21 Steps to Obnoxiously Catholic

Feb. 11, Feast of St. Scholastica, twin sister of St. Benedict, who founded the first community of Benedictine nuns.  When she died in 547, her soul ascended to Heaven in the shape of a dove.

#icons

I don't know how I started to first come up with this silly list, but I had a whole lot of fun with it.  Most of these are things I have actually done, thought of doing, or wanted to do at some point in my life.  Twenty steps to obnoxiously Catholic: can you guess which?

1  //  Preface every e-mail, journal entry, blog post, written letter, or scrawled note with "Feast of Saint ______ , __th Day of ______ Time." 

2  //  Wear a Scapular. Outside your shirt.  Kiss it often.

3  //  Insist on referring to every religious-turned-secular holiday with its liturgically historical title, as in Saint Valentine's Day, Eve of All Saints, and Walpurgis Night. 

4  //  Ask if you can have people's left-over candle stubs, "you know, for the home altar." c; 

5  //  For your political leanings under the About Me section on your Facebook page, list Catholic.  Distributist is also acceptable. 

6  //  Write the Pope suggesting he make it a rule to see people's baptismal certificates before allowing entrance to Saint Peter's Basillica and the Vatican Museums. 

7  //  Give your children unmistakably Catholic names, such as Augustine, John Paul, Bernadette, Philomena, and Hildegard. Also Mary, followed by any traditional name.  (Maria if Spanish.)

8  //  Mentally organize your friends and acquaintances under the categories Catholic, Almost Catholic, and Not Yet Catholic. 

9  //  Spend far too many hours on the internet expounding the deeply Christian aspects of Sherlock, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, and Firefly. 

10  //  Consider an education in world religion taking your children to an Eastern Rite Mass. 

11  //  Be the person who has a prayer card on hand--for everything. 

12  //  Under the second languages category in job applications, circle "Other" and write "liturgical Latin." 

13  //  Explain to people who stare at or make rude comments about your large family of five under the age of five that, "I'll never have to harass them for grandchildren." 

14  //  Spam your social networks daily with Catholic memes, Crisis Magazine articles, and the Pope's tweets. 

15  //  Seek out and hoard first class relics. Do not be at all shy or ashamed to introduce friends to the decayed parts of (holy!) dead people.   

16  //  Make sure that anyone who knows you for more than five minutes is familiar with the life stories of Cardinal Newman, Fulton J. Sheen, or G.K. Chesterton.

17  //  Tell your three-year-old that "Jesus is in the church, inside His golden box," but that, "Jesus isn't in that church; not as His Bread Self, I mean." 

18  //  When people ask you if you know someone who can get things done, tell them, "You know the Mormon Mafia? Well, Catholics have something like that, too.  It's called the Mafia. . .  Just the Mafia."

19  //  Continually confound people by crying, "Oh, I do hope my son becomes a priest! Or the pope! Yeah, 'cause how cool would it be to be the pope's mom?" 

20  //  During the Eucharistic procession, grasp your girlfriend's arm and say, "Oh my gosh, there He is.  It's Him, it's Him!  Can I touch the cloth touching Him?  How does my hair look?"  Catholic fangirls be crazy.

21  //  Consider being called a "close-minded Papist" by your college professor a deeply touching compliment.

What kind of crazy-awesome things are you known for doing?  If not a Catholic, as something else (a religion, ethnicity, culture, or fan)?  Have I left anything out of the list?