Good Morning ADD Irregulars and all you visitors to the WSN! I hope the week is going well, I do miss our Coffee Talks and visiting Locals on and off throughout the day. I tend to be a creature of habit with the bookends of my day and then embrace the randomness of each day as it unfolds. It makes for a good balance of habit and spontaneity for me. The Convocation is going really well, I have gained a deeper appreciation of our Archbishop. He seems like a very down to earth person with a good grasp of the changes that need to be done to promote stability and viability. That he is unafraid of that is real sign of hope because the shit storm is on the horizon when you close parishes.
The typical quote I hear - "I have been a Catholic all my life." "You're closing my parish, I quit." The real laughable one is when you change Mass time, speak about the Faithful losing their proverbial shit??? Again, not many, but enough to be memorable. Who would have thought that the thread connecting someone was so fragile? It really is difficult to frame it in a empathic light from my point of view. How can anyone profess to be really committed to something or someone and then ditch it when it is no longer convenient for them? I can understand feelings of sorrow and anger that arise in such situations, but cutting out the source of your sorrow, anger, disappointment seems to be the path the reductionist living in my mind. If the thing, community or relationship was never enriching, never life-giving, I can understand losing it. But if there was something worthwhile, life giving or fundamentally good it is worth wrestling to maintain. Of course, in a relationship that means all invested parties needs to be willing to commit to finding some solution that is workable for all.
I hope my fellow priests are willing to work with the Archbishop in trying to help our people process the sorrow, the anger, the loss at the changes that are coming. (The vibe I get is that many, if not nearly all, are willing to do that.) Better for us to sit in dozens of sessions listening with people share their thoughts and feelings (sadly you cannot always agree with or validate them) than telling them to accept the change and pray about it. While all interested and invested parties should pray about it, the listening and being with people in their moments of loss/change is irreplaceable.
I am never not hopeful about the future. Since I have faith in the ENDING I try to keep better perspective on these unfolding chapters of life. I do worry about the things that can become unglued in the interim, humanity is far less loving than the 1960's predicted it would be. I may have an opportunity to host a ZOOM chat this evening, so check back here for potential notifications.
On a completely different note, in my roaming's about the internet for future coffee memes I found this SEPT meme. May she rest in peace, I pray for her daily.
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.”
