cross-eyed Sabastian and headless Mary

[Terrance]

Paul Mackin wrote:
> 
> Forgot to add:
> 
> The three men I admire most-us
> The Father, Son, and Holy Ghostess.


Who are these guys? Elvis, Holly, Berry? The three that died
in the crash? 

Not Dylan, he's the Jester and Mick is the Devil and the
beateles are the marching band and the byrds, pot, I always
thought he had Joe Willy and Dylan on the side in a cast,
but probably not? 

BTW, I'm not suggesting Pynchon is a christian or catholic,
though I have read and been told this is the case, I don't
care, it's not really important to the kind of reading I do.
But religion, including Christianity (and Catholicism has
many radical ideas and practices that simply astound most
christians when the learn of them)   is very important to
Pynchon's work, VL I think may have written after M&D and it
deals less with religion and more overtly with politics, so
it will be interesting to see if P's next book follows VL or
M&D. 

Paul asks, But would this have done it for Henry Adams?

NO, I doubt that very much. But Pynchon's take on Adams is
not quite Adams. 


Even without Luke Catholics would venerate the Blessed
Virgin Mary I think. Because she is the Mother of Jesus,
whom they believe to be God incarnate, true God and
true man, the second person of the Blessed Trinity - Father,
Son
and Holy Spirit.  Believing Mary to be the worthy,
immaculate,
holy, Mother of God, the Church Fathers turned to the
scriptures
for words adequate to describe her, which they found in the
accounts of the revered women of the Jewish history, seen as
types
of Mary, for example, in Isaiah's "prophecy."  Jesus, on
the Cross, said behold thy Mother, and Mary's power mingled
with  her son's 
can be recognized in several stories, when she interceded at
the Marriage Feast in
Cana, for example, and important to Pynchon, the Pentecost,
where she is clearly acting as "teacher" of the Apostles.
There is a movement in the catholic church to name Mary
co-redeemer. Some already use this term. Presently,  Mary
is  "an intimate union and unique cooperation with Christ"
(Vatican 2 Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, par. 4)

She is loaded with pagan holdovers, she is the queen, the
morning star, venus,  St. Bernard venerates  Mary as the
"Rose of charity, Lily of chastity and Violet of humility.
In medieval times (Pynchon is nostalgic for the medieval)
meditation on Mary's virtues, and their emulation through
spiritual self-examination and spiritual exercises, and
recourse to confession and to the graces of the sacrament of
penance, to root out imperfections and attachments of the
flesh, mind and world, were seen as a "ladder to heaven"
whereby souls became conformed to Mary, as model, mold and
motherly nurturer, to whom they turned for sanctification.