Friday of week 29 in Ordinary Time or Saint John of Capistrano, Priest

In quiet pursuit of the true, the good, and the beautiful.

The Saint & Scholar is a daily commonplace book — a small gathering of the lectionary, the wisdom of the great minds, and the art that has shaped the Western soul. Read slowly.

An open illuminated manuscript on an oak desk, lit by candlelight.

Scriptorium, after Caravaggio

Today, in Brief
Gospel

Cf. Matthew 11:25

Alleluia, alleluia. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, you have revealed the secrets of the kingdom to little children. Alleluia.

Read in Full
Quote
“Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you.”

— St. Augustine of Hippo

The Reflection
Art

The Calling of Saint Matthew

Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio) · c. 1599–1600

Caravaggio's tenebrism — his violent contrast of light and shadow — became a theological argument in paint. The shaft of light enters the tax collector's gloom from the right, falling not on Christ but across the bewildered face of Matthew. Grace, the picture insists, finds us in our least likely posture.

See the Work