Year of Faith Pilgrimaging II

I can hardly believe it has been over two months since I posted the first in the series about my Year of Faith pilgrimaging!  The problem (though not a problem!) is that I finally found a new job.  I found out on the afternoon of Thursday, August 8^th, that I would be going back to the Christian school I used to teach at and had until the next Tuesday to get the classroom ready for Parent Orientation/Open House.  !!!  I had it looking decent enough for the event and then school started the next Monday.  Needless to say I have been running around like a crazy person ever since.  There is so much to do and since I am teaching elementary for the first time I am having to put together stores of resources from scratch.  There have also been a lot of other factors like the two weekly church classes I attend and, you know, life!  J  I will try to get these posts finished in some semblance of reasonable time though!

We left off at Sunday night, July 28^th, when I had discovered the Year of Faith Pilgrimages and decided I absolutely HAD to do them.  Monday the 29^th I got up at a decent time and got ready to head to OKC to see just how many sites I could knock off my list.  Reisen (my Schnauzer traveling buddy) came along and Vyne (my GPS) led us on. 

Our first pilgrimage stop was the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.  I arrived at about 10:27am.  I had never been to the Cathedral before since I had dropped out of RCIA in Norman in the spring the week before everyone went to the Cathedral for the Rites of Election & Enrollment.  The cathedral is quite beautiful and I was very interested to finally see in person the doors that adorn so much of the printed information the archdiocese produces about the Year of Faith.

I was surprised, though, at how not impressive the Cathedral is.  Not that it isn’t impressive, but I had something else in mind for a location that is the ‘cathedral’ for the archdiocese (the cathedral being the seat of the bishop or in this case the archbishop).  The name just conjures up something grandiose and ancient.  In reality it is just another church and during my pilgrimaging over the next few days I saw some that were much more impressive.

I was concerned at first that my pilgrimage was starting out going nowhere fast as the main doors were closed and I saw little signs of life.  As I walked the grounds, however, I came across an employee that is presumably a groundskeeper of some sort and he informed me that the side door was open and I was welcome to just walk in. 

I have got to admit that was a pretty formidable experience.  It was my first time being essentially alone in a large sanctuary (that experience would become the norm over the next 4 days of pilgrimaging).  I took some pictures and looked around and picked a pew to sit in to say the Nicene Creed.  Each site had the handout of the Creed but I do not need it.  I am happy to say that when I wrote the post on TVP at the beginning of the Year of Faith about memorizing the Nicene Creed I thought it would be some time before I was able to memorize it.  It actually took me very little time – saying it daily for the Year of Faith made it a snap. 

So I do my Creed and then it is time to answer the question on the passport.  The question for the Cathedral was “Where in the church are the symbols of the apostles located?”  Uh-huh.  Symbols of the apostles?  What symbols of the apostles?!  How should I know?!  I

looked around but I had no clue for what I was looking.  My best guess was that the smaller row of stained glass windows above the larger ones held the symbols of the apostles.  With no one to ask, I decided to leave the answer blank for the moment and get on with my pilgrimaging.  I asked some people at the next stop but they didn’t know and as you can tell from the picture, looking back on the stained glass windows that I felt held the symbols wasn’t a viable option.  With that lighting you can’t make anything out!  In the end I went with an answer of “on the smaller stained glass windows – the ones higher up on either side of the cathedral.”

How do I remember my answer exactly after so long you ask?  I don’t, of course.  J  I made two sets of passports during my pilgrimaging, one to turn in at the end and one to keep! 

So, after a few more pictures at the Cathedral I was off to my second stop of the day – St. Francis of Assisi Church, also in Oklahoma City.

Year of Faith Pilgrimaging I

This next series of posts I am going to post simultaneously on both The Variant Purist and On Sooner Trails.  They apply to both blogs and besides On Sooner Trails needs some love.  It frustrates me that this will get OST all out of chronological order but there are worse things in life!

