Feel free to put more vanity on your plate.I remember when they were called vanity license plates, low numbered or clearly worded car tags. Vanity, often termed pride, was one of the seven deadly sins (R. C. Ch.) willful and deliberate transgressions, which take away divine grace; - in distinction from vental sins. The seven deadly sins are pride, covetousness, lust, wrath, gluttony, envy, and sloth. See also: Sin (the others: envy, anger, sloth sloth (slōth, slôth), arboreal mammal found in Central and South America distantly related to armadillos and anteaters. Sloths live in tropical forests, where they sleep, eat, and travel through the trees suspended upside down, clinging to , avarice av·a·rice n. Immoderate desire for wealth; cupidity. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin av , gluttony Gluttony See also Greed. Belch, Sir Toby gluttonous and lascivious fop. [Br. Lit.: Twelfth Night] Biggers, Jack one of the best known “feeders” of eighteenth-century England. [Br. Hist. , and lust). For long years the cardinal archbishops of Chicago sported Illinois license plate "1." Cardinal John Cody surrendered the license plate, but not the chauffeur-driven limousine. Chicago had to wait for Joseph Bernardin before the limo disappeared from the ecclesiastical entourage. The term vanity license plates, now suppressed by many states, has been replaced by more user-friendly phrases, such as personalized license plates. Today, they are an additional source of revenue for state governments, though certainly not as lucrative as the gaming and gambling schemes that now proliferate in the body politic BODY POLITIC, government, corporations. When applied to the government this phrase signifies the state. 2. As to the persons who compose the body politic, they take collectively the name, of people, or nation; and individually they are citizens, when considered . I've noticed a number of license plates nowadays that capture religious and spiritual messages. I spotted "PRAY 1ST," a Wisconsin license plate tooling down Interstate 94 toward Illinois. Another Wisconsin license plate, "3IN1GOD," seen in Kenosha County, has a decidedly doctrinal bent to its message. Might Saint Patrick, if he were here today, hold up this license plate rather than the shamrock to illustrate the mystery of the Trinity? Then there's a bevy bevy a flock of birds. of license plates clustered around a parish in the Joliet diocese southwest of Chicago. One priest's license plate reads, "SANCTUS." Rumor has it there are English-speaking license plates in the diocese along this same theme, "HOLY ONE" and "HOLY 1." Most notably, though, the female pastoral associate of the parish sports "REV TO B" on her plate. I know many people who would like to see her drive around the piazza in front of St. Peter's Basilica a few times. I really don't think holders of these and other such license plates are cavorting with one of the deadly sins. But I'm not ready yet to proclaim these telegramatic messages in metal a contemporary form of significant divine revelation. Whether vanity, revelation, or a strange mix of both, I find myself watching for these license plates while driving. I just hope the Supreme Court doesn't decide such spirited spiritual metallic graffiti somehow violates separation of church and state
P.S. Send along any religious messages you spot on plates. "Odds and Ends" columnist, Peter Gilmour, is a faculty member of the Institute of Pastoral Studies, Loyola University Chicago Beginnings and expansions Founded in 1870 as the St Ignatius College on Chicago's West Side. In 1908 the School of Law was established as the first of the professional programs. . He can be reached in cyberspace at pgilmou@orion.it.luc.edu |
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