Christmas Every Day

St. Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru on December 9, 1579, the illegitimate son of a Spanish gentlemen and a freed slave of African (or possibly native American) descent. His early life was spent in poverty and he was eventually apprenticed to a barber-surgeon. Despite the laws that forbade non-whites from becoming full members of religious orders, Martin joined the Dominicans as a volunteer helper, eventually becoming a lay brother.

He was renowned for his charity and love of the sick and poor. He established an orphanage and children‘s hospital for the poor children of the slums; he also set up a shelter for the stray cats and dogs and nursed them back to health. Even during his lifetime miraculous cures and powers were ascribed to him. Martin died on November 3, 1639 and was canonized by Pope John XXIII on May 6, 1962. He has become the patron saint of Peru, people of mixed race, innkeepers, barbers, public health workers and more.

Wodehouse 3

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November 3, 2016October 27, 2016 by gerryadmin

“I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”

Wodehouse 2

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November 2, 2016October 27, 2016 by gerryadmin

“Freddie experienced the sort of abysmal soul-sadness which afflicts one of Tolstoy’s Russian peasants when, after putting in a heavy day’s work strangling his father, beating his wife, and dropping the baby into the city’s reservoir, he turns to the cupboards, only to find the vodka bottle empty.”

Wodehouse 1

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November 1, 2016October 27, 2016 by gerryadmin

This month will mark the 106th anniversary of the publication of P.G. Wodehouse’s first humorous piece. In honour thereof, we shall post a Wodehousean flash of wit every day throughout November. Behold the first:

“There is only one cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine.”

On the necessity of forgiveness

Home / Something Wise / On the necessity of forgiveness

October 31, 2016October 4, 2016 by gerryadmin

Of him that hopes to be forgiven it is indispensably required that he forgive. It is therefore superfluous to urge any other motive. On this great duty eternity is suspended, and to him that refuses to practise it the throne of mercy is inaccessible, and the Saviour of the world has been born in vain.

— Samuel Johnson

O tempores, o mores

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October 29, 2016December 23, 2018 by gerryadmin

We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.

— C.S. Lewis