Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Happy Sunday ADD Irregulars and Patrons of the WSN! The following is a reflection prompted over at Phetasy.
@bridgetphetasy The landscape of my heart is the meeting ground of my love for God, people and life. These last two weeks that have hobbled my legs have given me ample time to think about what really matters in life. Immanuel - God is with us. I have had long sleepless nights that have pushed me to the threshold of blame or surrendering in trust. I have knocked on the door of the Mysterium and sough patience and acceptance to whatever the future may hold as I literally take each day as it unfolds. I have wept so much over the interplay of poor-me and I am so freaking blessed and unworthy of these gifts I have received. I don't feel insane even remotely, but I can taste ever so slightly the feeling of being ambushed by the unexpected welling up in my heart before my mind can form it more properly.
I have been blessed by the people God has placed in my life. My parish family, the care of my sister & nephew, the support and laughter of the ADD Irregulars have made all the difference these last two weeks. I have laughed far more than I have cried over things in the last two weeks. Too often illness and infirmity make one feel isolated and alone, I have never felt that even during the longest nights of sleeplessness. All of these good gifts make my landscape one filled with gratitude and peace. Thinking about all of this makes me feel so utterly unworthy of the kindnesses that have been poured in to my lap. Rylee-girl was mostly happy to see me when I returned home, she is a popular puppers after all and has adoring fans to attend to in her morning visits around church.
Finally I am thankful for all the accidentals that make the landscape of my heart even more verdant. The cellphone - often the villain of my rants for turning us all in ourselves has been a real gift for connecting with others. My laptop, which allows me to pen these morning thoughts, typos and all, as I process my interior state, reflect upon experience, ponder things on the outer orbit of my imagination and thought. And finally the experience of Locals itself, connecting with people I often have never met in the flesh but have very much met in person. I am thankful that some of them visited the parish last Autumn for our Sausage Dinner. It was one of the real highlights of 2022.
Thank you @bridgetphetasy Bridget for the opportunity to make this my morning reflection. Life is not all peaches and cream, I have had plenty of moments darkness and doubt in my life thus far, but today, on my favorite day of the week, I my landscape is rich in 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.
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2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
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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.”
