Author: Tradition Magazine
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Athenagoras on the details of the Resurrection
About the Author: Christianity teaches that the dead will rise again in a physical resurrection. This is a comforting doctrine, but right from the start Christians realized that it raises philosophical questions as well. How does a resurrection work? If we get back the same bodies that we had, how can we account for the…
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Saint Paul on Dying with Christ
About the Story: The good news of the Gospel seems to have raced to Rome, and soon Saint Paul (c. 5 – c. 64/65 AD), the Apostle to the Gentiles, wrote them one of his great letters. Here in Romans 6:1-14, Saint Paul explains what Christians should believe about death and about life. 1 What shall…
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Stewarding Death on the Homestead
About the Author: Mark Kutolowski lives with his wife and three children at Metanoia of Vermont, a lay Catholic homestead guided by the spirituality of Saint Benedict. metanoiavt.com “Thank you, Dimitri, for the gift of your life.” I speak the words softly to the 90 pound lamb I’m holding. I have him up on his…
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Justin Martyr on why Christians don’t kill themselves if they think Death is not to be feared
About the Author: St. Justin Martyr is one of the principal witnesses to the beliefs and practices of Christians in the second century. Justin was a Platonist philosopher from Palestine who wrote two apologies, that is, defences of the faith. The first apology was addressed to the Roman Emperor himself, Antoninus Pius, and the second…
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The Apostolic Blessing at the Point of Death
About the Author: Fr. Matthew Hardesty is a priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville, KY. He earned Sacred Theology Bachelors and Master of Divinity degrees from St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore, MD in 2011. He has held the positions of Assistant to the Vicar for Priests, founding Chaplain of the Archdiocese’s Courage Chapter,…
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John 11: 17-27
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Laz′arus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary…
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St. Thomas More
About the Author: Long before his own martyrdom, the great humanist thinker Saint Thomas More (1478 – 1535) was enjoying great worldly success at the court of King Henry VIII. But shortly after he was made a knight, in 1522, More wrote his short book On The Four Last Things. More commends those who look on…
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The Dance of Death by John Lydgate
About the Author: In the early 14th century, the bubonic plague, the Black Death as it was called, swept through Europe, killing as much as half the population. Europeans suddenly had a sense of the presence of death among them, always ready to snatch them away. A French poet expressed this as the Danse Macabre, the Dance…
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The Martyrdom of Polycarp
About the Author: This letter from the Church at Smyrna is the earliest story of martyrdom not counting the New Testament. The original author is unknown, though our text includes the names of several men who copied the original letter. It tells the story of Polycarp, the 86 year old bishop of Smyrna, and of…
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The Didache
About the Work: In the Early Church standardization soon became a problem. This problem was addressed through texts like the Didache, Teaching, the first word of its Greek title which we translate as The Teaching of the Lord through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations, circulated in Greek in the first century AD. The Didache covers important topics like the…