Happy Feast Day Saint Thomas the Apostle 1st century Feast Day: July 3 Patronage:  architects, builders, construction workers, stone masons, against doubt, against blindness, East Indies, India 

One of the original 12 apostles, Thomas was ready to die with Jesus in Jerusalem but is best remembered for doubting the Resurrection until allowed to touch Christ's wounds. He preached in Parthia, Persia, and India. He formed many parishes and built many churches over a wide area and was eventually martyred for his faith. {website}

21st December

St Thomas the Apostle’s Day/ The Winter Solstice

Source: The Book of Christmas, The Enchanted World, Time-Life Books

Today is St Thomas the Apostle’s Day. A day on which the benign witches of Dorrington, near Sleaford in Lincolnshire, gather outside the village church. Unlike most of their kind, spotting these witches at play will not result in your kidnap, being turned into a toad or being cursed for the rest of your days: these witches are far more likely to invite you to join them in their sing-songs, conversation and games. Even Satan finds Dorrington relaxing. On a moonlit night he may be spied in the church, playing marbles.

Today is also the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the darkest night. In days past, the people danced to make benign magic, like the Dorrington Witches, to defend themselves at this time of the life-giving sun’s lowest ebb. The solstice sword dance was often performed in which dancers, clad in colourful ribboned costumes, recalling the hues of summer, would circle from left to right (sunwise) and point their swords into the air. At the climax of the dance, the participants would lock their swords together, forming the apex of a five pointed star: a symbol of the vanished sun.

03/24/2023

Silly Rabbi!

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JOKE-OGRAPHY: My favorite part of this one is that I've added/paraphrased almost nothing here.  In the Bible story, Jesus is told that His good friend Lazarus has died, so He plans to go bring him back from the dead (or "awaken him").  He tells the disciples that Lazarus has "fallen asleep", but the disciples take that literally and try to comfort Jesus by saying Lazarus will awaken on his own.  Jesus reiterates very clearly that by "fallen asleep", He means Lazarus died.  Thomas is reluctant to let Jesus go to Judea, because last time they were there, apparently Jesus riled up the Jews with His "Son of God" wallamaguckery, but Jesus doesn't let a silly little thing like angry people plotting to arrest and murder Him get in the way of an unslumber party with His best pal!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Before the mantle of the earth was cooled, before the sea was sealed in its basin, before the sky was locked in place above the clouds, and before the first "Tomic" was officially published, a cartoon was drawn.  Now, it is reborn.  This is not technically a "Tomics Resurrection", because the original did not bear the "Tomics" name.  No, this was after the era of sand and scholars but before the era of blood and time, and now, it's our very first "Proto-Tomic Resurrection".  I've taken a random digital Jesus comic that I drew for my own amusement before my Tomics days and made it part of the official Tomics family.  Here's the original for reference.  You'll note a drastic change in character design, background art, and handwriting, and hopefully you'll agree I've improved, or else we're going to have some major problems:

Touch the wound of Chryste!

Caravaggio - The Incredulity of Saint Thomas

*Since Tumblr only has 10 options, I left out Judas. Also, there are two Jameses, so pick your favorite in your head.

SAINT OF THE DAY (July 3)

On July 3, the Church celebrates the feast day of St. Thomas the Apostle.

Best known for his initial unwillingness to believe the other apostles in their claim that Jesus had risen from the dead, St. Thomas can teach the faithful about believing without seeing.

As an apostle, Thomas was dedicated to following the Lord.

Upon hearing that Jesus was returning to Judea, an area that would pose dangers due to the growing animosity of the authorities there, he immediately said to the other apostles, "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (Jn 11: 16).

Yet despite this determination, Thomas proved not only too weak to stand beside Jesus as he faced his crucifixion but also doubted the Lord’s Resurrection when he was told about it by the other apostles.

Denying their story, he told them:

"Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe" (Jn 20:25).

A week later, Christ appeared and said to Thomas:

"Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." 

When Thomas did so he exclaimed:

"My Lord and my God!"

In his general audience on 27 September 2006, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of St. Thomas, explaining that we can learn from his doubts, which show us "that Jesus can now be recognised by his wounds rather than by his face."

"The Apostle Thomas’ case is important to us for at least three reasons," said the Pope. 

