I really am going to keep this one short! So, it’s the feast of St. Thomas, who came to believe because he had seen. Faith is, of course, one of the three theological virtues, together with faith and charity. You can read about faith toward the beginning of Part One of the Catechism - this is the Part that works its way through the Creed - and about all the theological virtues in Part Three, on Christian morality. The theological virtues are in fact a very important topic in Catholic moral theology. We have recent papal encyclicals on each of them - in chronological order, Pope Benedict XVI’s on charity, Pope Benedict’s on hope, and one on faith that was largely written by Pope Benedict before his resignation then finished and promulgated by Pope Francis. While I’m at it, I have to recommend the very great 20th-century German Catholic thinker’s Josef Pieper’s book on the theological virtues. In a brief memoir written several years before he was elected Pope, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger mentions that Pieper was one of the Catholic thinkers who most influenced him and his fellow seminarians during the years after World War II. Then of course there is Aquinas on the topic …
None of this so far is meant as the “for the kids” part of this article (not that any of it is “adults only” either!). Now here’s that part. When I was in first grade (in 19*cough*), at St. Rita’s parish school in suburban Milwaukee, our pastor’s name was Fr. George Kolanda. On his name day, the feast of St. George, our teacher, Sr. Monica, read us the story of St. George from this lovely 1948 book by an Englishwoman.
I liked it, and I wanted to hear - or read - more stories like it of saints. Our class went to the school library once a week and each of us was allowed to check out a book for the week. Next time there, I wanted to check out this book. Ordinarily I wouldn’t have been allowed to, because it was in the third-fourth grade level area. But Sr. Monica and Sr. Irene, our school librarian, were very wise, and they didn’t want to stifle my interest, and so they let me check it out, and I’m pretty sure I read at least most of it through within the week (at home in the evenings - the weather must have been bad or something).
One of the other stories (she calls them “legends,” and explains what she means by that) from it that stuck in my mind over the years was the story of St. Thomas, both because of the story itself, and because it ends with a sweet little prayer-poem.
Last winter, after finding that the book has been reprinted and is available on Amazon, I decided to buy myself a copy. I think it’s one of only two children’s books I’ve bought myself as an adult, along with Make Way for Ducklings (purchased after a Boston trip reminded me of it), although I’ve contemplated picking up Caps for Sale after citing it in a conference paper.
Here is the story of St. Thomas from the book.
You may have heard of the St. Thomas Christians of Syria and India - one subset of whom have been in the Catholic news for some time now due to a big liturgical controversy. You might want to ask St. Thomas’s intercession for all of the Christian communities that descend from those he evangelized. And for architects.
And check out Windham’s books. She has a Sixty Saints for Girls, too.
Ceterum autem censeo Putin et Cyrillum esse deponendos.
What a lovely story! I will have to look into getting these books for the great-grands (one boy and one girl so far). Thank you for sharing this!