Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1302

What New Agers Have Right

Interesting little piece over at Catholic Lane.

The New Age, in its best manifestations, has always seemed to me to be a postmodern gnostic reaction to the rapine materialism of modernity. LIke all revolutions, it understands what's wrong much better than it understands what's right. So the impulse to treat creation as sacred and not just raw materials there for the raping is healthy as far as it goes. But it's spoiled by the standard pagan blunder of worshipping created things instead of the Creator. It's a sort of blind groping toward the sacramental, but becomes a sacramentality without God. The trick for the Evangelist is to help the New Ager connect creation back to God. Franciscan expressions of the Faith can often be useful here.

Most Ridiculous Argument for Gay "Marriage" Ever

Minnesota has wide variations in temperature, therefore homosexuals can marry.

No. Really.

Remember: we live in the Age of Reason, unlike savages like Thomas Aquinas who lived in the Age of Faith.

Incidents like this...

...remind me of why I believe in Just War.

They also remind me of one of my favorite stories about my late mother-in-law, the feisty Pat Humiston, God rest her soul. She was a Brooklyn gal too and knew how to take care of herself in that pre-feminism 1940s Barbara Stanwyck way.

Once, she was riding on a packed subway and suddenly felt a hand going where hands ought not to go. Making a quick calculation as to which foot belonged to that hand, she placed the (very hard) heel of her shoe over the instep of that foot and bore down in it with all her weight.

The hand whipped away and did not return.

Brooklyn women. Gotta love 'em.

Prayer Request

A reader writes:

I have been repeatedly confessing that my prayer life is poor and my confessors continually tell me to start by simply praying the Rosary every day. After many starts and stops and failures over months and months, I finally resolved to pray *two* mysteries a day (which is Big Deal(tm) for me) and it has been going well. However, I have come under some *serious* spiritual attack. To make matters worse, I'm dedicating my Rosaries to souls in purgatory and to the chastity of my Family. Apparently I hit a nerve because Ol' Scratch is pulling out every stop and hitting me in every weak spot and opening every old wound. Could I ask you and your readers to say a prayer of support and strength to the Holy Spirit and to the Blessed Mother for me?

Thank you for all you do and your good work for the Body of Christ. May God continue to bless you and strengthen you as well.

Father, help your son persevere in prayer and grant his prayers through your Son Jesus Christ. Mother Mary, and St. Michael, pray for him and defend him in battle against the devil. May the Lord rebuke him. Grant your son all the actual graces, both internal and external, necessary to the successful issue of your glory in this fight.

Day 6 of the Tin Cup Rattle

You guys are so wonderful! Thanks for saving our bacon! I'd managed to put it off for over a year and I hope I don't have to do this again. The lights will stay on in the Pits of Despair for another month thanks to you!

I've already given you the info on how to keep the blog on the air and where to get the books, so I won't bore you with that again. But I will thank you again for your kindly awesomeness. If you think of it, please pray for me as I have applied for a job which will, God willing, put me to work with my particular skill sets.

St. Paul was a Catholic

That's why he relied on Sacred Tradition and knew that he did, just like Catholics today.

Protestants today rely on Sacred Tradition too, only they usually don't know they do.

Calling Lady Gaga a fake...

...is like saying Lil Debbie's prefab cake rolls filled with goo are "fake" Twinkies.

Was there any question that somebody with nylon hair, a stage name, and an act that consists of trying to freeze dry and recycle the mummified remains of Madonna's cultural legacy wrapped in bulletproof plastic might be "real"?

A friend of mine once remarked of Madonna, "Underneath that voluptuous flesh lies the soul of an accountant." Of Lady Gaga, I would add that beneath that scantily clad breast there beats the heart of a counterfeiter.

She represents the last gasps of a culture of narcissism that can't think of anything to do but try to shock. This is news?

Zac Alstin ponders the musical question...

Was Bin Laden a criminal, a soldier or a pirate?

Prescinding from the fact that I see no obligation to choose, I must say that this sounds like a fantastic premise for a Gilbert and Sullivan light opera.

Chesterton...

...makes another conquest!

Servant of God Dorothy Day....

is one of those people who refuses to lay down and become a mascot for the statist nostrums of the Fake Catholic Left (who are as increasingly co-opted by rich corporate manipulators and selfish pols in the Thing That Used to be Liberalism as the Talk Radio Right is manipulated by rich corporate manipulators and selfish pols of the Thing That Used to be Conservatism.

Chris Sparks writes:

After reading The Long Loneliness and starting in on a bio of Dorothy Day, I thought the world might benefit from a refresher on what the great lady actually advocated for, and what the Catholic left used to look like. So I've been posting a string of quotes to my blog, some of which (like the recent one on the benefit of having the state involved in poverty alleviation) might interest your readers.