Everyone’s favorite banshee, Maureen, is posting audio of one of my favorite texts from the (very end of the) patristic era, St. John Damascene’s On Holy Images. She sees the hand of providence, or at least some sort of Jungian synchronicity, in Scott Hahn’s simultaneous posting of an essay on iconoclasm at Beliefnet. My historical backgrounder on John Damascene and the iconoclast controversy is right here. For those who can’t stop reading, Maureen also links to full text of John in English translation.

Some years back I met a nun named Sister Damascene. When I confessed my admiration for her patronal namesake, she said with a sly smile, “Oh, is that where the name comes from? All this time I thought it was because I drove the car in the novitiate, and Mother Superior always called it ‘that Damn Machine.'”