MARDI GRAS!!!!! Happy Fat Tuesday my Friends! Do we still call it that? After two years of comorbidities and knowing that obesity is a possible invitation to a more difficult encounter with the VID can we call it Fat Tuesday? How about Shrove Tuesday? Time to go to Confession before the season of Lent! And then go again during Lent! Tis the Season to be sorry! Actually celebrated well, the Sacrament is a tremendous gift for Disciples. Get to shriving!!!! BUT, BUT, BUT the best name for today is Pancake Tuesday!
Feast today for the long fast begins tomorrow, well it does for those trying to celebrate an observant Lenten Season. For many more people it is just a time to travel around on Friday's to discover their favorite fish fry. It has been my tradition to take the staff out for pancakes or whatever type of breakfast food they want to enjoy. We typically go to Bob Evans or IHOP. I tend to enjoy waffles more than pancakes, I don't why pancakes seem to sit so much more heavier than a waffle. Aren't they basically the same things? Anyways, it has been a fun tradition for decades for me since I was a young pup of a priest.
Some people prefer booze and boobs, so there is that tradition most commonly experienced in New Orleans and other locations where booze and parades are the norm. Apparently the boozing, parading and flashing of the boobs can begin as early as the day after Epiphany and carry on to the day before Ash Wednesday. Given the variance of the lunar cycle after the first day of Spring, some Mardi Gar seasons can last a long time like this year and others can be so short the hungover won't believe it ended to abruptly. For those outside the realms of Cath-O-land, Lent can begin as early as the 4th of February, (Only 42 days after Christmas?!?!) or as late the 10th of March. Blame it on the moon!
However you choose to celebrate Tuesday, I hope it is enjoyable for you. For my friends at Rubin Report, Phetasy and Triggernometry know that I will be missing my morning visits to you communities as well as the times I drop in for visits during the course of the day. I will still be semi-active at Padre's with the Coffee Talks and some Lenten posts, but a lot less visiting and exploring of the inter-webs. April 24th will be here before we know it. 😊Part of my daily prayers are for the people I meet in my daily meanderings in real life and on-line. Many of you, your situations and loved ones have been entrusted to the Divine. I have so enjoyed my visits on Locals since 2019 and have certainly appreciated the 4 communities which I visit daily. Until April, take care and know of my love and appreciation.
A couple of prayer-prose here before I take a break from many of my daily habits.
Ugly people,
dirty people,
ignorant people,
stupid people,
weak people.
Arrogant people,
selfish people,
pompous people,
smug people,
too-clever-by-half people.
There are so many people
we can despise
or envy
or even hate
and feel quite justified.
Lord, we have put up our defenses
and you are going to need
all your ingenuity
all your patience
and all your skill
to break through our castle walls;
and when you have
we’ll make a last ditch stand
and fight to the death
to prove to you
that we have been right all along.
But meanwhile, Lord,
please win a few of the skirmishes.
Prevail on us to reach out,
however timidly,
to touch the untouchable.
Entice us
by some means
to come out from behind our barricades
and expose ourselves to danger,
as you came, in Christ
from behind the barricades of heaven
to be among us,
vulnerable,
the object of prejudice
and cruelty.
Let love break in
and steal our prize possession,
pride,
and crush our fear
with confidence.
Let it be so, Lord,
for Jesus’ sake.
Alan Gaunt, 1935–
This is our poverty—
that we do not belong to each other
nor serve one another.
We go each his own way
and do not care for our neighbor.
We pray thee, O Lord
redeem us from this estrangement.
Redeem us out of this loneliness.
Deliver us from the sin that divides us.
Join us closely in True Love.
The Church in Germany
Harcourt, Melville. Short Prayers for the Long Day .- Giles Harcourt
One of my favorite memes for a chuckle as we say good bye to Alleluias for the next 46 days! Laissez le bon temps rouler! At least for one more day.
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 ...
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
Other chats as posted in the community.
@dr-robot Bill asked for a side by side comparison of the two calendars that were used in Roman Catholicism. One of the pre-conciliar calendar that was reformed in 1962 and then the post-conciliar calendar after 1970. Most of you will have no interest in this, but it was amazing that Grok completed this in about 5 to 8 minutes. Grok knows how I like things laid out, color preferences and with the right prompt this was done while we were playing a card game.
XIII
The Proud Minister
One day there came into the Garden a man in torn clothes badly bruised and cut, who said to the Lover, “In the name of the Beloved I demand your help.”
So the Lover and the Disciple let him in and dressed his wounds and prepared the best of the vegetables from the Garden for him to eat. When his wounds had been dressed and he had eaten and rested the Lover asked him how he had fallen into this plight, to which the man replied, “I was Minister of the Beloved in a city near this place, where I preached His gospel and expounded His doctrine to the people. I pointed out to them how their sins had made them wholly hateful to the Beloved and how therefore they were utterly beyond the range of His love and He would condemn them to eternal torments, whereon some fell into despair and wept bitterly but many were angry. One day the magistrates called me before them and begged me to leave the city and preach elsewhere for they said I had made many people so angry and desperate that they feared there might be a riot and they might not be able to protect me but that I might suffer some injury. I, however, very zealous for the Beloved and believing that the magistrates only feared that their own sins might be proclaimed, preached the more vehemently, denounced the magistrates and made it abundantly clear that the whole wicked city was foredoomed to eternal punishment by the just provision of the Beloved. Whereon a mob, stirred up no doubt by the corrupt and venal magistrates, fell upon me with sticks and stones, nearly killing me and driving me out of the city in the state in which I came to you.”
“My friend,” said the Lover, “this was not a good deed of yours, for besides denying the unfathomable compassion of the Beloved, you have by your obstinacy caused these people to commit a grievous sin, and this cannot be pleasing to the Beloved, that through you who profess to be His minister the people should become worse. Surely you remember that He Himself said, ‘If they persecute you in one city flee to another.’”
Therefore the man was very angry, and cursing the Lover, said, “I see that I have had a very false report of you and I do not believe that you are a servant of the Beloved at all. When I came to you so injured for the Beloved’s sake you set before me only herbs and fruits although the garden is full of birds which you could have killed to make me a worthy meal. I shall proclaim everywhere that you are no true servant of the Beloved but a mere falterer who dares not suffer in the cause of the Beloved. Be sure that you are foreordained to eternal torments who suffer nothing here.”
For the man was so blinded by his own pride that he could not perceive the scars on the hands and feet and the brows of the Lover nor how the cloth beneath the armpits of his tunic was dyed with a red dye. So he went out of the Garden cursing and shouting.
But the Lover looked sad and said, “A man like this does much harm to the cause of the Beloved, for by thus speaking falsely about the Beloved he may bring men to fear Him but none to love Him, and by love alone can any man approach the Beloved.”
