Did the SAINTS Really Win SuperBowl 44?

Joseph Herrin (02-08-2010)















Final Score New Orleans Saints 31 - Indianapolis Colts 17

As I sit down to write this my computer clock reports that the time is 22:22. The Weather Channel gadget on my iGoogle homepage reports that the temperature where I sit is 44 degrees.
























The Colts led during the first half of SuperBowl 44, but the Saints made a comeback in the second half. During the go-ahead touchdown drive, Saints’ quarterback Drew Brees was 7 for 7 for 44 yards.

The final score of SuperBowl 44 came as # 22, Tracey Porter, a cornerback for the New Orleans Saints, intercepted a Peyton Manning pass and ran it back for a touchdown. The score stood at 31-17. Indianapolis made one more valiant attempt to overcome the deficit, but was stopped short of the end zone, turning the football over to the Saints on downs. The time remaining in the game when this occurred: 44 seconds.

Some other numbers that stand out:

Saints kicker Garrett Hartley punted twice for an average of 44 yards.
Colts running back Chad Simpson returned five punts for an average of 22 yards.
[Source: http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2010020700/2009/POST22/saints@colts/recap/full-story#tab:analyze]

The prevalence of the numbers 44 and 22 were obvious during the game. After all, this was SuperBowl 44. Even as the man who sealed the game, putting New Orleans up by two touchdowns wore the number 22, the leading receiver, and man who gained the most yards for the Colts, Dallas Clark, wore number 44. The 22s and 44s ruled this game.

* It should be noted that all this occurred as America’s 44th President is in office.

Perhaps some who are looking for a message in the form of a parable through this SuperBowl are encouraged, for a team bearing the name Saints has won. They may think this bodes well for Christianity at large. I think this parable needs a deeper look, however. A key part of this parable revolves around clearly identifying who is who, for the obvious is not the right answer.

That correctly identifying the teams and who they represent is a critical part of this parable is seen in the following details. The halftime show centered upon the performance of a classic rock group named “The Who.” The Who performed a medley of songs that included their signature song “Who are you?” The song repeats the following chorus section.

Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
'Cause I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

SuperBowl 44 is one parable that will not be understood if one accepts the identity that the teams bear on the surface. One must ask themselves that question that is ubiquitous in New Orleans at this time.





















Has it troubled anyone in the least that this team named Saints comes from one of the most wicked cities in America, New Orleans? This is the wicked city that God judged in 2005 as two Hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, breached the city’s levees and inundated large swaths resulting in a loss of many lives and the flight of half of her population which has not returned to this date.

To read about the parable of these hurricanes and their relationship to the homosexual festival Southern Decadence, I recommend the following webpages.

http://www.heart4god.ws/id579.htm
http://www.heart4god.ws/id580.htm

New Orleans is a center for debauchery. It leads the nation in violent crimes per capita, being nicknamed “the murder capital of the world.”

Although the city has lost more than 40% of its pre-Katrina population, it has recaptured an infamous unwanted title, as the nation's "murder capital," according to the FBI. By November 2007, local media reports claimed homicides had already eclipsed the previous year's numbers. The city recorded a total of 209 homicides in 2007.

New Orleans was once again the United States murder capital, and 3rd leading city in the world, in 2008.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans]

Every form of moral degeneracy is rampant in the town, for which the French Quarter and Bourbon Street have become world renowned. Aside from the homosexual festival Southern Decadence, the city also plays host to Mardi Gras, and was the birthplace of the XXX rated video series Girls Gone Wild.

At the same time, New Orleans is a bastion of Roman Catholicism, which is a reincarnation of the Babylonian mystery religions. As this ancient Babylonian cult was a perverse fertility religion, it is not surprising that New Orleans, which is dominated by Roman Catholicism, has experienced such moral decay. The billions of dollars the Roman Catholic church has paid out in recent years to settle sex scandals where priests have molested untold numbers of youth is an indication of the fruit of their religious practices. The John Jay report that has compiled information on the sexual abuse committed by Roman Catholic clergy reports that 81% of the abuse was committed against males (homosexuality), and a full 22% was committed against those as young as ten years old (pedophilia).

In 2002, the John Jay report tabulated a total of 4392 priests and deacons in the U.S. against whom allegations of sexual abuse were considered by their diocese to have been "substantiated.”
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sex_abuse_cases]

New Orleans is a Roman Catholic city. Therefore, when one attaches the name “Saints” to this city, the identification of these saints should be clarified. The Roman Catholic Church declares that it is the one true church of Christ, and she has venerated many largely pagan persons by elevating them to the status of “saints.” These saints are prayed to by the “faithful” of the Catholic church.

