St. Luke the Evangelist and Peanuts

October 18 is the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and who is traditionally believed to have been a physician who traveled with St. Paul during the mid-1st century. I like this collect from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer for his feast day:

"Almighty God, who didst inspire thy servant Luke the physician to set forth in the Gospel the love and healing power of thy Son: Graciously continue in thy Church the like love and power to heal, to the praise and glory of thy Name; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."

St. Luke is especially special to me because he is my patron saint, and I took the name Luke at my Confirmation, largely because of the beauty of his Gospel, which I first discovered in this:



I think I totally freaked out everyone in a class I took at Harvard called The Making of Christianity when the professor showed that clip and then asked if anyone knew what Linus was quoting. No one else spoke up, so I said, "The Gospel of Luke . . . chapter 2 . . . verses 8 to 14." Unfortunately, this is one of the few Bible passages I could cite like that, just because I love it so much.