When we focus on something that is dark, we are in danger of granting power to that darkness. When we focus on light  the sun even shines through the sea. An excellent example was June 6, 2006 -- which in shorthand carries the signature of anti-christ and in fact is a number that has a certain negative "charism."

Or does it?

The Church tells us to be careful of "superstition." This is especially true of numbers, which can tend to numerology, Bible "codes," and the occult. Actually, "superstition" is the wrong way of phrasing it. At least in common parlance, a superstition is something without metaphysical foundation. What the Church means to warn against is the lesser known definition of superstition, which is idolatry and occultism.

We need to recognize evil at the same time that we do not become obsessed with it.

As for dates: there are good dates -- feasts of the Church, on which special graces are often observed -- and dates that are honored, unfortunately, by satanists, who unleash forces we would rather they not release. Halloween comes to mind, as does the occult date of April 30 (ironically, the day on which Hitler died). 

They tried to turn June 6 into another, and while there were some flare-ups, there was nothing, at least on the surface, that was momentous. Mainly, the news was of desecrations. In the U.S., churches, shrines, and a seminary were vandalized.

But the occurrences were very limited and mainly involved young vandals who identified themselves as "punkers" and could not even correctly spell the devil's name ("Satin"  was the way it was presented on a shrine called Holy Hill in Wisconsin).

The archbishop swiftly went there and celebrated Mass as a way of re-consecration. Whenever we see symbols of evil, the antidote is Holy Water and the Sign of the Cross, from which evil must flee.

In Illinois, three churches were hit. In Yonkers, New York, police said they suspected a person or group linked to Satanism was responsible for disturbing vandalism at the historic St. Joseph's Seminary. An upside-down cross was painted on a pillar at the entrance, and on a statue of Jesus Christ, which also was desecrated with a pentagram, a five-pointed star inside a circle, associated with devil worship.

"This is a person that's obviously disturbed," said Father Thomas Lynch, a member of the faculty. "We have to pray for them. And I have, I really have."

It was predictable stuff and in a nation where there are 19,000 Catholic parishes, it wasn't much to get disturbed about.

In the Middle East, a businessman paid more than a million for the cell number of all sixes, and in England a movie fan induced labor so that she could have a child named "Damien" on the specific "devil's" day (this is very foolish). The birth was in the six a.m. hour and the baby weighed six pounds and (yes) six ounces -- or so they say.

It was the date on which The Omen, about the antichrist, was released, of course, and in the movie the evil boy is named Damien. The movie's opening take? $12,633,666.

Meanwhile, the average thirty-year mortgage rate hit 6.66 percent that day.

Does this mean something is operating? Or is it happenstance?

In a world of numbers -- endless, large numbers -- at least some are likely to come up this way. God may speak in parables, but not in riddles. He is a direct Lord Who speaks simply. He is not out to perplex us, nor to toy with us.

At the same time, there is a spiritual dynamic around us.

Let us not fool with such things because there is a component that is mysterious and the disturbances were not just chicanery.

Our church was struck by lightning on that day (taking out its entire electrical system), and there were other ironies. On that day they announced that researchers in the U.S. were going to clone the first human embryos for stem cells (this is very serious business), and there was a secret meeting in Ottawa of the Bilderberg group, a bunch of global elite who discuss the "large picture" and are feared by some as players in a new world order (and a coming personage of evil, or anti-christ).

Whatever we may think of that, it was also ironic that the infamous satanic killer  in California known as the "Night Stalker" had a hearing to overturn his sentence that day, and we have to admit that there are funny ways that the three sixes pop up -- usually meaning nothing but curiously there in the URLs of web stories during the past week about such matters as the new Harry Potter movie, the singer Madonna, and church relics ending up in auction houses like eBay.

In the bulletin of Mary Seat of Wisdom Church in Park Ridge, Illinois, parishioners and others were invited to a class given by a priest on shamanic spirituality. This class started on 6/6/06.

One man from New Hampshire turned 66 on June 6. His height? Six-feet-six inches. The highway exit he uses? Why, six of course -- if all this means anything more than an actuarial convergence. He was once an alderman -- in Sixth Ward.

Not many would take him as the anti-christ.

Others argue that three sixes do not compose the number of the anti-christ but that "616" does. That's an area code in Michigan (there is no three-six area code).

Unfortunately, some of it can be very serious. Take Bogota. "Authorities believe a satanic group may be behind the murder of six members of a Colombian family in the town of Barrancabermeja over superstitions surrounding the date 6/6/06," noted a news agency.

It was a very popular day for weddings in China because in Chinese culture, sixes are believed to mean success and good fortune.

Still others believe the devil's day was September 6, 1966 -- ironically the day on which (we will pray for her) the founder of Planned Parenthood died. Others cite June 6, 1966.

Of course, let us be careful not to demonize! There are churches with "666" as an address. And there are holy people who were born on June 6. The odds: about 365 to one.

As we have said before, let's spend our energy praying up the days leading to holy days. That definitely brings real power.

June 25, the 25th anniversary of Medjugorje (the famous apparition site in former Yugoslavia), is around the corner, and then there is August 15, Feast of the Assumption.

There are good coincidences, and to disbelieve in them is to restrict a God Who is pervasive (far more so than the devil). Next year, there will be July 7.

Seven is a number for holiness because tradition says it is the number of "completion" and in 2007 it will be 7/7/07, as we have mentioned previously.

Will the media be around for that?

06/13/06