let us pray

[lizziebelle]

Ad sales have been way down, which is not really a surprise, since sales of just about everything are down these days. One type of ad, however, is selling like hotcakes: prayer ads. Those are way up. Go figure. Prayers to the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Virgin, and St. Jude are peppering the pages of the Reminder lately.

I must confess that I really don't understand the phenomenon; where did the whole publishing of prayers to make them come true start? I'm pretty sure that's not taught in church canon. What tickles me, though, is that what these people are doing could be considered Magick; if you told them that, though, they'd be horrified. It's one of those things that I just don't get, like NASCAR or teacup poodles. We just didn't do that in our family.

Comments

[leenah.livejournal.com]

oh, nascar is fun!

-- says she who dated a stock car driver, and grew up in the South which seems to be NASCAR central.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

It may be fun, but I don't get it. ;)

Love the icon! Talk about va-va-voom...

[leenah.livejournal.com]

well, honestly, people watch it for the crashes. sad but true.

and, for me, there's something about that *sound* coming from a tv set that just hits some childhood memory.

the few times i was at the track the sound was ENORMOUS. and i watched in hopes there would be no crashes. it was scary.

but the bar at the racetrack was fab! sleazy old thing, the size of a classroom, barely lit. i do love dive bars.


someone posted a picspam of david tennant, and ooooooh. i do like 'em geeky. nerdly boys, sigh. -- and my stock car driver was nerdly, for a guy who drove race cars and had long hair. HE WORE GLASSES. sigh. eyeglasses. sigh.

[pjthompson]

Not a completely new thing for Christians, but they've forgotten the old days:

http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Christian-Magic-Marvin-Meyer/dp/0691004587/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229637224&sr=1-1

I've always thought a lot of Xtian prayer rituals were just that—magic rituals. Like burying a statue of St. Jospeh (upside down) on your property in order to sell the place fast. But like you said, they'd hotly deny it was magic. People are such odd creatures.

[pkmorrison.livejournal.com]

Oh, TOTAL magic! Candle magic, and salutes/blessings to the Quarters, and all the other stuff. But noooooo! It's not MAGIC. [rolls eyes so hard they end up in Patagonia]

I wonder if St. Jude, the BVM and the Holy Spirit REALLY read all those newspaper ads...and how St. Joseph feels about how having his statue buried upside down.

[anaquana.livejournal.com]

and how St. Joseph feels about how having his statue buried upside down.

I've actually heard of Italian Catholics who will threaten and even humiliate their statues of saints if the saint in question doesn't pull through for them.

[joanofarchetype.livejournal.com]

I don't get NASCAR either.

Teacup dogs, well, just think of them as pocket Terminator spotters!

[grrlfriday.livejournal.com]

There's certain saints, like St. Jude, that the prayers have to be made very publicly... so when newspapers came around, they started taking out ads. Can't find a link for it now, but I remember reading something about it...

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Huh! Interesting. I've not had much luck finding anything online about it. That makes sense, though. Thanks!

[grrlfriday.livejournal.com]

here's something I just found...

"Also, some people think superstition has hurt the reputation of novenas. In every parish I have been assigned, I have found copies of a St. Jude novena which basically states that if a person goes to Church for nine days and leaves a copy of the novena to St. Jude, then the prayer will be granted — sort of like a spiritual chain letter. This is dispensing-machine Catholicism: just as a person puts the coin in the vending machine and presses the button to get the desired soda, here a person says the prayers, goes to church and is supposedly guaranteed that the request will be granted. So much for God's will."

http://catholicexchange.com/2004/06/18/81970/