Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Happy Tuesday Friends & Refugees, Phamily & ADD Irregulars, Early Birds & Later Dayers, Dawn Patrol and Day Walkers, Conversants, Lurkers and all you other Visitors to Locals!

In Cath-O-land we are celebrating the feast of St. Irenaeus. A brief bio and some quotes from this saint who is linked to the age of the Apostles.

St. Irenaeus was an early Church Father in the 2nd century. He was mentored by St. Polycarp, himself a disciple of St. John the Evangelist. St. Irenaeus became Bishop of Lyons and fulfilled his calling as a prolific writer. Most notably, he defended the faith against the intellectual imperialism of the Gnostics; refuting their claims by defining truth as available to all. He said truth is public, unifying, and pneumatic (permeating). Additionally, St. Irenaeus helped identify the canon of scripture and the creed.

“The glory of God is man fully alive.”

Probably the most frequent quote from the saint. To be fully alive is not to be consumed by ones self-fulfillment and misguided judgment but rather to seek enlightenment by knowing, loving and following Christ. The Good News is proportionally good in comparison to what you believe is the wretched condition of your current state. For Disciples of the Master, to be fully alive is to come to know His will, His mercy and His hope and embrace that in your life as your ultimate good. No mindful disciple proclaims his or her own perfection, we all struggle against the reality of sin.

To some degree we are all victims of our own hypocrisy, but if you are mindful of your short comings, honest about your faults, working on overcoming your inclinations, you are not a hypocrite. The hypocrite is blind or oblivious to all those things. You are a sinner. I am not certain of the degree of anyone's sinfulness, but I am certain of mine. My plank before your splinter, but if you care about someone, you ought to speak of the splinter with some courage, compassion and humility. Loving your neighbor is messy business. No pedestals for the living, and no trampling upon the fallen or lowly.

“The business of the Christian is nothing else but to be ever preparing for death.”

This is supposed to be one of the hallmark characteristics of a Christians. It created an age of martyrs for the first few centuries in the church. If you are unafraid of death, you are a free person. The suffering part may be a bit problematic, I imagine a long enough period of suffering has the potential to break any of us. If we avoid thinking of death, the reality of suffering, we live lives of constant apprehension. It will be a life of constant "No" to anything that may cause potential harm or injury, illness or risk.

Echoes of 2020 still aggravate me to this day with its idiotic mantra of "if it saves only one life." It sounds so noble and it is utterly unrealistic. All of life is risk, small or great, if you want to get on with the business of living. There no escaping the eventual date with death, so one ought to ask how best to spend time and make the best decisions with the time they possess. What we live for and what we are willing to die for serve as excellent boundaries for whatever we think our life means. Discern well so that your last words aren't "Hey, watch this. . . " "Hold my beer" "Oh oh " or "Oh crap" One can set an earlier appointment with death through poor decisions.

"In proportion to God's need for nothing is our need for communion with God."

It is why I am what I am. Seeking communion with God and helping others to do the same. God knows, and He does, I don't do it perfectly. I am another sinner on the path of conversion, but loving Him and neighbor (digital and physical) is what I try to make the business of my living. I have my rough edges, my sinful allowances that need to rooted out by the Master Gardener and I am thankful for His patience and grace.

Well, enough rambling if you have read all of that. Happy Tuesday to all of you visiting Rubin Report, Phetasy or Padre's and stumbling across this post and giving it some of your time.