This has got to stop

Chain letters. I know I know, I shouldn't even be reading them, let alone opening them. None of them ever come true when you send them to the desired number of people it says on the list. Strangely enough, if you really read them over carefully, you'd see where many of these chain letters are rife with bad information to begin with. Take the chain letter I received from Evelyn of all people, someone I thought wouldn't pass along this sort of sappy crud.

Hi All, Okay, I picked seven people who I thought would DO this. I hope I chose
the right seven. Please send this back to me.

In case anyone is interested, Saint Theresa is known as the Saint of the
Little Ways. She believed in doing the little things in life well and with great
love. She is also the patron Saint of flower growers and florists. She is
represented by roses. May everyone be blessed who receives this message.
Theresa's Prayer cannot be deleted. REMEMBER to make a wish before you read the poem. That's all you have to do. There is nothing attached. This is a powerful
novena. Just send this to seven people and let me know what happens on the
fourth day. Do not break this, please. Prayer is one of the best free gifts we
receive. There is no cost but a lot of reward.

Suggestion: copy and paste rather than forward to protect e-mail
addresses and access to e-virus.

(Did you make a wish?)

If you don't make a wish, it won't come true. Last chance to make a wish!

St. Theresa's Prayer: May today there be peace within.May you trust your
highest power that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget
the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that
you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.... May you
be content knowing you are a child of God.... Let this presence settle into our
bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is
there for each and every one of you.

Now, send this to 7 people within the next 5 minutes and your wish will come
true. And remember to send this back...You'll see why

Lets dissect it completely and together, shall we? Lets start with the prerequisite seven unlucky suckers who now have to devote some 3.5 minutes of their life online reading this sap. The number seven in the northern hemisphere and for much of the European countries view seven as a lucky number. As luck would have it, (no pun intended) most people have at the bare minimum 6-8 people in their email list. See a pattern?

Strangely enough the number seven isn't lucky in American culture, it has been mired in superstition and counter culture. The citizens of Rome believed that life renewed itself every seven years and believed that could be transferred to the mirror, since a person's image was seen in it. Simplistic thinking says since the mirror held the person's image then it was the person's reflected image captured inside a mirror. This was felt to symbolize that the last person who looked into it when it became broken was in ill-health. So, the person was broken, and the omen by the mirror breaking was that he or she would not get well for seven years, as part of a modified reincarnation fear. Why the connection to Rome and Americas? Who we're the nomadic people who migrated to the new world centuries ago?

Interesting, huh?

The Japanese culture believe in seven luck gods called the Shichifukujin, seven gods who control different aspects of happiness through luck, but I digress...

The letter goes on to say St. Theresa is The Saint of the Little Ways. This is partial truth. St. Theresa was called The Saint of the Little ways, but she was actually the patron saint of florists and flowers, so that part of the chain letter is true.

Her real name is THERESE of Lisieux, and she is the patron saint for: African missions; AIDS sufferers; air crews; aircraft pilots; Australia; aviators; Belgian air crews; black missions; bodily ills; diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming; diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska; diocese of Fresno, California; diocese of Juneau, Alaska; diocese of Pueblo, Colorado; florists; flower growers; foreign missions; France; illness; loss of parents; missionaries; parish missions; restoration of religious freedom in Russia; Russia; sick people; sickness; Spanish air crews; tuberculosis.

Now as far as her prayer, that one isn't any of the prayers to her. Nothing remotely close to any of them. There are six prayers for her (seen here, here, here, here, here and here) and each are prayers to specifically call on her.

It's a nice message sent, but it needed to have been researched slightly more. A deeper understanding of who the saint is they are trying to convey would have helped and a slightly better explanation of who she was would have been better. Complete superstition. Nothing bad will happen in your day by not passing it, or any religious chain letter around cyberspace... Besides, what if one of the people you were sending it to were Jewish?