To pick up where I left off:  Last Sunday night (July 28^th) around 11:00p I accidentally discovered the Year of Faith Pilgrimages that the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City organized.  Immediately I sent Beek a message inquiring as to why on earth we were not doing that!  Then I read a little further and discovered the whole program ends on August 18^th!  Horror of horrors!  It started June 17^th!  All that time lost!  :-O

Well, then logic kicks in.  I am, after all, currently not working and therefore should have plenty of time to get these accomplished before the deadline, right?  By the time I posted the blog entry that night I had printed all the necessary information including the passports for all 4 pilgrimages and had made myself a ‘cheat sheet’ of places, addresses, times, etc.  I was ready to go.

But where was I going?  What, you may ask, is a Year of Faith Pilgrimage?  The Year of Faith I have talked about on The Variant Purist quite a bit and there are MANY online resources regarding it.  It runs from October 11, 2012 – November 24, 2013.  There are many layers of importance to it from strengthening the New Evangelization to rediscovering our own walk with God to commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and 20^th anniversary of the release of the Catechism of the Catholic Church…and much more. 

There are a multitude of devotions and prayers and events for the Year of Faith.  Some are universal, some more local.  Each diocese is celebrating the Year a bit differently.  Enter the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.  Technically I don’t know who came up with the pilgrimage idea or why (though I’m glad they did!) but the main goal seems to be to encourage people to learn more about the origins, resources and diversity that exists in the archdiocese.

There are 4 Year of Faith Pilgrimages to choose from.  You only need to complete one to receive the commemorative pin; but why would you do just one?  Do you only eat 25% of your Chick-fil-A nuggets?  When it comes to the good things in life you have to go 100%!!  J

Here are the specifics of each pilgrimage:

Cradle of Catholicism Pilgrimage

Sacred Heart Church – Konawa

Sacred Heart Abbey Mission Ruins – Konawa

Saint Gregory University & Abbey – Shawnee

Saint Wenceslaus Church – Prague

Seat of Catholicism Pilgrimage

Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help – OKC

Saint Francis of Assisi Church – OKC

Saint Joseph Old Cathedral – OKC

Multicultural Presence Pilgrimage

Corpus Christi Church – OKC

Sacred Heart Church – OKC

Saint Andrew Dung-Lac Church – OKC

Religious Sites of Interest Pilgrimage

Saint Joseph Church – Bison

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Duncan

Saint John Nepomuk Church – Yukon

Holy Trinity Church – Okarche

Saint Patrick Church – OKC

Each pilgrimage also has one more stop which is the final one where you turn your passport in.  It is the Catholic Pastoral Center – OKC.  I don’t include it in the lists since it is not so much the end of each pilgrimage as it is the end of your journey albeit one pilgrimage or, as in my case, all 4. 

All you have to do at each site is answer a question that is on the passport.  You are also encouraged to pray the Nicene Creed (the official Year of Faith prayer) at each site.  And that is it.  Pray, answer the question, and when the passport is filled out take it to the final stop and get your pin. 

So there I am on Sunday night frantic to figure out how to go about these pilgrimages before the window of opportunity closed.   You already know I finished them; I actually completed all 4 pilgrimages in 4 days.

Down With Trees!

Pay attention.  This is one of the few times you shall hear me complain about my native Ninnekah!

You see these trees?

I HATE these trees!  Not trees in general; I love trees in general.  I am all about planting trees and initiatives like the one I can't remember specifics on right now - it was a company I read about recently that is planting a million trees a year for ten years or something?

That is great.  Awesome.  I am all for that kind of thing.  But THESE trees?  I HATE them!

This is the view from our front yard.  'Our front yard' being the Gee home in Ninnekah.  Growing up we would often count the cars on the trains that went by or even try to see what we could make out of the vehicles on Hwy 81.  But what do you see in this picture?  Trees.  Just trees.  Ugly trees.  I took this picture on July 29, 2012.  As I took this picture a train was going by.  Do you see a train?  No.  Just trees.

This is how it looked still during the winter of 2000/2001:

A few trees but mostly open space.  For crying out loud at least you could see if a train was going by!

Okay.  Rant over.

Now that the weather is starting to cool off hopefully I will soon have a lot more fodder for OST!  It has just been too hot recently and I've been too busy to go on any appropriate adventures.

So until next time...