An excellent book on the topic of the Babylonian character of the Roman Catholic Church is The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop. The author identifies for the reader the origin of the Fleur-de-lis, which is the symbol found on the helmet of the New Orleans Saints football team.


















Fleur-de-lis

Alexander Hislop relates that this symbol had its origins in Babylon in the worship of Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz. The three points represent this unholy trinity. These pagan deities were given other names as their worship spread to other nations and tongues. Among the Greeks, Nimrod was known as Kronos, and we read the following concerning the development of the Fleur-de-lis.

Kronos signifies "The Horned one." As a horn is a well known Oriental emblem for power or might, Kronos, "The Horned one," was, according to the mystic system, just a synonym for the Scriptural epithet applied to Nimrod - viz., Gheber, "The mighty one" (Gen 10:8), "He began to be mighty on the earth..."

The meaning of this name Kronos, "The Horned one," as applied to Nimrod, fully explains the origin of the remarkable symbol, so frequently occurring among the Nineveh sculptures, the gigantic HORNED man-bull, as representing the great divinities in Assyria. The same word that signified a bull, signified also a ruler or prince...

Hence the "Horned bull" signified "The Mighty Prince," thereby pointing back to the first of those "Mighty ones," who, under the name of Guebres, Gabrs, or Cabiri, occupied so conspicuous a place in the ancient world, and to whom the deified Assyrian monarchs covertly traced back the origin of their greatness and might. This explains the reason why the Bacchus of the Greeks was represented as wearing horns, and why he was frequently addressed by the epithet "Bull-horned," as one of the high titles of his dignity. Even in comparatively recent times, Togrul Begh, the leader of the Seljukian Turks, who came from the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, was in a similar manner represented with three horns growing out of his head, as the emblem of his sovereignty. (Fig 9)...





















The double horn had evidently been the original symbol of power or might on the part of sovereigns; for, on the Egyptian monuments, the heads of the deified royal personages have generally no more than the two horns to shadow forth their power. As sovereignty in Nimrod's case was founded on physical force, so the two horns of the bull were the symbols of that physical force.

And, in accordance with this, we read in Sanchuniathon that "Astarte put on her own head a bull's head as the ensign of royalty." By-and-by, however, another and a higher idea came in, and the expression of that idea was seen in the symbol of the three horns. A cap seems in course of time to have come to be associated with the regal horns. In Assyria the three-horned cap was one of the "sacred emblems," in token that the power connected with it was of celestial origin, - the three horns evidently pointing at the power of the trinity.

Still, we have indications that the horned band, without any cap, was anciently the corona or royal crown. The crown borne by the Hindoo god Vishnu, in his avatar of the Fish, is just an open circle or band, with three horns standing erect from it, with a knob on the top of each horn. (Fig 12)





















All the avatars are represented as crowned with a crown that seems to have been modeled from this, consisting of a coronet with three points, standing erect from it, in which Sir William Jones recognizes the Ethiopian or Parthian coronet... Instead of the three horns, three horn-shaped leaves came to be substituted (Fig 13); and thus the horned band gradually passed into the modern coronet or crown with the three leaves of the fleur-de-lis, or other familiar three-leaved adornings.


















[Source: The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop]

* Note: I highlighted the word “avatar” as this is a word coming very much back into vogue. The movie Avatar this week became the highest grossing movie of all time in America, surpassing $650 million domestically, and over $2 billion dollars in worldwide sales.

The New Orleans Saints wear a “three horned cap” on their heads. This identifies who they truly represent. Nimrod was immortalized in the Babylonian pantheon of deities as the Sun, while his wife Semiramis was cast as the Moon. We see, therefore, that these “saints” of New Orleans are not the true people of God, nor are they the overcomers. These are worshipers of a pagan deity. They are masquerading as the saints of Christ and one must carefully inquire “Who are you. I really want to know.”

Christ said, “You shall know them by their fruit.” The fruit of these false saints is evident in the social decay of this wicked city.

That this SuperBowl is a parable of Sun worshipers who are fraudulently masquerading as SON worshipers, is evidenced in a number of details. SuperBowl 44 was held in Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Florida (the Sunshine State). This event was also held on a SUNday, the day of the week that idolaters set aside for the worship of the Solar deity.

There are numerous sources aside from Alexander Hislop that link the symbol of the Fleur-de-lis to Sun worship.

