Church life in the International Zone, or more precisely, the Embassy Annex:

Having lots of military here on the Embassy Annex grunds mean there are plenty of church services. In fact, sunday morning is about the only time the soldiers get downtime. I guess it's too bad if you are an observant Jew or Muslim, eh? (well, the military does try to respect the Jewish and Muslim senstitivites, they just keep the Christian Sabbath more by giving that time off, at least the military here.) So, the military chaplaincy program provides services for Protestants and Catholics. I haven't been to the Protestant services, though one lapsed Catholic now a so-called born-again Christian (is there any other kind?) tried to get me to go with him one sunday. i told him I preferred the sunday services of the OTC. then explained that OTC stands for One True Church - that put him off. well, i was being a little jestful. a little.
So, to the real biz - Mass at the Embassy Annex. Services are held every weekday at noon and on Saturday and Sundays at several times. I go to the Saturday evening Mass at 1830. Priest is a good guy, even though he likes to be address as Fr. first name not Fr. surname. Likely has to do with his surname being a monastic title. Almost as bad as Captain Major or Lieutenant Major. Then, on Sundays, we have Mass en espanol, for the hispanic community. Many of the guards here are from Peru - so send a big poster of St. Rose of Lima for the Chapel lectern. Desgraciadamente, the priest can read but not really speak Spanish. His Italian is brilliant, so we've done a little pronunciation coaching. Asi es, I've returned to my roots as a Spanish speaker and accomplished hispanohablante anglo. Next step is for me to write out some prayers of petition for him in Spanish so he could practice them and use them for Mass instead of reading them out in English and having someone subsequently translate. we'll see how that goes.
This Saturday Mass will be early to accommodate the Missionaries of charity and the Papal Nuncios First Secretary who are going to visit us. I plan to give the First Secretary a copy of the new book of Mother Theresa's spiritual journey.
I like going to the English Mass because many of my faves in the Embassy go at that time. But, I like even more the Spanish Mass because those Peruvian guards put so much energy into the Mass. Last Sunday we were singing Alabare (accent on the last syllable). great stuff.

So, pray for me, pray for Iraq, and be safe - it's a dangerous world.