That looks like a fortune-cookie-type-fortune to me, Fr. Z. They never make any sense, and there’s no such thing anyway. I’d try the almond cookies from the front counter. They’re usually much better anyway.
Whether this is a fortune or not plays crucially on what I can assume was a poorly chosen grammatical structure. “which will bring you credit.” By using ‘which’ as opposed to ‘that’, all that follows is nonessential to the sentence. It is a nonrestrictive phrase, and plays no bearing on the meaning of the sentence. We can thereby reduce your “fortune” to:
“You are contemplating some action.”
Which is not only a fortune, but should be so plainly applicable to any person at any time to be devoid of real meaning
Question: Are you contemplating while knowing the action will bring credit, or totally unaware of the potential credit? Plus, is it a good action or bad action, thus bringing good or bad credit? You don’t want credit for something bad, so best to avoid any contemplation until the “period of fortune” passes. I think you get three days to avoid any contemplation, after that the “fortune” is null and void. However, if you are willing to take the risk in hope that it is a good form of credit…
I think it is amazing that a fortune cookie “fortune” can generate such an interesting amount of interpretations…Father Z, you should, after your bird and recipe book, write one on fortune cookie discussions. You may be thinking of this already and you may get credit for it…
‘You are contemplating some action which will bring credit upon you.’
It is not a fortune, as other commentators have rightfully pointed out, this is infact just a result of the work of one self. Credit where credit is due.
“You are contemplating some action which will bring credit upon you”
a)Credit in which world?If this one, worry, already.
b) this could be very close to the road to hell is paved with good intentions- which is a warning, hence prophetic in the biblical rather than foreseeing sense.
c) I’d rather be DOING the right thing for the wrong reasons..
d) This is fortune? doom? angst?
e) This is “contemplative” as in “orantes”, discalced carmelites a nd suchlike?
f) I think I prefer chinese food in Korean restaurants
g) No such thing as a bad cookie?
h) If this is fortune, so is ” I have not yet begun to fight”- I’m contemplating it.
i) If you go Anglosaxon rootwards this Xmas and feast on Xmas pud, have Xmas crackers too, they’ve more often than not got really bad jokes inside than this sort of thing, tho’ the old cracker-mottoes -ohmy!Your mother sure’d tell you not to!
wanted to get to Z in tribute to father Z , but can’t!
Whenever I get a fortune cookie I always read the same thing with great surprise and emotion: “It says “Help! I’m a prisoner in a Chinese Fortune Cookie Factory!”” This is from the late comedian Alan King who wrote an amusing book of the same name. It always gets lots of groans but is usually more interesting than what is really printed therein.
Comments are closed.
SHOPPING ONLINE? Please, come here first!
Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.
“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
ex seaxe on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Charivari Rob – Unfortunately I have been forced to switch computers twice recently and have lost the reference. The numbers…”
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
St. John Eudes
Federated Computer… your safe and private alternative to big biz corporations that hate us while taking our money and mining our data. Have an online presence large or small? Catholic DIOCESE? Cottage industry? See what Federated has to offer. Save money and gain peace of mind.
“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
To donate monthly I prefer Zelle because it doesn't extract fees. Use
frz AT wdtprs DOT com
Daily Quiz
Use FATHERZ10 at checkout for 10% off
Donate using VENMO
GREAT BEER from Traditional Benedictine Monks in Italy
CLICK and say your daily offerings!
A Daily Prayer for Priests
NEW OPPORTUNITY – 10% off with code: FATHERZ10
Fr. Z’s VOICEMAIL
Nota bene: I do not answer these numbers or this Skype address. You won't get me "live". I check for messages regularly.
WDTPRS
020 8133 4535
651-447-6265
Books which you must have.
This REALLY helps! And it’s great coffee (and tea)
I use this when I travel both in these USA and abroad. Very useful. Fast enough for Zoom. I connect my DMR (ham radio) through it. If you use my link, they give me more data. A GREAT back up.
“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
“The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
- C.S. Lewis
This blog has to earn its keep!
PLEASE subscribe via PayPal if it is useful. Zelle and Wise are better, but PayPal is convenient.
A monthly subscription donation means I have steady income I can plan on. I put you my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I often say Holy Mass.