The Cattle and the Pond

I am fairly certain that I am currently caught up with On Sooner Trails.  Now I need to go on some new adventures!  :-)


For now I thought I would discuss the wallpaper that you see on this blog.  The wallpaper is a modification of this:

This photo makes the picture look rather small.  This picture is probably about 24" x 24" or so without the frame.  It is the top portion of what used to be a big calendar - like the ones businesses would give away sometimes back in the day.  Now I know businesses still give away calendars (we have BEAUTIFUL ones here at the funeral home! :-)), but I mean the BIG ones.  I haven't seen those in a long time.  This was from a BIG one that Ferguson Motor Company gave away. 


No one seems to know when it is from.  Apparently Ferguson Motor Company did the calendars every year and always had Hereford Cattle, but probably not the same pic every year.  The best guess seems to place it sometime in the 70s or 80s, but they did calendars like that long before then as well. 


This particular one was framed and given as a gift to Charles Ferguson by somebody or other....yeah, the salient details slip right by me.  That isn't the important part, though it is muy interesante.  What is important is that I have become obsessed with this picture. 


When I started the blog I was going to use WordPress which is the platform for my other blog, Cannons, Beads and Raktajino.  I wanted a very specific look, something that screams 'Oklahoma' and I could not seem to find a template that allowed me to use a pic on the background as more than an accessory.  I needed it to SCREAM Oklahoma!  And so I checked out BlogSpot (or Blogger, whatever!).  This way I had much more freedom to customize. 


The next problem was what would SCREAM Oklahoma?!  I flipped through tons of pics online and on my computer and landed on one of the Hereford Cattle (not this particular photo of it).  What could say 'Oklahoma' better?  Cloudy skies, muddy pond, clumsy cattle, cowboy in the back and those hills in the background that say 'the Great Plains' in a way that people that aren't from around here could never understand.  Technically I don't know if this is meant to be Oklahoma or not.  My guess is that it is.   


I have been trying to figure out where this came from!  I have looked everywhere - on websites that offer stock photos for commercial calendars, stock photo websites, e-bay and more.  I even used TinEye reverse image search.  Nothing.  No joy.  The origins remain a mystery.


So that was August 8, 2011, it seems.  Start the blog, show everyone the wallpaper because I thought it was so cool, and then I don't think that much of it for months.  But I see that picture every day at work and the more I see it, the more I am fascinated.  It just SAYS Oklahoma!  And let's not forget that is coming from an Okie that wouldn't know that those are Hereford Cattle if it hadn't been for the Boss Man telling me that.


Are you getting my point?  Obsessed I've become.  With this picture.  It IS Oklahoma!  I don't know why I like it so much.  I don't decorate in Western (and wouldn't have it in my house! :-) ).  I have never been around farms or cattle or anything of the sort.  So WHY IS THIS OKLAHOMA TO ME, you ask?!  I don't know.  But it is.  I mean - look at it.  

And now I see it everywhere.  At work.  On my blog.  I even used PicsArt for the first time to take a picture of it - and now the wallpaper on my HTC EVO is the above edited version of the cattle!


So there you have it.  Now you don't have to wonder anymore about OST's wallpaper.  :-)

Statue of Liberty, Lindsay Style! :-)

We are back in the metropolis of Lindsay, Oklahoma! 


Tuesday, July 3rd I headed back to the Griffith Sports Complex for what would be the Owls last game of the season.  :-(  They played GREAT though!!  Awesome way to end the season!


On this particular day I had Richard Eugene along as an adventure partner so on the way we stopped for pictures at the little Statue of Liberty.  I had tried to get a picture when I was on the way out of Lindsay the night before and managed to get a odd, crooked picture from the car window as I zoomed by.


Growing up we went through Lindsay quite often for several years.  Before Grandma moved to Chickasha she had lived on Jefferson Street in Pauls Valley for a time - the logic being that it was a good mid-way point between her grandchildren.  (That didn't last, though, and a couple of years later she moved to Southgate in Chickasha.)  She made a friend while in Pauls Valley and after the lady was moved to a nursing home she would take us along with her on some weekends to visit.  I always loved those trips and all the little towns you go through on the way.  Lindsay was my favorite one to drive through!!  I always looked for and was excited about the little Statue of Liberty!!  I just thought that was the COOLEST thing!  And it is, isn't it?

