Tag Archives: petitionary prayer

Pascal’s Wager

Piling one irrationality onto another, the town fathers in the Sicilian town of Ficarra have collectively invested in Italy’s $165 million lottery: ”We chose numbers which were connected with the town’s patron saint, the Virgin Mary of the Assumption,” Mayor … Continue reading

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God on Campus

Religious readers of this site periodically rebuke me for misunderstanding the nature of prayer.  Prayer is a way of communing with God, they say; no informed believer would ask or expect God to intervene on their or others’ behalf.  Thus, … Continue reading

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The conundrum of prayer

Last Saturday, the New York City Police Department  experienced the worst misfortune that can befall a police department: one officer mistakenly and fatally shooting another.  The loss of Officer Omar Edwards to friendly fire is an unbearable tragedy, for which … Continue reading

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Blessing the subway

Earlier this month, the new Catholic archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, visited a subway construction site in Manhattan to offer his blessing: “Bless this tunnel, those who are constructing it, and those who will use it.” Such an act … Continue reading

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The Terminator in desperate straits

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger found time to attend a Sacramento prayer breakfast last week in the midst of California’s budget crisis.  Last year, he assured the Catholic Health Assembly in San Diego that he would call on God’s power to … Continue reading

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The Pope visits L’Aquila

The Pope finally made it to L’Aquila today, the epicenter of an earthquake that killed 295 in Italy’s Abruzzo region on April 6.  Driving rain, cold, and mud continue to beset the occupants of the tent cities established for the … Continue reading

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Faith-based financing

I almost thought there must have been a typo in this Miami Herald headline–Obama thanks Crist for support of stimulus plan–since the stimulus proposal bears so uncanny a resemblance to God.  It is a projection of human needs and desires, … Continue reading

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Oleaginousness watch

William Kristol reports that at least one conservative pundit has already extended to Obama the blessings of his faith.  At the much commented-on dinner that George Will hosted for Barack Obama last week, Kristol says that he overheard one of my … Continue reading

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