The Encouraging Thomist

Christ and the Little Children Icon Eighth Sunday after Pentecost 1 Kings 3:5-12 Psalm 119:129-136 Romans 8:26-39 Matthew 13:31-33,44-52 I. Being a parent is an everyday adventure,  isn't it? For you who are parents  or who have been the parental figures for someone,   your children are an exercise in the absolute spontaneity and irrationality    that is our shared human existence. In their baby and toddler stages,  they can do almost nothing without our help,   and yet they also seem to be magnetically drawn to do dangerous things! Trust me, I didn't have to teach my daughter to decide   that she could safely climb up on the kitchen counter   and get herself her own cereal bowl in the morning.     She very resourcefully got her own step stool from her bathroom,     drug it into the kitchen,      and was up in the cabinet before I knew what was going on! Likewise,  I didn't have to teach my son to climb on the couch,   only to decide that he could probably hop right back of

Seedlings for Gardens [Old Farmer's Almanac] Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Isaiah 44:6-8 Psalm 86:11-17 Romans 8:12-25 Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 I. Ever since the COVID-19 virus has been present in the U.S. in mid March  and most of our lives have been spent at home since then,   there has been one particular thing that has been a constant source of joy    for all members of my family:     our family garden.  Gardens are magical. Just think about it:  even with all the wonderful produce you can get at Walmart or Harps,   there is nothing like a garden-fresh snap pea    that comes fresh from the plant.      In fact, I remember vividly as a kid      when I had one of my first snap peas from the garden,       I was like, "There is NO way this is a vegetable. It tastes too good." I used to think my dad was nuts for how much he liked tomatoes.  Even through college, tomatoes were only for cooking in dishes.   Fresh ones were just weird... ...and then I had an Heirloom Tomato,  w

St. Paul Icon I. Have you ever used a word so often  that you started to lose what the word even means?  Better yet, did that word all of a sudden  seem to not only lose meaning,   but did it also begin to sound silly or like a bunch of random sounds? This is really easy to test out,  and it gets a good chuckle depending on which word you use. One of my personal favorites,  is the word "babble." Try it! I find it quite fun! "Babble babble babble babble,  babble babble babble babble." Did it work?  Did you begin to hear the word lose meaning   and begin to just sound like a bunch of silly sounds    we make with out mouth? Babble is already a funny word in English.  It feels like it has more b's in it   than the average bee hive,    and it sounds funny, too. But what you have just experienced,  this losing of meaning,   is what linguists call "semantic satiation." Basically, you repeat a word so often  that your brain begins to lose interest!   Hey, brai