#St Thomas Aquinas

[tomicscomics]

12/27/2024

He's about to deck your halls.

The saints' RPG adventure continues every Monday and Friday through December!

___

JOKE-OGRAPHY: 1. Continuing from the last few cartoons, an angel is running a fantasy RPG for some saints in heaven, namely Sts. Thomas Aquinas, Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, and Nicholas of Myra. At long last, they've all introduced their characters. Surely they'll finally get to play the game now! 2. St. Nicholas was an ancient bishop whose legends of gift-giving became the inspiration for the modern Santa Claus. The name "Santa Claus" even comes from a foreign pronunciation of "Saint Nicholas." In stories, Santa lives at the North Pole and is known for having a magnificent white beard. In fantasy, dwarves are also known for their beards, but also for their compound-word surnames ("Beardhammer," "Oakenshield," "Hearthstone," etc.). Thus, St. Nick makes a dwarf character named Klaus (as in Santa Claus) Northbeard. 3. St. Nick is also known for slapping a priest named Arius at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. At that Council, Arius shared his heretical view that Jesus did not have the same, equally divine substance as God the Father, but was instead a creation with a similar but inferior substance. According to legend, St. Nick, who was a bishop at the council, was so enraged by Arius's heresy that he slapped the man in front of everyone. Thus, in this cartoon, Nick references his impulsiveness and temper and creates a barbarian character, because -- according to RPG-logic -- barbarians can channel their rage into superhuman strength. 4. At the council, the fathers used the Greek term "homoousios" (same substance) for the orthodox belief that Jesus was of the same substance as the Father, and the term "homoiousios" (similar substance) for the Arian belief that Jesus was of a similar but inferior substance. In this cartoon, Francis notes that Nick's character description could technically apply to both Nick's character and also Nick himself. To this, Nick says they have the same substance, but Thomas argues that they have similar but different substances, because Nick is not the exact same as his character. To describe this difference, Thomas is about to use the word "homoiousios." However, Nick dislikes that word due to its use by the Arians, so he throttles Thomas while shouting, "Why iota...!" He shouts this because it sounds like, "Why I oughta...!" which is something people shout when they're flying into a rage (as in, "Why, I ought to strike you!"), but instead of "I oughta" he says "iota", because the difference between the words "homoousios" (which he likes) and "homoiousios" (which he hates) is a single Greek letter: an iota. 5. As Nick assaults Thomas, the angel shouts, "Hey! No PvP!" In game terms, "PvP" stands for "Player vs. Player," describing games or game modes where the players face off against each other instead of working cooperatively or fighting against fake enemies and Non-Player Characters.

[andallshallbewell]

[ghostsandgod]

Human virtue is a participation of Divine power.

-St Thomas Aquinas

[biblically-accurate-butch]

A Prayer for the Summer Scholar

May the Lord bring peace to your heart, courage to your spirit, and wisdom to your mind.

The mind of a scholar is one of that, that never rests. To you who seek to be honorable, intergitable, and noteable in your search for truth, and knowledge, note that the Lord sees your heart. In a world full of cheats, liars, and half-doers, may those who work ernestly be fulfilled by the fruits of their labors. When you are overwhlemed by all that you are given, ask the Lord for his guidance. May he grant you the paitence to see through to your studies, and trust in your given abilities to do good, and power through stroms of uncertainy.

Do not lose yourself in worth, for grades on paper are nothing compared to what the Lord has made you out to be. Pride and Vainity are evils that lurk in the shadows of acidemia. Remember to be humble in all that you do. Be gentle to yourself for the Lord is with those who are humble in heart and modest in their words but robust in their work.

Ephesians 6:6-7 Don't work hard only when your master is watching and then shrink when he isn't looking; work hard with gladness all the time, as though working for Christ, doing the will of God with all your hearts. Psalms 56:8 You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.

Lord as us scholars goes on throughout the day may we be reminded that it is a blessing to learn, a privilege given to us by circumstance. May we be forever grateful for the opportunity and give thanksgiving to the Lord by doing our best to best honest, ernest, hard working scholars with integrety and dedication so that we may bring good to the world in which you have given to us.

In your Holy Precious Name we pray

Holy God Holy Mighty Holy Immortal.

Amen

[angeltreasure]

“Stojan Adasevic, a Serbian abortionist when Serbia was still a communist country, managed to kill 48,000 children in utero in his 26 years as a purveyor of death.

Sometimes up to 35 per day.

But that's all on the past, as Stojan is now one of Serbia's most important pro-life voices.

As explained in a recent interview with the Spanish daily newspaper, La Razon:

The medical textbooks of the Communist regime said abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue. Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive until the 1980s, but they did not change his opinion. Regardless of what he believed, or thought he believed, Stojan began to have nightmares.

In describing his conversion to La Razon, Adasevic "dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from four to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat.

One night Stojan asked the man in black and white in his frightening dream as to his identity.

"My name is Thomas Aquinas," he responded. Stojan, educated in communist schools that pushed atheism instead of real learning, didn't recognize the Dominican saint's name.

Stojan asked the nightly visitor, "Who are these children?"

"They are the ones you killed with your abortions," St. Thomas told him bluntly and without preamble.

Stojan awoke in shock and fear. He decided he would refuse to participate in any more abortions.

Unfortunately, that very day in which he made his decision, one of his cousins came to the hospital with his four months-pregnant girlfriend―they had hoped for an abortion. Apparently, it wasn’t her first which is not uncommon in countries of the Soviet bloc.

