Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 95

What I Did This Christmas

So I started Christmas by allowing my computer to suffer a massive heart attack and die, taking with it the logon information for this blog. This was, of course, the Greatest Gift of All for people who don’t like this blog.  It was also a pleasant break for me, which I used to find another […]

In Praise of Materialism at Christmas

Grey gnostic spirits pledge to me “Good Thoughts” at Christmas. They piously denounce materialism and what is bought,  say, “Gifts and presents are not worth an ounce compared to the purity of spirit.” But I say there’s nothing specially fine about that. Satan is very near it, being himself a spirit. No, I dine on […]

Behold, the Virgin Shall Conceive…

So last week, just as I was about to post a followup to this piece on Matthew, Isaiah, and the Virgin Birth my old computer suffered a devastating myocardial infarction and died.  Since then, I have been struggling to get the new system online, reconstruct my data, and salvage what is left of my old […]

The US Now Runs the Largest Gulag on the Planet

Larger than China’s.  Larger than Stalin’s.  Here. In the Land of the Free.  You can help fix it: I was sentenced 78 months to serve at a federal prison for a white-collar crime. I left home a healthy single mother of two sons, not ever experiencing any serious illnesses. I was a registered nurse who […]

The Failure of the Prolife Movement

All the this: “‘In the first place, we must correctly realize why abortion in this country (let alone in Europe) came into being. It did not come in with the legalization of contraception 6 years earlier, nor did it come in because of Margaret Sanger, who was a socialist and a Nazi supporter. It did […]

Today is an Auspicious Day!

On this day, thirty years ago, Sherry Weddell and Yr. Obdt. Svt. were received into the Catholic Church at Sacred Heart parish in Seattle, in the very shadow of the Space Needle. I will remember it as long as I live: my first confession (a *powerful* experience of grace and healing), my conditional baptism (it’s […]

Since it’s the week we recall John the Baptist

…I’ve been thinking about his mission.  The prophet Malachi says of him: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the […]

Anastasia in Ecclesialand

For those old enough to remember the olden days of Catholic listservs, I bear the sad news that Martin Fontenot, who went by the handle “Friar Gordo”, died on Sunday.  No details on his death, but please do pray for this good Catholic man.  In his memory, I post a selection from his wonderful piece […]

Deacon Steve Greydanus on Lifting Up the Lowly

Injustice and the Me-Too Moment: The New Testament gives us two perfect prayers which the Church has taken up and prays every day: one from our Lord, the Lord’s Prayer or Our Father, and one from our Lady, the Magnificat, heard today in the responsorial psalm. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord…” The […]

Over at the Catholic Weekly, we are discussing Matthew and Isaiah and the Virgin Birth

It started this way: “Yikes! Is this true?” The email landed in my mailbox with resounding virtual thud, asking for help for a confused Catholic baffled by one of those Mysteries of the Bible shows on cable TV. I have a private theory that the people who write the Mysteries of the Bible programs used to write for Scooby Doo, […]