The spectre of the fast-approaching Super Bowl has moved Baltimoreans in mysterious ways. To wit ...
City Hall and the World Trade Center?
Of course.
The Resco plant?
Ideal for those trash-talking Ravens.
But St. Mary's Seminary & University School?
Why not?
One recent evening, the seminary, at the corner of Roland Avenue and Northern Parkway, was bathed in a subtle shade of purple. The hue cast the institution in an eerie light befitting a Gothic horror story.
The Rev. Robert F. Leavitt, the seminary's president-rector, saw it as a way of showing support for the team in concert with other Baltimore institutions and the city itself. Besides, he quipped, maybe the light will put "supernatural forces in play for the Ravens."
So lighten up and say a prayer for the home team.
But that wasn't enough for Rev. John Roberts, minister at Woodbrook Baptist Church on Stevenson Lane. He went even further, reminding his congregation Sunday that Ravens are blessed. He pointed to Luke 12:24.
"Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?"
The previous Sunday, when the Ravens met up with the Raiders, Roberts said: "People have been asking me if I have any special insight, so I checked in the Bible and the only times Raiders are mentioned, they're the bad guys, the Philistines, people you are supposed to smite."
Not so with ravens.
In 1 Kings 17:06, the birds fed the prophet Elijah: "The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from a wadi."
As for biblical mention of Giants, Roberts said they're there.
"I'm saving them for next Sunday."