Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1401

On a somewhat less serious note...

Pavane for a Newborn Prince

A bit of Christmas loveliness from a couple of my readers:

A reader could use your help this Christmas

Hello from one of your slavering, shuffling horde of mindless lickspittle readers—from a slavering, shuffling, mindless lickspittle reader who happens to be broke, unfortunately. I've been out of work for three years (long story), have a disability that interferes with my ability to find new work, and am living on a fixed income. I've exhausted my savings and my disability payments don't cover all my basic expenses, so I've put ads and links on my blog to Amazon.com in hopes of raising a little extra cash. You can read about my situation here. If you think it is appropriate, I would appreciate it if you could encourage your readers to go to my site and click through the banner ads there for Amazon or one of the other retailers before making their purchases. That way, I'll receive a small commission, a few coins in this virtual tin cup I'm rattling. If you don't feel it's appropriate to ask people to visit my site and click through before making their purchases, I would appreciate your prayers and those of your readers. Thank you.

Father, help your reader make it through this tough time and find work. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Mother Mary and St. Joseph the Worker, help him by your prayers!

Authors Love to Hear This

"Today your books arrived. Thank you! Started to read and find it hard to put down, they are meant for presents after all. Will have to order a new set in January for myself. Merry Christmas to you and yours!" - A Happy Reader

She's referring to the Mary, Mother of the Son trilogy:

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But, of course, you can get a lot of other books and media materials on the Faith as well. I just tell people to get one of each, then they don't have to endure the agony of making up their minds.

Kidz! Do you have a degree and a Delusion of Godhood?

You can be a Bioethicist!



Professional Bioethics! The Best Ethics Money Can Buy!

Speaking of Dappled Things...

Old Friend Jonathan Potter writes:

Korrektiv is starting up a press, Korrektiv Press, and my collection of poems, House of Words, is our first effort. It came out on Sept. 30 and is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the University Book Store and Open Books in Seattle, and Auntie's in Spokane.

It was also reviewed in the current issue of Dappled Things.

(Dappled Things, by the way, could use any link love you'd care to throw their way: http://www.dappledthings.org/donate.)

Any chance I could prevail upon you to post a link or two?

Happy Advent and Merry Christmas!

And Merry Christmas to you too! The world can always do with more poetry!

Stopping in for a few bit of linkie love

First on deck: Bernard Aparicio of Dappled Things writes:

The lastest Dappled Things is now online. Among many other things, it includes a fun essay that seems to me very much in the spirit of Catholic and Enjoying It! It's called "'I've, like, got to get there, like, now': A Rant on Language, Unintelligibility, and Irreverence. Here's a taste, if you will excuse the longish quote:

• Once upon a time, the word "like" had a soul. Modern tongues have since beaten the word like the proverbial dead horse, badgering it to the meaningless status of non-verbal filler. "Um" and "like" can be used almost interchangeably.
This is an offense into which we all fall, and far too often. People no longer speak or say, they "say, like," or simply "was, like." The frequency with which the word appears in everyday conversation reminds me of a hazing ritual my father endured in the Naval Academy. When so directed by an upperclassman, young plebes were forced to recite sundry lyrical compositions, sometimes interjecting the word "sir" after every word. As thus (in response to the question "why didn't you say 'sir'?"):

Sir, sir is a subservient word surviving from the surly days of old Serbia, when certain serfs, too ignorant to remember their lord's names, yet too servile to blaspheme them, circumvented the situation by surrogating the subservient word sir, by which I now belatedly address a certain senior cirroped who correctly surmised that I was syrupy enough to say sir after every word I said, sir.

Some particularly unfortunate plebes would endure an even more intense ritual of recitation by interjecting "sir" after every word (Sir, sir sir is sir a sir subservient sir . . . etc.). My father can rattle off this complicated little formula with astonishing rapidity to the great delight of his offspring who consider it a sign of great paternal experience and wisdom.

Hope you like it!

Have a blessed Advent!

Check thou it out!

One Last Thing, for Western Washingtonians

I'm coming to the Islands (Bainbridge and San Juan, respectively):

December 15 7:30 PM St. Cecilia parish, Bainbridge Island, WA. Topic: Mary, Mother and Disciple. Contact: Ann Nagle.

December 18 6:30 PM. St. Francis Parish, Friday Harbor, WA. Topic: Mary, Mother of the Son


Hope to see you there!

Finally...

I have a ton of stuff to do before the holidays, then I plan to goof off between Christmas and New Years, so I think my blogging will be sparse to non-existent till the New Year.

Blessings of Advent and a Merry Christmas to you all! I am very grateful for your readership! You guys are way more than I deserve. Please forgive me for my failures this year and pray for me that I'll do good work next year!

Prayer Request

A reader writes:

Thank you again for honoring my earlier prayer requests of some months ago. The mother whose daughter died is still grieving, of course, but is doing progressively better. I last wrote to you for prayers for my grandmother--my dad's mom--who died earlier this fall. Now I am writing for my maternal grandmother. She has been on a steady decline for some time--since dementia really started setting in in early 2008--but over the past few months she has gotten a lot worse. I just learned tonight that she is being placed into hospice care. She is 89 years old. This is an uncertain time as I don't know exactly what her condition is. I ask for prayers for her comfort during this time and that she not be in pain. I also ask that her daughters and their families be comforted during this time and that, if my grandmother is indeed to soon be reunited with Our Father and with her family that has preceded her, that those who love her be helped to cope. There have been a number of issues in the family and I pray that those who have been hurt be helped in letting go and brought peace and that my grandmother be brought peace as well.

Father, we ask that you would hear our prayers for this woman that she be comforted and protected from pain. We also ask that you would gave grace, strength, consolation and peace to her family as they care for her. And we ask that she would, in the end, have the grace and peace of a happy death. Mother Mary, pray for her, those who love her, and her caregivers. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.