The priest, whose classmates had called him “the dumb ox” because of his huge stature and quiet demeanor, was Thomas Aquinas.
The Urgency of Today’s Holy Innocents
We read in the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Galilee (erroneously referred to in the gospels as “King Herod”), fearing for his throne, ordered the deaths all the male children in the Bethlehem area under the age of two.
More than a doubter
According to South Indian Christian tradition, Saint Thomas the Apostle set sail for the Malabar Coast (present-day Kerala) in 52 CE.
I’m just glad he’s not gay.
And all day I have listened to partisan commentators insist that their own hateful and inflammatory rhetoric against the LGBTQIA+ community cannot be blamed for this incident, because the shooter is “one of their own.” Hypocrites! Viper’s brood!
She’s no “cut them a check” philanthropist
The Spirit of defiance of the social order continued amongst a number of wealthy, and often noble, women of the Middle Ages.
Martin of Tours
In 371, Martin was elected bishop of Tours. When an officer of the Imperial Guard arrived with a number of prisoners who were to be tortured and executed the next day, Martin intervened and secured their release.
It’s Going to Get Worse Before It Gets Worse
I don’t know what to ask of God that will make all this better.
Being the Gospel Our Neighbors Read
“You may be all the Gospel your neighbor will ever read.” — Saint Francis of Assisi
The Godless Creation
I used to quote this passage to my students at the evangelical university where I taught for ten years. They always nodded in sage agreement, murmuring appreciatively—until I told them the verse wasn’t from the Bible. It’s an Islamic hadith, one of a large collection of wisdom sayings that complement and amplify the Qur’an.
Long Strange Trip
I do my best to take each day as it comes, doing whatever I can without assuming that however I feel on a given day is a durable condition.