UPDATE:
Winters responded! HERE
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ORIGINALLY Published on: Jul 31, 2017:
The other day Michael Sean Winters, the juggernaut writer for the Fishwrap, attacked you readers here. HERE He did so, because one of you asked me about the Most Holy Rosary as a “weapon”.
He ignored the context of my response to the questioner. HERE My answer was, go ahead, but it is better to carry it concealed. Winters referred to the “militaristic” language, hence the concept of spiritual warfare, as a kind of profanity.
That bothered me.
It isn’t uncommon to refer to the Rosary as a “weapon”. It is a commonplace to speak about “spiritual warfare”.
Warfare against what?
St. Josemaria Escriva said,
“For those who use their intelligence and their study as a weapon, the Rosary is most effective. Because that apparently monotonous way of beseeching Our Lady as children do their Mother, can destroy every seed of vainglory and pride.”
I opined,
“I wonder if MS Winters prays the Rosary. He uses his intelligence and study as a weapon, after all.”
I also said, in that post:
“I would be delighted to send to MS Winters both a Combat Rosary and one of these Rosary “Concealed Carry License” cards. All I need is a good postal address.”
So, dear readers, on your behalf and mine I took matters into my own hands.
Since I don’t have MSW’s address, I sent a Combat Rosary and Card to the main offices of the Fishwrap in Kansas City MO.
I sent it registered, with a cover letter asking that it be forwarded. Inside the envelope, I put a postage-paid envelope with the Rosary and Card.
The contents of the inner, unsealed envelope which was to be addressed and sent to MSW:
I set it up in such a way that, when they opened it in KC MO, nothing within was sealed: they could check the contents easily. There was nothing secret inside, just my personal card, and the Rosary. I clearly identified myself and provided also a return address. I was wholly above board.
Now some time has passed.
I received back the card which certified that the package had been accepted at the offices of the Fishwrap on 19 July.
It was up to them to address the inner envelope, seal it, and mail it. It already had correct postage on it.
Has there been a response from MSW yet?
No.
I would genuinely like to know if he received it.
Yes, this project had a touch of the facetious to it. However, it is also a sincere gesture.
It’s my job to try to keep as many people out of Hell as I can. The sending of the Rosary, while having also a touch of irony (it’s a “Combat Rosary” after all), was motivated from more than a touch of priestly solicitude.
I don’t think that anyone who regularly – even occasionally – prays the Rosary would have made a comment about spiritual combat, the image of spiritual weapons and warfare – in connection with the use of the Rosary, as being profane.
That jab moved me to a measure of even deeper concern than I already had.
I am sincerely concerned about the spiritual well-being of the people involved in the Fishwrap. That’s why I ask you to pray earnestly either for conversion or for collapse of the Fishwrap.
I hope Winters decides to use the Rosary… or dig out the old chaplet that perhaps his, I dunno, grandmother had. So long as he uses one.
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