An unexpected gift

When I retrieved my mail this morning I was rather surprised to find a small package. I have absolutely no idea who sent it to me or for what reason. There is a return address listed from a company of which I have never heard.

Rather than keep you in suspense any longer, the package contained simply a small book: The Second One Thousand Years: The People who Defined a Millenium, edited by Richard John Neuhaus.

It looks to be a very fine book with an essay devoted to each of the following personages:

Pope Gregory VII
Moses Maimonides
Saint Thomas Aquinas
Dante Alighieri
Christopher Columbus
John Calvin
Blaise Pascal [written by my former professor, Edward T. Oakes, S.J.]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Abraham LincolnServant of God, Pope John Paul II

If anyone has any idea why the book was sent to me - it is a pleasant surprise - I should be delighted to know.