Sailor Moon R: The Promise of the Rose (currently free on YouTube) begins on a somber note. We see a young Mamoru Chiba ascend a staircase to the roof of a hospital carrying a rose in his hands. He offers it to a small alien boy, who promises to bring Mamoru flowers in return before disappearing.
If the weather services are hacked, the power fails, or that far-away thermometer is down, you can still observe your thermometer. The same obtains with your mechanical clock, your hygrometer, and your barometer. There are no third parties between you and them—no computers, no satellite signals, no radio waves, no electrical lines, no hackers.
When followers of Jesus Christ pursue lives of self-sacrificial ministry, the gospel comes to life
in a truly palpable way. St. Peter, self-proclaimed “slave of the Negroes forever,” embodied this
with particular fervor and impact.
Gregory the Great (Gregory I), pope and saint, was born dur the 500s AD (the exact date is unknown). He came from a very prestigious family, being the great-great-grandson of Pope Felix the Third (who lived before celibacy was required of clergy) and the son of a senator.
A story told about Field Marshal Wavell is that while throwing some things into a bag for a field tour of soldiers defending India from invasion by the Japanese, he asked if anyone had seen his Browning. When someone pointed out that he was wearing it – his Browning 9mm – he said that he was looking for his copy of the poems of Robert Browning. In all his campaigns, Wavell always carried poetry with him.
There are few novels that I have reread as many times as Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. It is a masterpiece of science fiction and is as intellectually stimulating as it is imaginatively engaging. Each time I have revisited the Terran Federation, its advanced power-armored soldiers, and their fantastically alien enemies, I have come away with a new appreciation for this classic work.
Perhaps one of the most significant mothers in the history of the church, besides Mary herself, St. Monica is remembered as the mother of one of the greatest theologians in Western Christianity: Augustine of Hippo.
Monica was a very pious and charitable woman who lived in the North African town of Tagaste.
Last week I took my few gas cans to the station to fill them up after the first round of summertime mowing. The pump stopped at $100.01. The pump’s computer program is set for $100 for each purchase; I suppose the extra cent was a “so there” at my expense.
Alexander Henderson was born in Creich, County Fife, Scotland in 1583. After graduating with honors from St. Andrew’s College, he went right to work as a churchman, at first staunchly on the side of the Episcopate. At that time, the Church of Scotland was debating the form of church governance they wanted: the Anglican model where the church was governed by bishops, or the Presbyterian model where the church would be governed by members of the congregation. This was more than just a debate within the church; to defy the episcopate was also to defy the King.
This summer the Bishop of Beaumont is promoting a good idea and the organizational skills to make it so throughout the diocese: small, easily transportable plastic bags of needful items for anyone displaced by hurricanes, fires, tornadoes, or other disasters.
George Abbot, historically known as Archbishop of Canterbury, was born in 1562 in the humble town of Guildford, England. Abbot studied at Oxford, where he demonstrated academic excellence in intense theological study…
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things…” (Luke 10:41). This is probably not what Martha expected she would be known for, on the off chance she expected to be remembered at all.
Among all the women in the Bible, none remain so controversial as Mary Magdalene, a mysterious female disciple who was very close to Jesus, almost as close as the Twelve.
Many may know Saint Bonaventure’s name, but few know his story. This pious Franciscan monk was born in 1221 in Bagnoregio, Italy. He was initially baptized as John, but changed his name to Bonaventure when he joined the Franciscans. During a bout of severe illness in his youth, Bonaventure’s mother asked for the intercession of the recently canonized Saint Francis of Assisi.
St. Kilian (sometimes spelled “Killian” or “Cillian”) was born in the mid 600s in Ireland. He became a missionary and a traveling bishop in the custom of the Irish Church…
If you’ve ever heard the Ink Spots’ 1940 hit “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano”, you have St. Junipero Serra to thank. Junipero was born Miquel Serra on Majorca, an island off the coast of Spain. He joined the Franciscan monks…
Someone near and dear to my pancreas gave (“gifted” is not a verb) me one of those clever aluminum MeWatches that claim to make one’s life more interesting in many ways and which come without any instructions because not sending instructions with a product is such a cool thing now.
Theodore Beza was one of the lesser known Reformed theologians of the first hundred years of the Reformation, however, his influence on the Reformed movement cannot be denied.
John Vernon McGee was born in 1904 in Hillsboro, Texas. His family moved to Tennessee when his father died in 1918. Vernon, as he was known, graduated college then seminary, then became the pastor of a church first in Decatur, Georgia, and afterward in Cleburne, Texas. It was there that Vernon met his future wife, Ruth Inez Jordan.
Ephrem the Syrian was born in Nisibis, in the province of Mesopotamia (now Nusaybin, Turkey, lying 166 miles from Mosul, Iraq) in approximately 306 AD… Ephrem was baptized as a youth and began right away in building up the Body of Christ in Nisibis as a deacon. It is also highly likely that he was a “son of the Covenant,” an early type of friar or lay brother. As a deacon, he used his gift as a poet and composer to write instructional hymns, teaching the people to confront heresy through song.