Family news

It's the start of hot season.

I went to early mass at dawn, when it is cool. Today is the feast of Jesus' baptism, but they had the Black Nazarene statue in the back of the church,  there, presumably for a procession after one of the later masses.

The Black Nazarene is a statue of Jesus carrying the cross...the statue turned black in a fire or something. But every year, Manila shuts down for the procession.

The idea is that Christ suffered, and we identify our pain with his sufferings.

Not my cup of tea: Catholicism tends to be flexible in worship, using art and music and stories and customs according to the culture of the people, (whereas the Protestants here tend to be like Americans: literal, strict and emphasis on words/quotes, similar to some American Catholics...
Of course, this lets them look down on the hoi polloi who have statues and rosaries and who enjoy a fiesta honoring Mary or the saints, instead of honoring a football team as is done in the USA).

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Other family news is that we lost another of the outdoor dogs. She wasn't that old, but was related to the one who died last week. I wonder if they had an illness, or got poisoned by chemicals since they are allowed into the garage at night as watchdogs.

I wasn't too sorrowful about it: She was the only dog here who has bitten me. She was medium sized, but took after her father, George the killer Lab and was quite aggressive.

Sigh.

We buried her under the Banana trees in the back garden, lighting two candles and said a prayer.

My 3 dogs are also getting older, and the Labrador now sleeps in my room. He bites so I feel safe, but we now need a couple of medium sized dogs to roam around the large business center etc. at night for safety. We will check if there are puppies at the farm to bring down.