Stojan reluctantly agreed, but, instead of the usual Dilation and Curettage (D&C) Method in which the fetus is torn apart with the use of a hook shaped knife called a curette, he decided to chop it up and remove it as a single mass.

Horrifically and providentially, his little cousin's heart came out still beating.

It was then that Dr. Adasevic realized that he had indeed killed a human being.

Stojan immediately notified his hospital that he would no longer perform abortions.

No physician in communist Yugoslavia had ever before refused to perform an abortion. The hospital and government's reaction was swift and severe.

His salary was cut in half and his daughter was immediately fired from her job. In addition, Stojan's son wasn't allowed to matriculate into the state university.

After many years of surviving the many privations orchestrated by pro-abortion/pro-death fundamentalist atheist government, Stojan was about to buckle under the pressure and give into its demands.

Fortunately, Stojan had another dream about St. Thomas.

St. Thomas assured Stojan of his friendship and Stojan was in turn inspired.

The physician became involved in the pro-life movement in Yugoslavia. In fact, he was able to get the state-run Yugoslav television station to twice broadcast Bernard Nathanson's anti-abortion film The Silent Scream.

Since then, Stojan has told of his anti-abortion stance and his reversion to the Orthodox faith of his childhood to newspapers and television stations throughout Eastern Europe. In fact, he has a strong devotion to St. Thomas Aquinas and is rarely, if ever, without the saint's books―his constant reading material.

Stojan often reminds his listeners that in his Summa Theologiæ, St. Thomas wrote that human life begins forty days after fertilization. Perhaps, Stojan would opine, "the saint wanted to make amends for that error."

Today Stojan continues to fight for the lives and rights of the unborn.”

[anastpaul]

(via One Minute Reflection – 5 November – “They shall see God.” – Matthew 5:8 – AnaStpaul)

[thecatholicbozo]

"A glance at the index to the Summa Theologica will show that everything, not only in [St. Thomas Aquinas's] theology, but his philosophy too, is centered in God. Spinoza's philosophy has a similar orientation, and so must every complete system of doctrine, for in God is to be found the ultimate explanation of the whole of knowledge.

All our ideas begin & end with God. All explanation is by universal principles, and ultimately by the First Principle. He who does not see as far as God is shortsighted, however far he may see, and he who does not view things from as far away as God is too near to see them fully.

To refer things to God is the only way to put them in true perspective and thereby to understand t hem aright. We cannot determine the essence, limits, or proportions of anything without this reference to the Supreme Being."

-A. G. Sertillanges, OP, Thomas Aquinas - Scholar, Poet, Mystic, Saint

[othmeralia]

Happy September! This floriated initial S comes from De generatione et corruptione (1520) written by St. Thomas Aquinas.

[the-mercy-workers]

Charity is the virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.

St. Thomas Aquinas

[sabcandoit]

St. Thomas Aquinas sketch ofc because we’ve been studying his metaphysics in humanities class 😊

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Thomas Aquinas Doctor of the Church 1225-1274 Feast Day: January 28  (new), March 7 (Trad) Patronage: Academics; against storms; against lightning; apologists; booksellers; Catholic academies, schools, and universities; chastity; philosophers; publishers; scholars; students; theologians

Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican friar and priest. Also honored as a Doctor of the Church, Thomas is considered the Church's greatest theologian and philosopher. Pope Benedict XV declared: "This (Dominican) Order ... acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the special praises of the Pontiffs, the master, and patron of Catholic schools." {website}

[tomicscomics]

12/30/2024

And so it ends... FOR NOW?!?!?

___ AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, it's finally over. Thanks for sticking through it with me. This series was really fun to draw, and it gave me a chance to do two things I found surprisingly fun: (1) draw several anachronistic saints interacting with each other and (2) make a bunch of RPG jokes in a religious context. To be honest, it was stressful. First off, I hardly have any time to draw these days, so committing to two comics a week was an insane thing to do, especially for the holidays. Second, I had the whole 10-part series planned out at the beginning, but then my mind was so flooded with new jokes as I went that I had to re-write and re-plan almost every week in order to keep the series to the original 10 parts. I have a ton of jokes I had to skip, but I'll keep note of them in case I revisit this concept in the future. Ultimately, I'm frayed and unsatisfied, but I enjoyed myself and learned as I went, and that about sums it up. Maybe I'll write a retrospective to post on Patreon, if I can get my thoughts in order. Anyway, once again, thank you all for indulging me in this incredibly unusual series. Tomics will return to relative normalcy soon. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

JOKE-OGRAPHY: 1. Continuing from the last few cartoons, an angel has been introducing a few saints to playing a tabletop roleplaying game. This series has covered them learning how to make characters, culminating in them introducing their characters and ending with the story finally about to begin. 2. Most RPG players know the struggle of trying to find a group of like-minded players, of scheduling regular sessions, and of actually making it to the end of a full campaign. Many campaigns end prematurely because the players start having interpersonal drama, or because their busy schedules just don't match up, or because the group simply gets burnt out. The end of this cartoon makes light of this earthly reality. Hypothetically, if an angel DID run an RPG campaign for some saints in heaven, they'd all be free of the all the flaws and struggles that would normally force a campaign to end prematurely.

[andallshallbewell]

[ghostsandgod]

The life of pleasure places it's end in pleasures of the body, which are common to us and dumb animals, wherefore as the the Philosopher says, it is the life of a beast.

-St Thomas Aquinas

[inspiredbyjesuslove]

[jameslmartello]

Light in Biology: A Molecular Perspective | Prof. Matthew Wohlever