Many other symbols of sun worship are used in Catholicism, such as halos, pagan crosses, lightning bolts, hand-signals from sun worship cults, tridents, the fleur-de-lis, and sexagesimal triangles with the eye of Horus.
[Source: http://reformationreborn.com/AD-Bible-Paganism-Sun_Worship-Symbols.html]

Here is a loose translation from translation Michel Pastoureau: Traité d'Héraldique, Paris, 1979.

"The use for ornamental or symbolic purposes of the stylised flower usually called fleur de lis is common to all eras and all civilisations. It is an essentially graphic theme found on Mesopotamian cylinders, Egyptian bas-reliefs, Mycenean potteries, Sassanid textiles, Gaulish coins, Mameluk coins, Indonesian clothes, Japanese emblems and Dogon totems.
[Source: http://www.heraldica.org/topics/fdl.htm]

The Fleur-de-lis has especially come to be linked to the worship of the goddess, the queen of heaven, of whom Semiramis is the original. The Roman Catholic Church has substituted the worship of Semiramis for an idolatrous and distorted worship of Mary the mother of Christ.


























Note the Fleur-de-lis staff in her hand and the symbol on the crown on her head. The Catholics have merely substituted a false veneration of Mary for the original worship of Semiramis, Queen of Heaven with the infant Tammuz on her lap.

It is no wonder that the New Orleans Saints have chosen this symbol to adorn their helmets. Yet, this emblem stands as a symbol of the same woman that the apostle John wrote a description of in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 17:1-6
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication." So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Yahshua. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

Is not the home of these Saints who played in the SuperBowl befitting of the pattern revealed in John’s words? New Orleans is a town surrounded by waters. It was this very fact that led to her being deluged in the hurricanes of 2005. This city is “drunk with the wine of her fornication,” a fact testified to the world on her high festivals of Mardi Gras and Southern Decadence. She has “in her hand a cup of abominations, and the filthiness of her fornication.” And throughout the centuries the Roman Catholic Church has made herself drunk on the blood of the saints, and with the martyrs of Yahshua.

What then is the parable of SuperBowl 44? What does the victory of Sun worshiping saints portend for the people of God who hold fast to the testimony of Yahshua, the SON of God? To answer this question, let me speak for a moment of the present day identity of those typified by the New Orleans Saints.

These saints are not merely the Roman Catholic Church. The great harlot also has many daughters. These daughters are also Sun worshipers. Consider that among the Protestant denominations, Easter and Christmas are as equally revered as they are among the adherents of Catholicism, though these “holy-days” are clearly traceable back to Babylon. The name Easter, is even derived from the name of the pagan goddess of fertility (Eoster, Ishtar, Astarte, Ashtoreth). The season of Lent that much of the Catholic and Protestant churches are soon to enter, marking with various commemorations, is completely pagan in its origin, having no origination in the Bible. See the article at the following link for a further study of this subject.

http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/fat-tuesday-mardi-gras-ash-wednesday.html

In this hour the Father is calling His people to come out of Babylon, and this includes the false practices that she has embraced.

Revelation 18:4-5
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”

We live in an hour when Yahweh is making a division among His people. On the one hand is a large group who call themselves saints of God, but who have created an image of God according to their own imagination. These ones have adopted many pagan rituals, traditions and beliefs (a practice called syncretism). Many were raised altogether in Babylon, knowing nothing different. Yahweh is now calling His true people to come out of Babylon, and a remnant are responding, and more will respond in coming days.

As is ever the case, those who are in the great majority, who walk according to the flesh, will persecute those who walk according to the Spirit. We see this persecution of the righteous by the unrighteous as far back as Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, and Christ and the Jewish leaders. Those who are religious, but are separated from the life of Yahweh, become the persecutors of those who are the sons of promise and faith.

What I see in SuperBowl 44 is a parable of things which are to shortly commence among the body of Christ. A remnant must come out of Babylon, the great harlot. As they do, they will find themselves persecuted by the harlot who is depicted as drunk on the blood of the true saints of God.

People of God, in 1999 the Father led me out of Babylon. I have shared about this journey in the autobiographical book Evidence of Things Unseen.
http://www.heart4god.ws/id426.htm

For the past decade the Father has led me as a forerunner to experience things that a much greater portion of His people must also pass through. One of the great characteristics of this experience is that it has been a time of “flesh cutting.” I have written previously of the significance of the number 22 as the Father has made it known to me. Most recently I shared this significance in the post titled, A Ministry to the Few - Part Three.

http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/ministry-to-few-part-three.html

The number 22 signifies flesh-cutting, crucifixion, and the removal of wickedness. This is a process that all of God’s people must experience. Very often the instrument of this flesh-cutting is the religious mind that is guided by the soul rather than by the Spirit. God will use the religious to act as instruments of refining to those appointed to righteousness. This pattern is very evident in the life of Christ who was persecuted by the religious leaders of His day. These religious leaders delivered Christ over to the Roman government to execute every wicked judgment that they deemed desirable. This pattern of the religious acting in concert with world government is what is signified in John’s description of the Great Harlot, Babylon, riding upon a scarlet beast. Beasts, in both Daniel’s prophecies and John’s Revelation, represent governments.

