Still in Jerusalem

Today, I celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass just yards away from the actual spot of the Crucifixion.  There is a Greek Orthodox altar at the spot, and then two Latin Rite altars to the right (from the perspective of one looking at the altars).  I celebrated at the altar which marks the 11th station, where Jesus is nailed to the cross.  A smaller and closer altar is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows.  Needless to say, this has been the most memorable part of the pilgrimage.

In Jerusalem

Today I was able to celebrate Mass at the site of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor.  It really makes one feel a part of history.  Every Mass is an important part of history (and it brings the most important part of history to those present), but the place makes it feel more historic.

I just arrived in Jerusalem this afternoon, so I haven’t seen much of the city yet.

Fr. John Gets Technical

I hope this helps somebody out there.

The Video IPod is cool, but expensive. It’s possible to get el-cheapo “MP4” players that do sorta the same thing. They tend to have rather small screens, but you can watch videos on them, and full-length movies at that. You can find the players for under $50, and sometimes even under $30!

I have one, but there’s a catch…

Like most of them, mine plays only a special video format (.mtv in my case, but most use .amv). A conversion program is provided, but it only converts from Directshow Filters (i.e. whatever can play in Windows Media Player).

MP4 video (ironically) is not normally supported by Windows Media Player.

I have temporarily solved this problem, for the most part, by downloading the 3ivx filter, but it stops working in 30 days unless you buy a license.

Still, some .mp4 files don’t work with it, such as “That Catholic Show”.

I can still get “That Catholic Show” onto my “MP4” gizmo by using the free YouTube Downloader program. I find the show on YouTube, copy the web address, and save the output as an .mpeg file (for some reason, the .avi format has problems). Then I convert to .mtv from the .mpeg file.
This way, I can watch Catholic video podcasts on the go… and without a video IPod!