Strangest place you ever read religious material

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This is not off the wall, but inspired this thread. I’m pursuing my master’s as some of you know, and I was reading docs by Pope John Paul II and the Pontifical Biblical Commission at lunch in a bar. This is the kind of bar that, back when it was legal to smoke indoors in Illinois, was a fog inside. I was thinking, “I wonder how many people have brought papal encyclicals in here…”

Other than the bathroom JoBlo.com: Movie News, Trailers, Reviews, Release Dates, what odd places have any of you read Churchy stuff?
 
MarcoPolo said:
This is not off the wall, but inspired this thread. I’m pursuing my master’s as some of you know, and I was reading docs by Pope John Paul II and the Pontifical Biblical Commission at lunch in a bar. This is the kind of bar that, back when it was legal to smoke indoors in Illinois, was a fog inside. I was thinking, “I wonder how many people have brought papal encyclicals in here…”

Other than the bathroom JoBlo.com: Movie News, Trailers, Reviews, Release Dates, what odd places have any of you read Churchy stuff?
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In a restaurant is probably the limit of my weirdness. But this brings to mind a funny incident that happened about 23 years ago. My eldest daughter and I had traveled by train from California to Florida to visit a dear friend who, like me, is a great reader of all sorts of Catholic works. As we were waiting at night at the station in Winter Park to begin our trip home, we noticed the station master inside and also noticed a book on his desk. My friend asked me what the book was. “The Dark Night of the Soul,” I replied.

Well, my friend, thinking I was speaking in jest, began to howl with laughter and I, a Secular Discalced Carmelite, joined her laughter because of the happy circumstance of seeing that this gentlemen had chosen such unexpected reading material. My teenage daughter was, of course, mortified that these two crazy women were in hysterics.

We explained ourselves to the station master who, as it turned out, was involved with a Catholic prison ministry. God likes to give us these little surprises, I think. 🙂
 
At our state agency’s cafeteria, there is an image of the Lady of Guatalupe on the background of a big portrait. 🙂
 
At work is probably the strangest place (or at least the strangest people I’ve ever read around 😃 ). Even stranger was someone asked me what I was reading, I said ‘Thomas Aquinas’ and he knew who he was, correctly guessed that I was Catholic etc etc. 👍
 
I read some of Pope Benedicts book on Jesus in a caravan in the Lake District in Cumbria recently - while my hubby was snoring one side of me, and my Border Collie snoring the other side, and listening to the rain on the roof!

Couldn’t tell which was the loudest either - they both got poked in the ribs!!!

Nothing like listening to the rain on the roof of a caravan or tent to fall asleep to!

(But then again - I am a Brit, so there ya go!!!)
 
Maybe it is for some people, but I take it in the bathroom regularly when I am soaking in bubbles!!
 
MarcoPolo said:
This is not off the wall, but inspired this thread. I’m pursuing my master’s as some of you know, and I was reading docs by Pope John Paul II and the Pontifical Biblical Commission at lunch in a bar. This is the kind of bar that, back when it was legal to smoke indoors in Illinois, was a fog inside. I was thinking, “I wonder how many people have brought papal encyclicals in here…”

Other than the bathroom JoBlo.com: Movie News, Trailers, Reviews, Release Dates, what odd places have any of you read Churchy stuff?
Click to expand...
I read apologetics works and the Bible at bars all the time. Usually over 20oz of Smithwick’s or some other dark beer 🙂
 
In restaurants (if I’m eating alone I like to have a book with me).

On vacation (at the beach, etc.).

In airports and on airplanes (great opportunity for evangelization when the person next to you glances at what you are reading and asks a question).

In the waiting room of a doctor’s or dentist’s office.

Any place where another person might read a non-religious book.
 
Confessions of Aquinas In the lobby of a hotel in Beijing, China. Sitting right next to the three story high Christmas tree, beautifully decorated by people who had no idea who Jesus (or Santa, for that matter), was.

Paul
 
I don’t know if it counts as “religious” material to say, but right before sixth period European history class began one day, my teacher saw that I had the book Europe: Today and Tomorrow written by our current pope. He actually picked in up in front of the whole class and commended me for reading something related to Europe. If only he knew what the book was about…😉
 
In the bathroom…it has become the only place in my life where I have a bit of solitude.

Glad
 
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