Jude

Bible: "Catholic Bible incl the deuterocanon" (sadly the good news translatoin but better than nothing)

Prayer book: published by KofC. Very good resource

Rosary

Crucifix

Brown Scapular

Soldier's Psalm (psalm 91)

Spiritual Fitness Guide

While the last two aren't strictly "Catholic" I found them to be most interesting and fulfilling. There is, apparently, an on-site priest at Camp Victory...so I'm pretty excited about that.

The picture stinks as I was trying to not wake up all the rest of the folks in my hooch...

m

​

 

[JoabAnias]

Hello all,

Thanks for your kind words in the other thread. I head to Kuwait on Friday and should be in Iraq on or around the 21st.

Whats your MOS?

 

[Weird]

Nice stuff....

 

[Gwenyfur]

Very considerate of you not to foul the hooch with light and noise

Chaplains are awesome...ya won't find me sayin' otherwise

Stay in touch! and While at Camp Victory if your run into a LCpl Harkins...give him a hug from his mother in law

 

[stephenc]

This was very interesting. Thanks, Tonks.

 

[ShannonMcCatholic]

Prayers for your safety, Tonks...and thank you for fighting for us.

I hope so much that the stars will align and that your path will cross with Fr. Peek--who just over the past year became a military chaplain. He is honestly just one of the best priests I have ever, ever met in my life.

Are those holy medals covered in plastic?? I went out with a guy who wore a St. Barbara medal, but it was made special to not bang against his dog tags.

 

[D'Ann]

May our Lord Jesus and Mary and the Saints be with you throughout your coming journey. I pray for your well being and safety and may good come from your time over there. You will continually be in my prayers.

Those were nice things that you decided to take with you. It's always good to have relics of one's faith.

 

[JoabAnias]

Prayers for your safety, Tonks...and thank you for fighting for us.

I hope so much that the stars will align and that your path will cross with Fr. Peek--who just over the past year became a military chaplain. He is honestly just one of the best priests I have ever, ever met in my life.

Are those holy medals covered in plastic?? I went out with a guy who wore a St. Barbara medal, but it was made special to not bang against his dog tags.

Trivia for the day: St. Barbara is the patron of Artillerymen.

 

[Auntie]

Tonks, wishing you well, keeping you in my prayers.

 

[plainswolf]

Tonks, dude, you definitely have my prayers. My best friend's son is already there also.. We both pray for you all and from me especially for you.


+Mark

 

[katholikos]

.

Thats great stuff.

Maybe you should take one of those handheld DVD players and a few Catholic DVDs.