"First, because it comforts us in our insecurity; second, because it shows us that every doubt can lead to an outcome brighter than any uncertainty; and, lastly, because the words that Jesus addressed to him remind us of the true meaning of mature faith and encourage us to persevere, despite the difficulty, along our journey of adhesion to him."

After Pentecost, St. Thomas is traditionally believed to have preached the Good News to the Persians and Medes, until he reached India, where he evangelised and was eventually martyred in 72 A.D.

He is the patron of architects and builders.

St. Thomas

"Blessed art thou, Thomas! Gabriel's troops are far away, Michael's troops sing praises from a distance, Hosts of fire adore him. But you dared to touch him."

- St Ephrem

Icon credits: Fr. Rijo Geevarghese

Didymus. Print. https://www.etsy.com/listing/159192443

This painting is inspired by my reading of The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine. This one in is St. Thomas the Apostle. Thomas was called the twin of Jesus, also Didymus, which means twin. I have represented Thomas as conjoined twins. Conjoined twins reinforce the notion of a spiritual connectivity, as feeling and living in the same body must give a unique connectivity that transcends what most people will ever experience. This particular twin configuration was inspired by the Tocci twins, Giacomo and Giovanni. Giacomo and Giovanni Tocci were conjoined twins born in Italy in the late 19th century. Saint Thomas was an architect. So I've represented that with the building tools and the birdhouse. The holy spirit is usually represented as a dove, so I thought a birdhouse would be a most appropriate construction. The other hand is covered in blood because Thomas was a doubter, and he could only be convinced of the resurrection by putting his hand in the wound of Christ. The closure on the front of the jacket is in the shape of a Y, echoing the Y incision that a doctor would use in an autopsy. It is a wound that signifies inquiry and investigation.

St. Gregory the Great from the Liturgy of the Hours today:

Do you really believe that it was by chance that this chosen disciple was absent, then came and heard, heard and doubted, doubted and touched, touched and believed? It was not by chance but in God’s providence. In a marvelous way God’s mercy arranged that the disbelieving disciple, in touching the wounds of his master’s body, should heal our wounds of disbelief. The disbelief of Thomas has done more for our faith than the faith of the other disciples. As he touches Christ and is won over to belief, every doubt is cast aside and our faith is strengthened. So the disciple who doubted, then felt Christ’s wounds, becomes a witness to the reality of the resurrection.

Saint Thomas and the Tale of Another Jesus - Historic Mysteries

https://www.historicmysteries.com/saint-thomas/

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Southern India, St. Thomas

St. Thomas preached and suffered martyrdom in Southern India drawing his arguments from the data supplied both by writers sceptic and by writers believing. He has left out of consideration every statement and shade of opinion which might be called in question. He gives us in this work the cream of the evidence thus far unquestioned gleaned with great patience from a deep comparative study of different authors on the subject and which may with confidence be said at least to support very strongly the tradition of the apostolate and martyrdom of St. Thomas in Southern India.   #18 

D'Cruz, F. A. (1922). St. Thomas, the Apostle, in India: an investigation based on the latest researches in connection with the time-honoured tradition regarding the martyrdom of St. Thomas in southern India. Madras: Hoe and Co..

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006606413/Cite

03/31/2023

The Last Supper, but Judas makes it weird.

Weirder than betraying God, that is.

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JOKE-OGRAPHY: Jesus originally just says that one of His apostles will betray him.  In this cartoon, He specifies that the one who's invading His personal space is the betrayer.  John and James (to Jesus's right and left) both recoil at the thought and start arguing with the others about who could betray Jesus.  Meanwhile, Judas coyly says it couldn't be him.  Thomas presses "X" to doubt that.

"We want to belong, we yearn for it, and it is sometimes the hardest work we do. In the end, we all belong to God as God’s children. In this holy season of Easter, we stand with Jesus in the resurrection. In this broken, divided, fragmented, hurting, pained world, we are beacons of community with each other and God. We are where others find their belonging. It might be at church, at a park, at school, at work, or wherever we are. We become the resurrected body through belonging with others- where do you belong? Who seeks to belong through you? " -- Written by The Rev Gar Demo, St Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church

God's Children

Easter Season

Where do you belong?