In view of the rapidly changing challenges I now face, I would like to add more $10/month subscribers. Will you please help?
For a one time donation...
To donate monthly I prefer Zelle because it doesn't extract fees. Use
frz AT wdtprs DOT com
As for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
This is really useful when travelling… and also when you aren’t and you need backup internet NOW! I use this for my DMR “Zednet” hotspot when I’m mobile. It’s a ham radio thing.
If you travel internationally, this is a super useful gizmo for your mobile internet data. I use one. If you get one through my link, I get data rewards.
Please use my links when shopping! I depend on your help.
Time to buy a lottery ticket?
Another Vatican white paper, hidden in a cookie?
If you see an Experian truck, RUN!
Yes, I think that is a fortune. Phrased otherwise, some action you are contemplating will bring credit upon you.
Maybe somebody will actually shell out $1,000,000 for your picture. It is very well-done by the way, but way out of my price range.
God bless you!
I don’t think it counts as a ‘fortune’ when it is what we have come to expect of you.
As opposed to contemplating an action which will DIScredit you.
Oy Vey!
Semper (236th year) Fi!
That looks like a fortune-cookie-type-fortune to me, Fr. Z. They never make any sense, and there’s no such thing anyway. I’d try the almond cookies from the front counter. They’re usually much better anyway.
Credit?
Okay.
Congratulations on your recent blog posting! :-)
Finally! A fortune!!
What if you actually don’t WANT the credit….?
Bring credit? You’re applying for an AmEx card?
Whether this is a fortune or not plays crucially on what I can assume was a poorly chosen grammatical structure. “which will bring you credit.” By using ‘which’ as opposed to ‘that’, all that follows is nonessential to the sentence. It is a nonrestrictive phrase, and plays no bearing on the meaning of the sentence. We can thereby reduce your “fortune” to:
“You are contemplating some action.”
Which is not only a fortune, but should be so plainly applicable to any person at any time to be devoid of real meaning
No, it’s simply telling you what you’re doing. The second part is not necessarily a fortune, as it could easily be known.
The “which” clause modifies “action,” not the verb “are contemplating,” since it is not preceded by a comma.
Question: Are you contemplating while knowing the action will bring credit, or totally unaware of the potential credit? Plus, is it a good action or bad action, thus bringing good or bad credit? You don’t want credit for something bad, so best to avoid any contemplation until the “period of fortune” passes. I think you get three days to avoid any contemplation, after that the “fortune” is null and void. However, if you are willing to take the risk in hope that it is a good form of credit…
I think it is amazing that a fortune cookie “fortune” can generate such an interesting amount of interpretations…Father Z, you should, after your bird and recipe book, write one on fortune cookie discussions. You may be thinking of this already and you may get credit for it…
‘You are contemplating some action which will bring credit upon you.’
It is not a fortune, as other commentators have rightfully pointed out, this is infact just a result of the work of one self. Credit where credit is due.
Well……..I’like to see you prove that cookie wrong!
I meant “I’d”
“You are contemplating some action which will bring credit upon you”
a)Credit in which world?If this one, worry, already.
b) this could be very close to the road to hell is paved with good intentions- which is a warning, hence prophetic in the biblical rather than foreseeing sense.
c) I’d rather be DOING the right thing for the wrong reasons..
d) This is fortune? doom? angst?
e) This is “contemplative” as in “orantes”, discalced carmelites a nd suchlike?
f) I think I prefer chinese food in Korean restaurants
g) No such thing as a bad cookie?
h) If this is fortune, so is ” I have not yet begun to fight”- I’m contemplating it.
i) If you go Anglosaxon rootwards this Xmas and feast on Xmas pud, have Xmas crackers too, they’ve more often than not got really bad jokes inside than this sort of thing, tho’ the old cracker-mottoes -ohmy!Your mother sure’d tell you not to!
wanted to get to Z in tribute to father Z , but can’t!
Whenever I get a fortune cookie I always read the same thing with great surprise and emotion: “It says “Help! I’m a prisoner in a Chinese Fortune Cookie Factory!”” This is from the late comedian Alan King who wrote an amusing book of the same name. It always gets lots of groans but is usually more interesting than what is really printed therein.