Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Blessed Sunday Friends & Refugees, Phamily & Triggeratti, ADD Irregulars and Goodly Souls I've yet to meet. Sunday is without a doubt my favorite day, and the hours I spend with my parish family in prayer and the visiting that happens before and after Mass are a joy. I remind my little flock in New Melle that our worship is the most important hour of the week to join in prayer and fellowship to celebrate and recognize the gift of it all. The gift of life is not always an easy gift to receive, there are difficult chapters, and everyone has their own story and contributing cast and circumstances. But to see it as a gift is a great frame for living and appreciating what the day holds, the unexpected surprises, the subtle movements of spirit, a pausing coincidence, or those moments of post experience enlightenment that make us wonder if something is afoot.
We know it is not all peaches & cream. One of my frequent reminders in my preaching is that belief does not spare us the trials of life, it can bring meaning and hope through those trials, but there is never the promise that the faith ticket is a smooth ride. The Promise is not to be alone. I trust the One who said "I will be with you always." When my personal light goes out I will get a chance to discover if is there ultimate truth or just nothingness. I'm banking on some One, but I won't know any difference if there is just non-existence. My prayer and hope is that the lost and wandering find a welcoming Presence on the other side just as the Seekers do. As I remind myself and others who give me an ear, I am not here to covert people to my path but rather to be a good neighbor, even if it is just a digital one. The Coffee Talks I like to host offer a more personal dimension to these digital encounters. I am always happy with inquiries into what I love, but I only tend to beat the bushes as it were for the home crowd. Loving one's neighbor begins with listening to them, talking with them and taking genuine interest in their story, to come in guns blazing about "Da Jesus" is not my style, but I don't fault those who do.
Everyone has their path and passions in life, religious fervor about one's convictions is praiseworthy as long as it is not condescending and combative to those who disagree. If I have to convince you under threat of pain, I believe more in the power of pain than in the veracity of my convictions. If I have to threaten you I believe more in the wielding of power than the patience of persuasion. That gets lost on people all the time. The blindness of fervor is not unlike that of fever induced delusions. Persuasion is funny, it is most often an experience unique to the person. I tell you some talk moved me and inspired me and you wonder if I have been drinking or taking some drug. Sometimes persuasion takes time and prolonged exposure and other times it happens unexpectedly. Often it never happens. Some are never persuaded, such is life. But I am not here to persuade, I am here to know and share. That is one of the best aspect of the gift of life, other people. I love all the like minded people I am about to see this morning, and I love the many different minded souls I meet outside of worship and often when I wander the inter-webs. Some of the best different people I have met via the wonders of the internet. I am so blessed to live in this amazing age of connection. Have a great day my digital neighbors, know that as I pray with those in the flesh, I remember all of you I have gotten to know here with fondness and gratitude.
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.
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.”
