As busy as things have been, I couldn't let this day pass without comment. Thomas More is a favorite of mine. Many biographies have been written on Thomas More. I have read several. Most of these follow his life (and his spirituality) through his writings - (of which I highly recommend 'The Sadness of Christ" - available from Scepter Press). I could write much more of Thomas More this morning, but must get on working.
So I will leave you this quote from one of his last letters to his daughter Margaret Roper during his imprisonment:
"Mine own good daughter, our Lord be thanked, I am in good health, and in good quiet of mind; and of worldly things I no more desire than I have. I beseech Him make you all merry in the hope of Heaven. And such things as I somewhat longed to talk of them with you all, concerning the world to come, our Lord put them into your minds, as I trust He doth, and better too, by His Holy Spirit; who bless you and preserve you all. Written with a coal by your tender loving father, who in his poor prayers forgetteth none of you all, nor your babes, nor your nurses, nor your good husbands, nor your good husbands' shrewd wives, nor your father's shrewd wife neither, nor our friends. And thus fare ye heartily well, for lack of paper."
From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune...
(I will get to the comments left below - eventually.)
Saint Thomas More, Saint John Fisher - ora pro nobis!
Oremuse pro invicem!
2 comments:
I remember the impact St. Thomas More had on me even as an agnostic and classic liberal. "A Man for All Seasons" was a VHS tape I eventually wore out.
Once in group therapy (a mistake I eventually rectified) everyone present was trying to convince me that I absolutely must conform my thinking to that of the society around me if I wished to be happy. One gentleman I liked a great deal told me "You can't stand alone against the world, even if you think you are right."
I shot back, "Thomas More did, didn't he? And who should give a fig about happiness?"
Thomas More, the reluctant layman - he thought he could achieve holiness only as a monk - but he was so wrong - being a model of fatherhood and an example of how to achieve holiness as a layman - even in the absence of his martyrdom.
Thanks for checking in. I will get to your chicken comments below later.
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