#St Thomas church

[dansnaturepictures]

11/01/23-Moon this morning (first picture in this photoset), Peregrine and more in Winchester and nine photos from Slimbridge last week which I’ve processed since the day and have not yet posted here 

It was precious to walk to the station in the glow of this moon this morning, serenaded by sweet Song Thrush and Blackbird song seeing one of the former at first light too. I also enjoyed seeing Carrion Crows, intimately observing the magical wing beats of a Kestrel over the bit of Lakeside I nickname Kestrel Corner at the north east of the site east of the allotments I’ve seen perhaps this one or Kestrels generally well here all three days this week so far and the pavement verge and bit at Lakeside that I enjoyed yesterday adorned by delightful winter heliotrope. It was lovely to see a smashing sun rise on the train and at work this morning, with the moon looking cracking in Winchester in a bright start too.

At lunch time I saw really well Winnie the Peregrine, my first of this iconic species seen this year at St. Thomas Church. The first time ever this location has been where I’ve seen my first of the year, the third time for Winchester generally after first seeing one at Winchester Cathedral in a year in 2018 and 2020, it is a pleasure for Winnie a Peregrine I’ve seen so much of over the years to be the first of her kind I’ve seen in 2023. It was also nice to see Feral Pigeon intimately in the High Street and Collared Doves flying into vegetation in the river and Wren and Blue Tit beside the River Itchen at lunch time.

The photos from Slimbridge the rest of the photos in this post are of; Pintails, young Bewick’s Swan, a view, Lapwings and Golden Plovers in the air, Pochard, Shelduck, Water Rail and a couple more views.   

[barringtons-wedding-cars]

One of our Imperial Viscount Landaulette wedding cars outside St Thomas church in Upholland

[photographyforthought]

st thomas church

new post click below

about the church St. Thomas Church in Ryde, Isle of Wight, is a beautiful and historic place of worship that has been serving the community for over 150 years. The church’s architecture is a blend of Gothic and Victorian styles, featuring tall spires, pointed arches, and intricate stone carvings. One of the most striking features of the church is its beautiful stained glass windows, which were…

[willowcrowned]

you know what if I were a peasant during the middle ages hearing this I wouldn’t even think twice about repenting. say what you will about the medieval catholic church but they did have some bangin acoustics

[momentsbeforemass]

Not fit to hate

People ask where I get the stuff that I write about.

I pray with the daily Mass readings. Then I read commentaries. Mostly InterVarsity’s “Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.”

The series gives you a few sentences to a paragraph on each verse. That someone wrote during the first 500+ years of the Church.

Maybe from someone famous, or someone not so famous. Sometimes nobody knows who wrote it. But always the good stuff, stuff that’s stood the test of time.

Like this one, on today’s Gospel (where Jesus says to “love your enemies”). It’s an anonymous work* from the 5th century, that reads like it was written this morning.

“I think that Christ ordered these things [to love our enemies] not so much for our enemies as for us: not because our enemies are fit to be loved by others, but because we are not fit to hate anyone.

For hatred is the prodigy of dark places. Wherever it resides, it sullies the beauty of sound sense.

Therefore, not only does Christ order us to love our enemies for the sake of cherishing them, but also for the sake of driving away from ourselves what is bad for us.

If you hate [your enemy], you have hurt yourself more in spirit than you have hurt him in the flesh.

Perhaps you don’t harm him at all by hating him. But you surely tear yourself apart. If then you are benevolent to an enemy, you have spared yourself rather than him.”

(* Known as the Incomplete Work on Matthew, St. Thomas Aquinas was so fond of it that he once said that he would rather have the complete work than be mayor of Paris.)

Today’s Readings

[henk-heijmans]

St. Thomas a Becket Church, Fairfield, Romney Marsh, England, 1980 - by Fay Godwin (1931 - 2005), English

[whartonists]

The Gilded Age Season 2 First Look

[world-of-wales]

The Princess of Wales with two-year-old Charlotte during her visit to St Thomas Church in Swansea on 27 September 2022.

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1916 – Joseph Mary Plunkett and Grace Gifford are married in the chapel of Kilmainham Gaol the night before he was to be executed for his part in the Easter Rising.

