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Fr. Tom Miller@Padre

January 03, 2022

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year Digital Neighbors & Friends! I hope you had a wonderful introduction to the New Year and if you are getting back to the work week may it be an easy transition. How about another visit to Oxymoronica, complied by Dr. Mardy Grothe? Off we go!

Civilizations commonly die from the excessive development of certain characteristics which had at first contributed to their success. - Rene' Dubos

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy New Year and welcome to contemplation of a dying civilization! Is our civilization dying? Many would say yes, they would point to a multitude of trends in the West where various elements are pulling us apart rather than holding us together. I don't think anyone can disagree that societies are becoming more divided, perhaps that is the unintended consequence of celebrating diversity as a highest goal without ask what are the limits of diversity. I dunno. There are so many areas of limited diversity in life that I suspect we accept its absence without question. It is those areas of pushed diversity that become subject to debate or perhaps we just surrender to the intended "good" of diversity without questioning where the turn to the right or the left will lead us. Trans-women competing against biological women seems to be the stellar example to illustrate where unintended consequences flow from assumed good intentions.

I would like to think civilization is ailing, but not dying. Unattended illness can become critical and eventually lead to the death of the host. Until there is some agreement on the nature of the illness, it is difficult to prescribe a medicine. I am guessing Emerson would invite us to return to nature, contemplation and a life less industrial. I can't imagine what he would say about the transition of the industrial experience of modern life to the ever intrusive technological experience of life. I know the irony of this as we all sit in front of our computers, phones or tablets.

One last quote for a Monday of the first week of the year to encourage us not to be despairing, a far too easy surrender in the face a of a future of what seems to be evident & unavoidable diminishment. Seems to be, not a given. How best to spend our time and exercise our efforts becomes one of the most important reoccurring choices that we make. Happy Monday Friends!

If we are crazy, then it is because we refuse to be crazy in the same way that the world has gone crazy. - Peter Maurin

Winter Barn in Lisbon, Iowa

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Fr. Tom Miller@Padre

November 22, 2024

Voltaire's birthday 11-21-1694 - A brief essay by Steve Weidenkopf

Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).

Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.

Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...

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Fr. Tom Miller@Padre

January 01, 2026

2026 Teams Talk @ Padre's

Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.

https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO

2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
Thursday, January 1, 2026
6:00 AM - 8:00 AM (CST)
Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027

Coffee Talk - Daily beginning at 6:00 AM Central Time Zone - USA

White Pilled Wednesday - A break from the heaviness of news and current events to focus upon things more personal & positive for the first hour of Coffee Talk.

Afternoon Chats - Most Tuesday, Friday & Sundays 2:00 PM Central

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Fr. Tom Miller@Padre

4 hours ago

Good morning, digital neighbors! Yesterday was a tad on the wordy side of life, so we’ll just dive into some more “iffisms” from Monday, starting with the history of one of the more common ones from our past. Have a great Thursday my friends!

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

In 1841, the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, published The Village Reader, a compilation of literary selections to be used in the instruction of primary school students. The book never enjoyed the success of McGuffey’s Readers, the most popular of such early textbooks, but it earned an important footnote in history because it included a poem from Thomas H. Palmer:

’Tis a lesson you should heed,
Try, try again;
If at first you don’t succeed,
Try, try again.

And now the variations:

If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving’s not for you.

If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

If at first you do succeed, try to hide your ...

Fr. Tom Miller@Padre

July 26, 2026

Garden of the Beloved - read by Lady Clare - Chapter 10

The Beautiful

Said the Disciple to the Lover, “Sir, before I left the world I heard certain men who were held in high esteem and thought to know the will of the Beloved say that those who loved the Beautiful did not love the Beloved but loved idols, yet in the Garden of the Beloved we are ever striving to create beauty for the pleasure of the Beloved. Were they then speaking the truth?”

The Lover answered, “Those who said this had never glimpsed the form of the Beloved nor ever truly sought Him, for all beauty is but the reflection of the beauty of the Beloved, although seen very dimly as in a dark and faulty mirror, even as all goodness is a dim reflection of the goodness of the Beloved. So it is that those who love beauty and goodness recognize dimly in them the form of the Beloved and though often in ignorance those who are seeking the Beautiful and the Good are seeking after the Beloved.”

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Fr. Tom Miller@Padre

July 19, 2026

Garden of the Beloved - read by Lady Clare - Chapter 9

The Comforting of the Disciple

Now the Beloved often came into the Garden both because of the great joy He had in the Garden and because of the great love He bore the Lover and the Disciple. Often He talked with the Lover, but the Disciple because he was not yet perfected in Love could neither hear nor see the Beloved, though he often felt a strange joy, he did not know why. Therefore he was sorrowful, for it seemed to him that on account of his sins he would never find the Beloved. So weeping he came to the Lover and said, “Sir, I know that I am a very sinful man and I much fear that though I search all my life yet on account of my sins I shall never find the Beloved.”

In reply the Lover smiled gently and said, “My son, when you first came into the Garden do you remember what sort of day it was?”

“Yes,” said the Disciple, “I remember it. It was dark and gloomy as if no sunlight ever entered the Garden.”

“When you began to strip off your rich robes,” the Lover asked, “what happened to the day?”

“It seemed,” said the Disciple, “as if the sun had suddenly broken through the clouds and the whole Garden shone with glorious and celestial light: such light as shines daily in the Garden.”

The Lover replied, “Know that the Beloved Himself is the light of the Garden, so that when you began searching for the Beloved even then you found Him, for how can any know the desire to search for the Beloved if He had not already without his knowing revealed Himself to him.”

So the Disciple was greatly comforted by knowing that although he could not see or hear Him he had already found the Beloved, and he labored the more joyously to do the service of the Beloved.

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Fr. Tom Miller@Padre

July 13, 2026

Garden of the Beloved - Read by Lady Clare

Chapters 8 (Which I I forgot to post one for Independence Day Weekend!)

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