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.

[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...