The Encouraging Thomist

The Apostle Paul Icon I. Ever since I can remember,  one of the essential things that my family did every Christmas season   was send Christmas cards. And not just any Christmas cards.  No, they were homemade Christmas cards.   Cards that had a little paragraph about how our family was doing    and what all we had been up to in the previous year. Mom always headed up the effort to make sure that all of our extended family  stayed up to date on what all the Harris's were up to.   And when I moved off to college,    I became responsible for writing my little paragraph of my life     and what all I did that previous year. And, you know, it was an exercise that some years was easy  and some years was much harder. Because, you know, when you write a Christmas card  you only have a certain amount of space on the card,   and so you have to pick and choose what kinds of things you share. Often the easiest things to share with family and friends  are the big

Jesus Christ Appears to St. Thomas the Apostle  Icon Isaiah 35:1-10 Psalm 146:4-9 James 5:7-10 Matthew 11:2-11 I. Doubt is very taboo in our culture.  Isn't it? There are many many examples that one could give to this fact,  but there was a recent play that illustrates this taboo of doubt very effectively. And it is the play titled Doubt: A Parable.   This play, written by John Patrick Shanley in 2004,   went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. And, as you might guess from the title of the play,  doubt plays a huge role. The plot goes thus: The play is set in the fictional St. Nicholas Church School  in New York during the fall of 1964.   Father Flynn, a beloved and social justice oriented parish priest,    is in the pulpit speaking of the importance of uncertainty. He states, "Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty." And then we meet Fr. Flynn's polar opposite: the scho

John the Baptist Icon Isaiah 11:1-10 Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 Romans 15:4-13 Matthew 3:1-12 I. A beloved colleague once told a story about his struggle with alcoholism. Travis* had started drinking in high school,  and his struggle worsened as he entered into college.  [*name changed for confidentiality] He was a regular at the parties at his university,  staying up far too late,   getting drunk and sleeping in until noon.    His freshman semester was easy,     and he was smart enough that he stayed up to date on his school homework      and took late classes in the afternoon so that he wasn't missing class. However, during his second semester,  things got worse.   He began missing class assignments,    showing up to class late,     hungover,      and unable to remember the lectures. And thus started the negative feedback loop  that comes with any addiction.   The repercussions in his life began to build up,    and so he turned to the only solac

Christus Pantokrator ("Christ the Almighty") Icon First Sunday of Advent    Isaiah 2:1-5    Psalm 122    Romans 13:11-14    Matthew 24:36-44   I. Spiritual directors are amazing. One of my friends is a spiritual director,  and she told me a story about a recent person that she had in direction. She sat down with this person,  and began to listen. The spiritual direction session lasted for a significant period of time,  about an hour. And as the session was closing,  the person said to my friend,   "Oh my goodness, this was the best thing I've done in a long time.     You have been so helpful to me!" And, as she is recounting the event,  my friend begins to laugh. So I'm like, "So, what did you end up saying to them?" And she finishes her laughter,  she says, "Well, Mark, that's just the thing!   I didn't say a single word!" This person came to see my friend,  and spoke, talked, confess

Christ the King Icon I. Have you ever seen a movie that had one of those magical performances by an actor,  the ones that keep you hanging on every moment,   and then in perfect synergy with the cast and the screenwriting,    deliver an iconic moment that lasts in your memory for years? One of those moments for me and a lot of others  is the iconic performance of Kenneth Branagh   in the 1989 movie adaptation    of Shakespeare's play "Henry V." Shakespeare wrote this play around 1599,  and his play "Henry V" contains the riveting lead up to the Battle of Agincourt,   an actual historical battle in the Hundred Years War,    in which the English King Henry V invades France after negotiations fail     and the English army is substantially outnumbered by the French forces,      portrayed in Shakespeare's play as being outnumbered "5:1."      [http://shakespeare.mit.edu/henryv/henryv.4.3.html; Henry V,  Act 4, Scene 3] On the e

The Second Coming of the Lord Icon I. There are some buildings in the world  that are so iconic,   that you actually know their names    by just seeing their silhouette. If you ever travel to Paris, France,  and you look across the horizon,   you will see a weirdly shaped pointy structure in the distance    that seems to reach up to heaven. And your reaction is probably not going to be,  "Huh, what a weird tower!"   No, you will almost certainly say,    "Ah, its the Eiffel Tower!" Or, if you go to Washington D.C.,  and you are walking between the marble white buildings   when, all of a sudden, in front of you rises a huge obelisk    that looks like a giant railroad spike reaching up to the clouds,     you will probably not say,      "Huh, what a weird pointy building!"       No, you will almost certainly say,        "Oh, neat! Its the Washington Monument!" I mean,  I remember the first time I went to New York City

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ Icon I. "Mommy, where did Grama go when she died?" "Daddy, what happened to Uncle Ken after he died?" You know,  if you think about those questions just a little longer,   those are absolutely terrifying questions. Because those innocent inquiries make us wrestle with one of the most basic questions  that we have as mortal beings:   What happens after we die? And thank goodness for kids  who don't have the baggage associated with this question,   because they aren't scared to ask about it! Our first-world culture of death and dying  is one of the most unhealthy cultures that we live in.   And yet, just like a fish doesn't think about the water it swims in,    we often aren't even aware about how scared stiff our culture is     about dying. When someone comes into a hospital with a beloved family member who is dying,  families can get so caught up with saving someone from dying   that th

All Saints Icon I. A blessed Feast of All Saints to you, friends! Now, what is a saint, anyway?  What do you think of when you think of a saint? Do you picture iconography, with women and men depicted  with a golden halo and their hands extended in prayer? Do think of someone who never left church  and sequestered themselves into pews   in eternal and uninterrupted prayer and contemplation    of our Lord Jesus Christ? Do you think that those images and those expectations of saints  are so intense and unattainable   that we begin to wonder why anyone would want to be a saint? So what is a saint, anyway? Well, there is great news, friends:  saints are great!   But, just as many many saints of ages past would tell you,    being a saint has absolutely nothing to do     with how righteous they were,      with how many good things they did,       or with a lack of flaws in their character. Saints believe one simple simple thing:  "Jesus loves me, this