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Joshua Charles @JoshuaTCharles - Among the many things that shocked me in the writings and histories of the Church Fathers as a protestant was how many times we protestants resembled the heretics (sometimes even the pagans) of their times in various ways.
One such example is veneration of the relics of the martyrs, the intercession of the saints, and how such things produced miracles.
Multiple ancient writings—including from St. Ambrose himself, as well as St. Augustine—testify to the fact that St. Ambrose had a dream in which the location of the relics of Sts. Protasius and Gervasius (martyrs) were discovered. Once discovered, St. Ambrose displayed their relics in what is today the Basilica of St. Ambrose, and they produced many miracles, including healing a blind man of his blindness (who went on to serve in the basilica for the rest of his life in gratitude for his healing).
I discovered long ago that it was PAGANS who despised the veneration of relics by Christians (though as a protestant, I was always told such veneration was pagan itself). But while reading the “Life of St. Ambrose” (which St. Augustine requested be written by a certain Paulinus), I discovered that the ARIANS also apparently despised it.
As it turns out, when I visited Milan in 2024, I went to the Basilica of St. Ambrose, and saw three sets of relics. I knew one of them—the one in the middle—was St. Ambrose, and was utterly astounded to be in the presence of his bodily remains, given how much he had influenced me toward conversion to the Catholic Faith.
But I also wondered who the two people on either side of him were. A placard nearby told me: Sts. Protasius and Gervasius. I was looking at the very relics of the martyrs that I had read so often about in the writings of various Church Fathers, and other ancient Christian sources. It was as if God was bringing it all full circle. I bowed and venerated their relics, asked for their prayers, and stood in awe of the reality of Christ in them. I took the picture below when I was there.
Now here is the bit showing how the Arians themselves despised this Catholic stuff (and thereby matched many of the attitudes I had received as a protestant):
“Yet, within the palace, a great number of Arians who sided with [Empress] Justina [who persecuted St. Ambrose] ridiculed such grace of God as the Lord Jesus deigned to confer upon His Catholic Church by the merits of its martyrs [through relics/intercession]. And they claimed that the venerable man Ambrose had by means of money prepared men to state falsely that they were troubled by unclean spirits and to say that they were tortured by him just as by the martyrs.”
Paulinus, Life of St. Ambrose (Ch. 5)
https://x.com/JoshuaTCharles/status/2027486499793719389

JP @J2P2 - When you solo hot drop and wipe the whole champion squad 1v3. Notice how she contols her emotions to defeat the entire panel.
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Red Panda Koala @RedPandaKoala
Things get heated between Rep Luna and news host over wether US actions in Iran constitute war
"Strategic strikes are not war."