Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1315

Prayer Requests

A reader writes:

Susan, wife of John Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus, is in need of your prayers. Susan has been dealing with cancer for over three years now and her last check up was not good. She was given less than a year to live. She is 38 years old.

Father, hear our prayer for Susan's healing, for skill for her caregivers, and for grace and strength for her family and all who love her. Mother Mary, St. Luke and St. Peregrine, pray for her.

Another reader writes:

Please pray for my family, that God grants my wife the grace to decide to help me try to repair our marriage and not continue to pursue divorce; and that he grants me the grace to endure this trial. Most of all that he watch over my 2 year old daughter during this terrible time. Thank you.

Father, hear our prayer that your love will prevail in healing this damaged marriage and that your Spirit and your Holy Angels will protect this child and give her a happy family to grow up in. Mother Mary and St. Joseph, pray for them.

Another reader writes:

My friend died this Sunday. I was with the family when they took him off of life support. Please pray for L and his family during this very difficult time.

Father, hear our prayer for the repose of L's soul and for the healing and comfort of his family. Mother Mary, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

We ask all this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Trois by Moi

Over at Catholic Exchange, we are continuing to look at the drama--and comedy--of the Faith.

Meanwhile, at the Register, I have a piece up with Another Remedy for Doubt and a blog entry about the latest goofy pronouncements from Stephen Hawking and (what is more important) why our culture treats such nonsense so seriously when Dr. Celebrity Scientist babbles it.  Be sure to click through to Mike Flynn's patient and lucid takedown of the Hawking incoherent silliness, which inadvertantly pays homage to the Logos, our Lord.

Awesome Birth Announcement and Thanks to Youse Guys

Reader Joye writes:

Hi Mark!

Annuntiamus vobis gaudium magnum: habemus Pippam!

We announce to you a great joy: we have a Pippa! ;)

Yes, our baby was born on May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, perfectly healthy! Her name is Philippa Jamie (her original due date was May 3rd, their feast day in the 1970 calendar). Clearly we cannot let her and Lucy in the same room--they would cause a Cuteness Singularity. Please thank your readers for all their prayers, and thank you for yours as well!

Sadly, Gentle Reader, it has been determined that we cannot release the photos of Cuteness II to the public because it will only inflame them with demands for more. Nor will we be releasing either short or long form birth certificates. If Pippa does ever run for President, I'm confident Congress will pass a law annexing Canada in order to grandfather her in as a citizen. I, for one, welcome our Adorable New Overlord (though she's still got a way to go to match the megawattage of Cuteness I: The Ubertot!

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But just consider Lucy as Pippa's Cuteness Mentor and together they will soon rule Americanada with pudgy fists of adorableness and inaugurate a New Era of Shock and Awwwwwww.

A dear friend writes...

I think I told you that my father has cancer. It's spread to his brain. Please pray for a miraculous recovery or a holy death. Many thanks.

Father, hear our prayer for either a miraculous recovery or for the grace of a happy and holy death through Christ our Lord. Sts. Luke and Peregrine, pray for my friend's dad. Mother Mary, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

A friend from my parish writes

Given your loathing for Notre Dame and wanted to inform you of something truly wonderful. They are now giving me scads of money to go take classes and cause trouble! Can you believe it?! Consider this my birthday (either early or late) gift to you. My scam has succeeded!

PS, In truth I am very excited to begin studying liturgical theology.

Excellent! Soak 'em for every dime and then get out there and subvert the dominant paradigm!

Israeli Couple, Obsessed with Facebook...

Words cannot describe how pathetic that is.

My friend Bao Tran, Hotshot Indie Film Dude and fellow Blessed Sacrament parishioner, writes...

Hello friends,

After a great film festival run, BLACK COFFEE is now available for online viewing! Thanks so much for all your support up to now. We've got some exciting upcoming projects in the works so the best is yet to come!

A background on the making-of: I was asked to direct a short film for a by-invitation-only challenge produced by the Seattle International Film Festival. I randomly picked a script out of a hat and was given only 4 days to shoot, 5 days to edit, and 2 days to post-produce. How did it turn out?

Watch BLACK COFFEE online here:

***NSFW: Contains mature themes. Viewer discretion advised.***

Someone has found out about David's affair and is blackmailing him.
David plans to make the payment to spare his political career, but he's about to find out he's been double-crossed.