The Father has told me that the experiences He has led me to pass through during the past ten years are a pattern of what all of His faithful sons and daughters must shortly pass through. A majority of the things I have suffered have come from those who were professing believers. Many of my persecutors were truly born again, yet they were carnal in their reasoning and actions.

Very recently the Father has permitted me to experience imprisonment that was precipitated by Christians who sought to have a judgment carried out against me through the courts of man. In effect, the saints employed the government of the day to carry forth a judgment they deemed desirable. I am neither bitter nor offended that I had to experience these things. I share it with you because the Spirit is testifying that this same pattern will be carried out on a much larger scale in coming days.

What is testified by SuperBowl 44 is that those who are appointed to walk as overcomers must be subjected to the oppression and persecution of religious people who ride upon the back of a great beast (political government). The great harlot will use the governmental system to persecute the faithful sons and daughters of Christ. This is not new, it has happened often since the days of Christ and the early apostles.

Acts 4:23-30
And being let go, [the disciples] went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: "Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: 'Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the LORD and against His Christ.' For truly against Your holy Servant Yahshua, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Yahshua."

Consider for a moment that the persecution of the religious leaders, in concert with the government of their day, became the means by which Yahweh delivered His Son to suffering. Yet through this suffering, the Son of God was perfected.

Hebrews 2:10
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

It is also through suffering that the sons of God will be perfected.

I Peter 5:10
And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

The overcomers in Christ triumph as they are led as sheep to the slaughter. Though outwardly they may perish and experience much defeat, as they patiently endure all things they triumph. Those who outwardly bear the name “Saints,” being identified as the people of God, serve as the instruments of chastisement and purging to the true overcomers.

Let me share with you a contrast that is set forth in Scriptures. Even as we observe an unrighteous union of the Great Harlot and the Scarlet Beast upon which she sits, we also observe a righteous symbol of the overcoming people of God riding upon a beast. Yahshua demonstrates the pattern for us.

Mark 11:1-10
And as they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. And if anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' you say, 'The Lord has need of it'; and immediately he will send it back here." And they went away and found a colt tied at the door outside in the street; and they untied it. And some of the bystanders were saying to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" And they spoke to them just as Yahshua had told them, and they gave them permission. And they brought the colt to Yahshua and put their garments on it; and He sat upon it. And many spread their garments in the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. And those who went before, and those who followed after, were crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!"

The King James Version of the Bible records the word “colt” 15 times. Of these occurrences, 13 of them are a reference to the event described above. The name of the team that the Saints played in SuperBowl 44 is the Colts. The Colts were subdued by the Saints. What is signified by this?

Consider what is revealed in this event as described above in the Gospel of Mark. This colt that Christ sat upon was the foal of a donkey. Donkey’s are stubborn animals and serve as a symbol of the Adamic nature, the fallen soul of mankind. A donkey will only with reluctance allow someone to ride upon their back, and only after its will has been broken to accept a rider. Yet we read of Christ riding on a colt that had never been ridden before. This was remarkable.

What is signified in this event is that Christ was the first man to ever rule over the human soul. Christ completely subjected His soul to the will of the Father. He never did anything of His own initiative. No other man had ever ridden this donkey before (the rebellious soul), yet this colt submitted to the Lord riding him.

This event came at the end of Christ’s earthly ministry. It was just prior to His arrest and crucifixion. Christ had demonstrated through three and a half years of ministry that He always sought the will of the Father, and never chose His own way. This is a lesson that all those children of God who would be overcomers must learn.

Consider now that even as it was the Sun worshiping persecutors of the righteous in SuperBowl 44 who subdued the Colts, it is likewise the purpose of God to use apostate believers as His instrument to bring a remnant to a place of inward victory, though outwardly they suffer defeat. Even as the Jews, in concert with the Roman government, were God’s instrument to perfect His Son 2,000 years ago, so too will God use a vast and carnal body of professing Christians, in league with the government, to perfect His children in humility, love and righteousness in this last hour. The following Scriptures must surely be fulfilled.

John 16:2
"They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.”

