For some time, I have wanted to write to you. I congratulate you on taking the path through higher studies to knowledge and wisdom. Whether you are moving toward a career in medicine, law or any other profession or whether you are seeking to learn a trade that serves the common good, all education is a gift.

With the zeal of those on a mission, atheists today are actively speaking out against religion and belief in God. Spurred on by the tragedy of September 11, 2001, American author and neuroscientist Sam Harris took not only Islam, but also Christianity and Judaism to task. In his 2004 best seller The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, he advocates ending respect and tolerance for religion.

Christianity is rapidly disappearing in the Middle East where it was born. Terrorists, without scruple, are destroying the oldest living Christian communities in Iraq and Syria. Towns wiped out. Christians and other minorities, the victims of ISIS’ unrelenting brutality. The bloody and deadly crusade to destroy any remnant of Christian practice horrifies the many decent people living in America. Yet, what is gradually happening to Christianity in our own country may escape their notice.

In 1506, at the age of 23, Raphael produced a beautiful self-portrait now found in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. Leonardo da Vinci also gave us a picture of himself in his 1512 Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk. Likewise, Michelangelo left us his portrait by placing his own face on the flayed skin held by St. Bartholomew in the Sistine Chapel’s Last Judgment. And then there is Van Gogh. He painted 37 self-portraits between 1886 and 1889. Ever since the Renaissance, artists have been depicting themselves in their own works.