So long, God bless
We’ve retrieved the statue of St. Joseph from the hole in our front yard, washed off the Illinois clay and prayerfully packed it away with the rest of our belongings.
Old Joe’s mission—assist in the sale of our home—was accomplished. While I’m hardly a follower of religious superstition, the “traditional” real estate exercise of putting St. Joseph into a hole with a prayer was worth a shot.
As with most of life, something to help focus prayer isn’t necessarily bad.
The house is sold and the movers are coming, so it’s time to say goodbye.
This is my last Observations column in The Catholic New World. My wife and I will be taking on new adventures in Florida and living in the home we’re been building there for the past year.
Nine years at the helm of TCNW and New World Publications have been a kick. I have no doubt that the next years—both for you in Chicago and for me in Florida—will be as great.
But I hardly can leave without a few final comments.
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There’s been another flurry of Madonna sightings in the news. And they’re getting stranger by the day:
- In Florida, a broken cell phone’s screen displays Mary’s image.
- Workers at a Fountain Valley, Calif., candy factory see the Virgin in a puddle of chocolate drippings beneath a pan.
- And in the Chicago area a woman spied the Madonna’s image on the belly of a pet turtle.
These are either deeply spiritual sightings or the opportunity for a killing on eBay. (A family member involved the cell phone sighting was at least honest enough to talk about making a profit.)
While the church isn’t going to rush out and proclaim any of them as authentic revelations, I think Dianne Dunagan, a colleague who works for the archdiocesan Office of Media Relations, put it better than I could. She told media clamoring for an official comment that “If something like that causes people to think about God and pray, that’s a good thing.”
Not unlike burying a mini-statue of St. Joseph, I might add.
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I think reality TV’s time has come and gone. If it was ever really here.
The recent news that the “Survivor” series was going to pit racially divided teams—black, white, Hispanic and Asian—against each other this fall has lots of people shaking their heads.
What’s not to understand, folks? “Entertainment” will do anything it can to get your attention. (And it worked, didn’t it.)
Next up for shock value: Irish Catholics and Protestants? Israelis and Palestinians? Hutus and Tutsis? Republicans and Democrats? The possibilities of human conflict are endless. For which we should all be ashamed.
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Finally, I spotted a great T-shirt during our last house-checking trip to Florida. The beefy guy wearing it was promoting his church (Sorry, it was Methodist, not Catholic). The shirt read “Power & Light.”
Get it? God’s power and light. What a great image. Since it’s right out of the Bible, I can’t really be accused of actually stealing it, can I? So here goes.
Isn’t that what all of us seek, God’s power and light? Ultimately, isn’t that the truth behind statues of St. Joseph-as-real-estate-agent, behind the insatiable desire we have to find a divine message on a turtle’s belly or in a smear of chocolate? Isn’t that even what’s behind the goofy hunger of today’s shock media?
Power and light.
So that’s my parting wish: May you always experience the light of a loving God and the power of faith. God bless.