Some BLACK COFFEE buzz:

"Highly entertaining and fraught with tension" -- Rogue Cinema

"One of the sharper short thrillers I've seen" -- Cinema Crazed

"Masterfully assembled from beginning to end" -- FilmJabber

Check thou it out!

Bernard Aparicio of Dappled Things writes:

The Easter 2011 edition of Dappled Things was just released, and it's got a couple of articles that I think readers of "Catholic and Enjoying It" would really appreciate. The first is an interview by Matthew Alderman of sculptor Andrew Wilson Smith. He does amazing work (just visit the site to see some of his sculptures) and is very insightful. If you link to it, you are welcome to grab some images of his work from the DT site to post on your blog, as his stuff is really worth seeing. (You're readers probably don't care to read suggestions on how to adorn your blog, so feel free to edit out whatever parts of this email you see fit, or add your own comments as you wish.) Anyway, here's a quote from the interview:

In my mind the idea of tradition incorporates the concept of a contract in which our ancestors, ourselves, and our descendants are obliged to keep one another's interests in mind as we manipulate our surroundings.

A good example of this contract is found in a stonemasons' tradition, in which the current generation of masons starts the process of preparing lime-mortar for their sons' use twenty years in the future, and at the same time make use of the mortar prepared by their own fathers. This understanding of tradition can be applied to all aspects of life, but I can think of at least a few examples of its application in my own life and career as a sculptor. I have had several opportunities over the years to learn artistic technique from masters who gained very little for their pains. The artists who did this for me had received similar gifts in their youth, and I am thus obliged to pass along what I have learned and thereby continue the chain into the future.

Another example will help us distinguish this kind of approach to tradition from the ideas current in the world of contemporary art and design. Modern art movements are disdainful of monuments, and especially a monument to the achievements of an individual. Three things breed this repulsion: the individual being represented is old, dead, and it's not me!

The other piece of interest is an essay titled "My Beef With Holden Caulfield," written on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of The Catcher in the Rye, in which Fr. Damian Ference looks at Salinger's famous character with an O'Connoresque critical eye, and discovers that

"Flannery O'Connor's critique of Holden Caulfield was ultimately a critique of me . . . . I wanted to be the good shepherd protecting his sheep, and the cool guy making sure that no kids fell over the edge of the cliff, while forgetting that I was one of the sheep, that I was one of the kids."

Hope you like them!

In Christ,

Bernardo

Check thou it out!

John C. Wright, World Famous Science Fiction Writer

answers the burning question, "What is Science Fiction?" in that way he has.

By the way, John C. Wright, World Famous Science Fiction Author, just bought one of my books and (mark this) did not even do it out of pity, so far as I could tell, but out of ACTUAL INTEREST in my books. I know this because L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright, Authoress Extraordinaire, Resident Space Princess of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Soulmate to and Wife of John C. Wright, World Famous Science Fiction Author, tells me so herself.

The inference, I believe, is obvious: If you hope to be even half the World Famous Science Fiction Author and Husband to a Space Princess Authoress that John C. Wright, World Famous Science Fiction Author and Husband to Space Princess Authoress L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright is, you need to emulate him in every way, starting with buying my books, which John C. Wright, World Famous Science Fiction Author and husband to L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright, Authoress Extraordinaire, Resident Space Princess of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Soulmate to and Wife of John C. Wright, World Famous Science Fiction Author, buys.

You can do that here. Well, what are you waiting for? The future is within your grasp!

And remember: if you can't decide which books or audio-visual materials you want, the safest thing to do is just get one of everything, lest you miss out and die in torments of regret. Better still, get two of everything so that you can give one set of everything to your friend, thereby avoiding the charge that you are the sort of person who would let his friend die in torments of regret over never having read, seen or heard my work. If you have more than one friend, adjust the total accordingly. The point is I'm virtually certain it's what John C. Wright, World Famous Science Fiction Author and husband to L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright, Authoress Extraordinaire, Resident Space Princess of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Soulmate to and Wife of John C. Wright, World Famous Science Fiction Author would want.

Things to Think About...

...before you or somebody you love sign into a hospital.