William Shakespeare, a Secret Catholic in an Anti-Catholic Age?

Joseph Pearce in his The Quest for Shakespeare argues convincingly for the Catholicism of  William Shakespeare.  Pearce builds his position with scholarship and logic like a gothic arch;  one pillar rising on biographical evidence and the other from the text of Shakespeare’s  works.

From The Merchant of Venice, when Portia speaks to Shylock,  Act IV, Scene I:

The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath.  It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.
But mercy is above this sceptered sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute of God himself;
And earthly power doth then show like God’s
When mercy seasons justice.

William Shakespeare
1600

From the Office of Readings

From the treatise On Spiritual Perfection by Diadochus of Photice

“Therefore, we must maintain great stillness of mind when in the midst of our struggles.  We shall then be able to distinguish between the different types of thoughts that come to us: those that are good, those sent by God, we will treasure in our memory; those that are evil and inspires by the devil we will reject.  A comparison with the sea may help us.  A tranquil sea allows the fisherman to gaze right to its depths.  No fish can hide there and escape his sight.  The stormy sea, however, becomes murky when it is agitated by the winds.  The very depths that it revealed in its placidness, the sea now hides.  The skills of the fisherman are useless.”

Make a Fuss!

Call the White House 1-202-456-1111

The opportunity to defend Life never goes away. Speak up today!

A push is being made by supporters of Planned Parenthood to flood the White House comment line with complaints voicing their unhappiness with the removal of funding for Planned Parenthood (read abortion and all akin) in the stimulus package. It’s your turn, Happy Warrior, to speak up for life yet again. Please call the White House and ask to comment on the “stimulus package” then thank the powers that be for the removal of this funding and expressing the desire for it not to be re-instated in any form.

Super Bowl Bid Rejection by NBC

Super Bowl Bid Rejection of a  Pro-life Ad

The Super Bowl, known for its advertisements, as well as football and hoopla, won’t be showing  the CatholicVote.org ad.

Please don’t sit on the Super Bowl sidelines for this one..  All the noise that erupts on Sunday shouldn’t hold a candle to the voices of Catholics, Christians and all pro-life people who are in the majority on this one..


Thanks go to Matt Gardocki for  hunting down these  email addresses for Julie, the Happy Catholic

Jeff.Zucker@nbcuni.com
President and CEO, NBC Universal

Jeff.Gaspin@nbcuni.com
President and COO, Universal Television Group

Alan.Wurtzel@nbcuni.com
In charge of Broadcast Standards

Kenneth.Schanzer@nbcuni.com
President, NBC Sports

Derek.Bond@nbcuni.com
Executive VP Studios & Broadcast Operations

(Barbara) Bo.Argentino@nbcuni.com
Senior VP Advertising & Media Sales, NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution

Scot.Chastain@nbcuni.com
VP Affiliate Advertising and Promotion Services, NBC Entertainment

Dick.Ebersol@nbcuni.com
Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics

Mike.McCarley@nbcuni.com
VP Communications and Marketing, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics

Jacky.Olitsky@nbcuni.com
Director of Program Standards

In Other Words

The secular world looks upon Jesus, deemed irrelevant, and says,  “Crucify Him!”

President Barak Obama looks upon the Church and it’s voiced opposition to the gospel of Death  and says, “I won!”   In other words, “Crucify Him!”

Nancy Pelosi looks upon the teachings of the Church (her Church?) and it’s proclamation of the Gospel of Life.  Then, with political and pragmatic correctness, hammer and nails in hand, pronounces, in effec,t that Life costs too much.  So,we hear again, “Crucify Him!”

Cheap Talk

For all his inaugural eloquence, President Obama can’t walk the talk. His lips say, “For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies …” Rightly, he adds, that it is, “a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.” Yet, Barak Hussein Obama is the pre-eminent obstacle to such nurture. He refuses to nurture the unborn child within the American womb. He, in fact, supports abortion on the world stage as well. In the coming days, American dollars will once again fund the death of innocents around the world. Barak Hussein Obama, who in his inaugural decried, “those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents,”  lifted the ban that Bush reinstated in 2001 known as the Mexico City Policy. Reagan instituted this policy in 1984 to stop U.S. funds from paying for counseling, promoting abortion and providing abortions internationally. The revocation engenders “slaughtering innocents” on a grand worldwide scale. However, Obama will be even handed. He plans to empty wombs at home as well as abroad. So much for eloquence. Actions still speak louder than words.