Matthew 10:17-23
"But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to the courts, and scourge you in their synagogues; and you shall even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles... And brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”

Revelation 12:11
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Who are the Colts who were subdued? Consider that the final score of the Colts was 17. This too is a number that I have often referenced. It is symbolic of the overcomers in Christ, the righteous who are appointed unto salvation. As I have mentioned elsewhere, when you add up every digit from 1 to 17 the sum of the numbers equals 153.

There were 153 large fish that the disciples brought up in the net on the right side of the boat at the third appearance of Christ after His resurrection. The nets did not break, and this number serves as a testimony of that precise number whom the Father has appointed to walk as overcomers in this last hour. See the writing The Third Appearance of Christ, for more information on this parable.

http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/third-appearance-of-christ.html

E.W. Bullinger, in his book Number in Scripture, states the following of the number 17.

SEVENTEEN stands out very prominently as a significant number. It is not a multiple of any other number, and therefore it has no factors. Hence it is called one of the prime (or indivisible) numbers. What is more, it is the seventh in the list of the prime numbers.

The series runs 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, etc. Thirteen, it will be noted, is also a prime number, and is therefore important; but it is the sixth of the series: hence it partakes of the significance of the number 6, and is indeed an intensified expression of it.

In like manner seventeen being the seventh of the series, it partakes of and intensifies the significance of the number seven. Indeed, it is the combination or sum of two perfect numbers—seven and ten—seven being the number of spiritual perfection, and ten of ordinal perfection.

Contrasted together the significance of these two numbers is clear; and when united in the number seventeen we have a union of their respective meanings, viz., spiritual perfection, plus ordinal perfection, or the perfection of spiritual order.
[Source: http://philologos.org/__eb-nis/13666.htm#17]

See how this number 17 is stated to be the sum of two perfect numbers, ten and 7. During SuperBowl 44 the Colts scored 10 points in the first quarter and 7 points in the third quarter. These two perfect numbers made up the totality of their score.










God will bring a people to spiritual perfection as they outwardly suffer defeat. This is the pattern of Christ. This is the pattern of the apostles. This is the pattern of all those who have walked righteously in this earth. Outwardly it has appeared that they were overcome by evil men, yet inwardly they triumphed.

This is my understanding of the parable of SuperBowl 44.

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

Appendix: I am appending the following article as I believe it demonstrates well the identity of those who are symbolized by the New Orleans Saints.

On Super Bowl Sunday, churches filled with black and gold worshipers



















Parishioners wearing New Orleans Saints gear attend Mass on Super Bowl Sunday at St. Rita's Catholic Church in Harahan.

By John Pope, The Times-Picayune
February 07, 2010, 12:23PM
Gerald Herbert/The Associated Press

At 10:30 a.m. Mass today in Mater Dolorosa Church in New Orleans' Carrollton section, the crowded sanctuary was awash in black and gold. People young and old sported New Orleans Saints T-shirts, Drew Brees and Reggie Bush jerseys, and fleurs-de-lis on headbands, shirts and scarves.

Towering above all of them was a spray of black and gold feathers sprouting from Bobbie McCulla-Schields' headband, anchored in an elaborate black-and-gold ribbon with -- what else? -- a fleur-de-lis centerpiece. A spangly gold fleur-de-lis adorned her black T-shirt and more fleurs-de-lis were scattered over her black-and-gold slippers.

"Do you like them?" she said, showing off her footwear. "I made them myself for a party. I'm mad about my city and the Saints."

In the middle of her Who Dat paraphernalia, McCulla-Schields sported an understated pendant with one word: Faith.

Most of the Mass followed the liturgy of the day, but there were some topical insertions, like the announcement that today's 5:30 Mass would be canceled so people could watch Super Bowl XLIV, and this addition to the prayers: "For the New Orleans Saints, let us pray that they have a great and injury-free game."

Before the service, the musical offerings were "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" and "Bourbon Street Parade."

At the end of the Mass, the recessional was "When the Saints Go Marching In." Parishioners clapped time, and the Rev. John Hinton kept time by waving a second-line handkerchief.

At the Poor Clares' monastery in Uptown New Orleans, there were prayers for the saints -- and the New Orleans Saints.

Like many other places of worship, the chapel was full of people in black and gold T-shirts and jerseys.

Not to be outdone by the laity, Sister Helen Carroll sported a black eyepatch with a gold fleur-de-lis. It was such a surprise -- she doesn't ordinarily wear one -- that one worshipper nearly fell off her pew, a friend reported.

In honor of the day, Sister Olivia gave Rhoda Faust, a volunteer at the monastery and an ardent Saints fan, a black-and-gold rosary she had made, adorned with a golden fleur-de-lis.
[© 2010 NOLA.com. All rights reserved.]

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