Grace was the second youngest of twelve children. Her sisters, Nellie and Muriel, were also avid nationalists as well as converts to Catholicism. Muriel married Thomas MacDonagh, who was executed in Kilmainham earlier on the day Grace married Joe Plunkett. It was said of the Gifford girls: “whenever those vivacious girls entered a gloomy Sinn Féin room, they turned it into a flower garden”. Fr…

[natequarter]

it's a bit hard to identify name trends as such in the past, but the first half of the 1500s definitely had a thomas surge, right? there were so many fucking thomases

[misespinas]

“Simon Peter said to them: Let Mary [Magdalene] go forth from among us, for women are not worthy of the life.

Jesus said: Behold, I shall lead her, that I may make her male, in order that she also may become a living spirit like you males. For every woman who makes herself male shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Gospel of Thomas, 114 (not canonical)

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“Simón Pedro les dijo: ¡Que se aleje Mariham [Magdalena] de nosotros!, pues las mujeres no son dignas de la vida.

Dijo Jesús: Mira, yo me encargaré de hacerla macho, de manera que también ella se convierta en un espíritu viviente, idéntico a vosotros los hombres: pues toda mujer que se haga varón, entrará en el reino del cielo.”

Evangelio de Tomás, 114 (idk how to say not canonical)

[haly-reads]

aug 16, '23: st. thomas cathedral, bombay//

[leroibobo]

during his evangelistic activity in india in the first century, thomas the apostle is said to have founded "seven and a half" churches. three currently claim the status of having been the "half church". they are:

st mary's orthodox church, also known as the 'royal church', in thiruvithamkode, tamil nadu. it claims to be the world's oldest functioning church that hasn't been reconstructed, though the 'main' parts of the structure were built between the 17th-20th centuries. today, it's under the jurisdiction of the malankara orthodox syrian church. former church primate baselios marthoma didymos I proclaimed the site as an international st. thomas pilgrim center.

the hilltop church in malayattoor, kerala. local tradition goes that, facing hostile natives in the area, st. thomas fled to a hilltop, where he remained in prayer. there, he left a cross and a footprint on a nearby rock. these were later found and a shrine was built in their place. today, it's under the jurisdiction of the syro-malabar catholic church, and a part of the larger shrine on the hilltop dedicated to st. thomas. (a much larger church is located nearby). the vatican declared it an international shrine and a pilgrimage up the hill takes place annually after lent.

st george's church in aruvithura, kerala. the first edifice of the church was made in the manner of a hindu temple. when one of the seven churches was destroyed, several of its congregants migrated to aruvithura with a statue of st. george, hence this church's dedication. it's since been rebuilt, including a larger expansion in the 16th century. today, it's a parish of the syro-malabar catholic church.

[postcard-from-the-past]

St Thomas Church and College in Strasbourg, Alsace region of France

German vintage postcard

[underthewingsofthblackeagle]

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The Leipzig "lighthouse"

St Thomas' Church in Leipzig - together with St Nicholas' Church - is one of the city's two main churches and is known worldwide as the place where Johann Sebastian Bach and the St Thomas Choir worked. The three-nave hall church has a total length of 76 metres. The nave is 50 metres long, 25 metres wide and 18 metres high. The choir is angled slightly to the north towards the nave. The roof has an unusually steep pitch of 63°, making it one of the steepest gabled roofs in Germany. Inside, it has seven levels (ridge height 45 metres). The ceiling of the nave consists of a colour-contrasting ribbed vault.

Some Glimpses from Germany for Your Weekend :)

[momentsbeforemass]

What do you want?

“What do you want?”

It’s a question that says a lot about us, based on how we answer it.

Sometimes we answer with stuff. Sometimes we answer with experiences. Sometimes we answer with relationships.

Sometimes it just depends on how we’re feeling at the moment.

There’s all kinds of advice on how to answer the “What do you want?” question.

A lot of that advice is along the lines of Nora Roberts’ famous line, “If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.”

It’s not bad advice. Provided you know what matters. Provided you’re not mistaking things that pass away for the eternal.

Like the mother of James and John. When she gets asked “What do you want?” in today’s Gospel.

There’s no doubt that she loves her sons. But she’s stuck on the things that pass away. Status. Prestige. Stuff like that. Or maybe she just doesn’t realize that it’s God who’s asking.

Either way, she focuses on the baubles of this age. And wastes the moment.

Because there’s only answer worth giving. Especially when God’s doing the asking.

There’s a beautiful moment in the life of St. Thomas Aquinas.

After writing on the Eucharist, Thomas hears God saying to him,

“You have written well of me, Thomas. What reward would you have?”

And Thomas gives the only answer worth giving.

“Nothing but You, Lord. Nothing but You.”

Today’s Readings