Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for your website and all of the wondrous information that you have there. I particularly enjoy reading your stories and legends over and over again.

I notice that at the bottom of many of your pages you have a silhouette of a rooster. What is the significance of that symbol?

     Thank you and God bless,

     E.B.S.



TIA responds:

Dear E.B.S.,

Since Antiquity, the rooster has been used in symbolism and legends such as in the fable of Aesop that we recently posted where the fox matches wits with the cock.

In the Middle Ages it was common to put on rooftops a weather vane, a thin plate of iron work representing an animal as a decorative item or to distinguish one inn or house from another. It was not rare to find the silhouettes of cocks up on the medieval roofs.

Also, the cock became a symbol of France, whose spirit and language are very clear, like the cock's singing. Based on this, many other representations were also applied to the cock, such as these four:

1. Since it is said that the cock sings to raise the sun, it became the symbol of those who spread and defend an ideal that should enlighten all men.

2. By extension of this first meaning, it also became a symbol of those who through their sufferings expiate for the sins of someone else for him to be faithful. In this way it is a beautiful symbol of religious persons who suffer so that the vocations of others can be realized.

3. Since the cock is believed to crow to wake up men, it became a symbol of vigilance, that is, the one that arouses the unwary person to a danger ahead. It also stirs the lazy man from sleep, and thus is a symbol of vitality.

4. Others take the cock as a symbol for awakening men to go to work in order to make a better world.

The famous French poet and writer, Edmond Rostand, wrote a play for theater called Chantecler, or in English Chanticleer. The whole script is centered on the first and fourth symbolisms we just mentioned. The play begins with the first symbol mentioned above but ends with the fourth. At the beginning the cock assumes as its mission the duty to sing and sing each morning imagining that it is the one who makes the sun rise every day. But one day the cock oversleeps, and realizes that the sun rises without it. The play finishes with the conclusion that the hero, the cock, is the one who wakes men to work, which would be more beautiful than raise the sun.

We chose the cock to be at the end of one of our sections for decorative reasons. But if you would ask in what sense we prefer to take the cock's symbolism, we would answer the three first meanings.

We hope this answer will be of some assistance to your request.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk

Dear TIA,

Hope this also helps Catholics decide against praying of the Luminous mysteries: 3 sets of The Mysteries (Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious) are obviously in honor of the 3 Divine Persons of The Most Holy Trinity.

Now, if there are 4 sets of Mysteries, the number 3 is gone and so honoring of The Most Holy Trinity is gone. Who could be happier than the devil for that?

What is also very interesting, number 4 has always represented The Earth and the world: there are 4 seasons, 4 cardinal points (north, south, east, west), 4 basic blood types (0, A, B, AB) etc.

So, all these arguments clearly prove that all those unfortunate Catholics who pray the Luminous mysteries honor the world and not God. And the devil is the prince of this world (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11), isn't he?

In the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

     Your reader,

     B.B.

P.S.- Should I write what are the implications of the above horror for John Paul II, our late pope? No, who has eyes to see, let him see.

Dear TIA,

Regarding the following postage on your website by R.A.:

"I am glad that you are protecting Catholic teaching and history and rebuking heresy. I would like to remind you, however, that basic dogmas and apostolic traditions are different from cultural/societal/dated limits and bias."

I realize that R.A. is developing an erroneous idea. I just thought I'd venture a reply.

I don't profess to understand the totality of the relationship between man and woman. But radical equality usually correlates to anti-life behaviors, and tends to deny the man and woman the fullness of their respective roles. Equality requires contraception, and tends to make sexual satisfaction a bigger theoretical part than it should be. It also inevitably means that the woman challenges the man in career decisions, such as where to live. The woman can be successful in business, but it is wrong to thwart our nature.

I think part of the problem is that people have forgotten the availability of the single vocation, which is admirably outlined by Fr. Dominic J. Unger, in The Mystery of Love for the Single (TAN). Many single people keep the sexual 'option' open, and keep the marriage option open, and never really commit to being single, and placing God first. If this vocation were more widely known, it could help people to understand that it is possible to be very successful in various ventures, where family might pose an obstacle.

Also, I wonder if Catholics have come to believe that the 'personal fulfillment' of marriage is just as valuable an end as is procreation. This weakening of vocational distinctions makes it harder for people to know what choices there are in life.

     C.R.

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