Anyone ever heard of the Seven Churches Visitation? Well, it’s an annual tradition that usually occurs on Holy Thursday of Lent. It involves visiting 7 churches and praying before the Blessed Sacrament. Supposedly the number 7 came from one of the popes visiting the 7 churches in Rome. It is a tradition in my family to attempt this feat in under about 2 hours after Holy Thursday mass. We succeeded this year again and ate a late dinner at Chili’s to end the night. =)

Here is our timeline:
7:00 pm – Mass at St. Charles, Imperial Beach
8:15 pm – 1st church: St. Charles, Imperial Beach
8:30 pm – 2nd church: Most Precious Blood
8:49 pm – 3rd church: St. Pius X
9:02 pm – 4th church: St. Rose of Lima
9:17 pm – 5th church: St. Anthony of Padua
9:25 pm – 6th church: St. Mary
9:50 pm – 7th church: Corpus Christi
10:00 pm – Dinner at Chili’s

So I wasn’t exactly sure what type of prayers I was supposed to be saying while I was in the church, and I decided to just say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be at each church. After reading about the Seven Churches Visitation online, turns out I was doing it correctly the entire time. Yay me! =) Even though there are no set prayers, but saying each of those basic prayers was good enough.

I’m still trying to understand as best as I can why some people seem to have such a grand disdain for organized religion. It’s like all some people see are the negative characteristics that have been exaggerated and popularized by the media. There are such wonderful things in religion, and institutions in general. I’ve heard various arguments on religion and institutions, and it’s funny to me how they always focus just on the negative things. I’m not trying to get all preachy because I respect everyone’s opinions and choices, but honestly sometimes it feels like people think it’s weird to be religious. It’s almost like I’m a religious geek, outcasted because I dare to have faith in God and in His church. Weird how people can make freaks and geeks out of almost anything. Just pick whatever is not the majority, and it can be deemed as a freak or a geek. It would work the same if most of America was religious, then the few that weren’t religious would be considered weird. Our world is weird. No wonder we have so many weird people in it (me included). =P