I'm up early reading my Bible, but I can' stop thinking about football. As I read Joshua, I'm think conjuring up images of a football team gathering around saying a prayer, "Protect this house." Who's gonna protect this house!?

Anyways. I'm buying a digital camera this week or next so I'll start taking pics like a madman. It's the new trend and I'm jumping on the band wagon. I've always been jealous of DH's logs and logs of pictures. And that beautiful round belly he use to have.

Ughhh, gotta read my Bible here otherwise I won't do it later on in the day. I just learned recently Catholic means "universal." I guess it was universal because it combines all the legalism of Judaism but still satisfies the New Testament concepts of following the "spirit of the law" (Math 15). I'm just speculating, knowing nothing about church history. I'm not even sure when the Catholic Church started. I'm guessing with the first Bishop of Rome, Pontifex Romanus, or Pope. The Top religious office in Rome was the Pontifex Maximus. I love Roman History.

I don't think the Christian world would use the title Pontifex Maximus for the Bishop of Rome because after the time of Peter, Rome was an Empire and was still very much a polytheistic state. They probably worshipped Octavious Augustus more than anything else. So God knows who the first pope was after Peter's time.

Looking it up on Google I find Saint Linus who is believed to be in the Bible! (2 Tim 4:21). Nothing is known about him though. That sucks. I was expecting some good reading. I also learn that the Pope DOES use the title Pontifex Maximus. That's kinda funny to me because the Pontifex Maximus(translates to greatest bridge-builder) was more of a political position than a religious figurehead. Sure he was the top religious officer of the Roman state. But it was because he was in charge of the bridges over the Tiber River. Since the Tiber River was considered sacred and it was where the founding fathers of Rome where found, the Pontifex Maximus got his sort of religious duties from those concepts I guess. He appointed all the lower priests for each God of Rome and appointed the Vestal Virgins, who are a legend of their own.

It's sad that I learned more about Roman History in my high school Latin classes than actual Latin. The Vestal Virgins were the priestesses of Vesta, Goddess of the Hearth. There were Six of them and they were usually the prettiest girls drawn from a lot of influencial Roman families. The Vestal Virgins were also, well, virgins. They were selected at age 6 and served 30 years (most chose to serve their whole life). Their primary duty was to keep the Fire of Vesta burning. If it burned out, and it did a few times, they were all executed. If they lost their chastity during their tenure, well, worse things happened. They were buried alive.

With all that, they did get the privaleges of being THE most powerful women in the Roman state, or possible the ancient world. For one reason, they could vote. Two, they could own property and sign legal binding documents. Three, they had ridiculous political power, like freeing slaves and pardoning criminals. The most Senior Vestal was almost like an oracle. Whatever she said was considered the will of Vesta. The Vestal Virgins also had their own reserved seats at all the banquests and usually served as a guest "master of ceremony" role. They also had their own escorts, traveled in a covered caravan and ALWAYS had the right of way. There is even one story of where a Vestal Virgin merely laid eyes on (looked in the general direction) a prisoner of war and the Roman General freed the prisoner to please the Goddess. If you married a former Vestal Virgin, well, you were one lucky fella.

Outside of this history lesson, I got football on my mind. Fantasy Football is really testing me this week with some poor matchups. If you never played Fantasy Football, it's all about the matchups. I got to decide between S Davis @ Tampa Bay or B Westbrook @ WAS. I'll probably wait til Sunday morning.

Well I'm done teaching kids. Good morning sunshine.