Close to our vineyard there was a pear tree laden with fruit. This fruit was not enticing, either in appearance or in flavor. We nasty lads went there to shake down the fruit and carry it off at dead of night… We took enormous quantities, not to feast on ourselves but perhaps to throw to the pigs; we did eat a few, but that was not our motive: we derived […]
Did you know that St. Augustine was responsible for infant baptism? In his time (the 4th century AD) baptism was reserved until the last possible instant. You had only one chance to be completely cleansed of sin, so Christians in the 300’s held out until they were close to death, thinking that they had a better likelihood of achieving heaven if they were close to sinless at the time they […]
Back to St. Monica and her son, St. Augustine of Hippo. As long as we’re talking Confessions, I will confess something shameful: the first time I ever heard of St. Augustine (outside of the lovely turf grass) was on The Simpsons. Ned Flanders is about to baptize the Simpson children when Homer intervenes and the water hits him instead: Bart: Wow, Dad, you took a baptismal for me. How do […]
Flabby Brain 