I never really knew what it was and I don't know if it has changed hands over the years or not, but at the moment it is partly part of the Chamber of Commerce which is located behind the statue and partly a veterans memorial.

I guess it is one of those things that the people who live there don't appreciate - like people in Europe and castles.  After doing not exactly an intense web search but a decent one, I was unable to turn up a single mention or picture of the statue!!  About all you find regarding Lindsay is the Murray Mansion.  Which, yes, I do desperately need to visit!!!

I did find something interesting in my search, though.  It seems a General John C. Fremont made an interesting statement in a report in the mid-1800s about the Washita Valley:

...if there is a Garden of Eden in the Western Hemisphere, it is in the Washita Valley.  

Granted, the only places I have been able to locate such a statement on are various websites touting the awesomeness of Lindsay (in the heart of the Washita Valley).  Did he really say it?  Who cares!  Remember what I said in the post about Fred regarding Grady Countians and the Washita being like Egyptians and the Nile?  Yep, you guessed it.  I am going to take it and run with it!!!  :-)  And now is a good time to mention that I have the most amazing journey planned with me, some serious GPS locator and the Little Washita.  It will be epic.  It will be even better if Jadzia can come along (my as yet non-existent new Jeep!)  But the adventure can definitely wait until it is cooler!!  :-)

I leave you today with a shot of me and my new friend, Miss Little Lindsay Liberty!  :-)

Griffith Sports Complex - Lindsay

This is probably the least exciting post yet.  Not much to tell.

The date?  Monday, July 2, 2012.  

The mission?  To watch Treyton Seth and the rest of the Owls whoop up on some baseball team or other.  (Mission failed - on their part, not mine  :-))

After work I drove out to Lindsay and followed the only instructions I was given:  turn left at Wal-Mart.  I was concerned about being able to find the ballpark, but that turned out to not be an issue at all.  You turn left at Wal-Mart, go a bit and over the hill you can see the lights to the right.  

It is a little bit disappointing after watching so many ball games at the Chickasha Sports Complex, but it is a nice little place.  Possibly the best part is the very reasonable prices at the concession stand!  :-)

I had Shawna Dawn go with me during a lull in the game to get a shot of the little memorial marker thing over near the concession stand.  I have no clue who J.K. Griffith and his wife are.  No clue.  I suppose Lindsay peeps know.  All I could find online was a document that showed there was a J.K. Griffith who was the president of the American Exchange Bank in Lindsay.  Same person?  Son of the father of the ballpark?  Maybe.  I don't know.  I did enjoy their little sports complex though; it was a nice place for the regional tournament.

Memorial Day Weekend V - Rock Spring Baptist Church

We are going to skip over Eakly Cemetery in the day's chronicles.  I have covered it before and probably will again!
On the way to Eakly I spotted a historical marker on the east side of the road and made a point to catch it on the way back towards Anadarko.  It is up off the road on a hill and partially obscured by grass and other growth.

The marker reads:

ROCK SPRING BAPTIST CHURCH

1/4 Mile East

First Baptist Church

Among Oklahoma Plains Indians

ORGANIZED 1874 BY REV. JOHN McINTOSH.

CREEK INDIAN.  FIRST KNOWN BAPTIST

MISSIONARY TO THESE TRIBES.

First Trip summer 1874 under auspices of

CREEK BAPTIST ASSN.

Sermon text John 3:16.  Black Beaver. Interpreter

"This is the Word from the Great Spirit Above

to all His children" -- McIntosh

Naturally we went on down the road trying to locate any remnants of said church.  We couldn't find a darn thing visible from the road that looked like it was or used to be a church, but we did see a cemetery on the south side of the road and decided that probably used to go with the church.  I should have gotten pictures!  When I got home I did some research on Find A Grave and sure enough there is a Rock Springs Cemetery outside of Gracemont.  Pretty sure it is the one we passed.  I will just have to hit it up another time!


The funny thing is that I have read a few things online that suggest that there is still a Rock Springs Baptist Church (yes, Rock Springs, not Rock Spring as on the marker, but it appears to be the same).  I will have to research that more I suppose.