Double Feast: St Luke

El Greco, of course!

Today is the Feast of St. Luke!
You all know him, gospel writer and all.

But what sometimes gets overlooked is that St Luke is a man of many talents.  Not only was he a  a writer of the gospel and all...so his faith of course is inspiring....but he was a physician and tradition has it also an artist.  Now, the arts part has been disputed, but who can know really?  And tradition has brought St. Luke down as an  honored patron saint of the arts and painters, in fact as an iconographer of Mary...so I'm running with it.
I mean, St. Luke is like the double whammy patron of the house, or our marriage, no? Yes!  How cool! You've got the whole doc factor for Tom, and the arts factor for me, and the faith factor for us both! Whoa.
Frankly, I'm just really dig that.

After those two connections, you then add the whole Mary connection and well, this is a lock on the patron of the house deal for us.  We love Mary.  I love Mary!  And I love painting Mary!  So...St. Luke, he's the man...surely to goodness he's an intercessor to turn to.  His gospel has some of the most profound parables as well:

"Luke is the one who uses "Blessed are the poor" instead of "Blessed are the poor in spirit" in the beatitudes. Only in Luke's gospel do we hear Mary 's Magnificat where she proclaims that God "has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty" (Luke 1:52-53).

Luke also has a special connection with the women in Jesus' life, especially Mary. It is only in Luke's gospel that we hear the story of the Annunciation, Mary's visit to Elizabeth including the Magnificat, the Presentation, and the story of Jesus' disappearance in Jerusalem. It is Luke that we have to thank for the Scriptural parts of the Hail Mary: "Hail Mary full of grace" spoken at the Annunciation and "Blessed are you and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus" spoken by her cousin Elizabeth.

Forgiveness and God's mercy to sinners is also of first importance to Luke. Only in Luke do we hear the story of the Prodigal Son welcomed back by the overjoyed father." 

Anyhow...just so you know.  Today is the Feast of St. Luke.  He was  born in a pagan family and was a convert to the faith.  He worked with Paul and preached the "mystery of Christ's love for the poor." He is inspiring. St. Luke lived the gospel through his spoken and written words, his art,  his hands.   Just like I should do, in some small measure, every day. 


From the divine office, morning prayer:

" Saint Luke gave us the gospel message and proclaimed Christ as the dawn from on high."

Painting by Maarten de Vos, 1602

So, my Tom/Coffeedoc, 

Happy Feast Day!

St. Luke, pray for us!