Sunday Sermonette: Horror Stories

[bill_sheehan]

Halloween is coming. One of the changes since I was a boy is that people now decorate for Halloween, even more elaborately than they decorate for Christmas. My neighborhood is full of inflatable animatronic ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night

Comments

[cvirtue]

I don't understand why the Crown of Thorns is a first-class relic; it would seem to be a second-class one, like a hat.

[bill_sheehan]

A bit of the Crown of Thorns is directly connected to Jesus himself, hence the ranking. It is also as rare as a roc's egg, and of like provenance.

[xiphias]

It contains Jesus's blood, because of the whole "stabbity thorns" thing.

[xiphias]

Theophagy isn't PURELY unique to Catholics. For instance, it was part of Dionysian worship, too -- the belief that the grain turned into beer was the literal body of Dionysus, but also the in the image of the Maenads tearing apart and eating live animals and possibly humans, as ways of eating Dionysus by proxy.

[simaetha]

When I was a kid, I was kind of curious in a morbid way. I always enjoyed my visits to St. Anthony's Chapel in Pittsburgh, PA. They claim to have the greatest number of saintly relics in one spot outside of the Vatican. It was always kind of creepy to look at the skulls of several martyrs, but I kind of liked being creeped out. It is sort of strange the importance Catholics have placed on bones and even whole bodies of saints, however, I have always been intrigued by it, even if I don't believe in God or go to church anymore. Here's St. Anthony's website if you happen to be curious: http://www.saintanthonyschapel.org/

One of the other interesting moments of my life was when I got my picture taken with my namesake, St. Bernadette. She's probably the most famous incorruptible and I saw her when I was in France. It was kind of strange seeing her over 100 years after her death.

Anyway, once again you've written an interesting piece! Just figured I'd share some of my

[liddle_oldman]

I was walking past the Curley Bathhouse once, and stopped to look at all the statues and plaques on the outside wall. Every last one of them is about a dead child, and not usually a nice, peaceful death, either.

But, yeah, it's when the Black Robe holds up a lump and declares it the flesh of a dead man, and the rest fall on it and devour it, that I sort of fade backwards out the door.