Bless This Day
This day is full of beauty and adventure, help me Lord to be fully alive to it all. During this day, may I become a more thoughtful person, a more prayerful person, a more generous person, and kindly person. Help me not to be turned in on myself but to be sensitive and helpful to others. Let me do nothing today that will hurt anyone, but let me help at least a little, to make life more pleasant to those I meet.
When night comes may I look back on this day without regrets; and may nobody be unhappy because of anything I have said or done or failed to do. Lord God bless this for me and all of us. Make it a day in which we grow a little more like Your Son and gentle as Mary His Mother.
Dear Parishioners,
As I type this final bulletin letter I have nothing but joy in my heart for my time here as your pastor and spiritual father. For 4222 days I have been blessed to shepherd this family of faith and come to know so many faithful people. It is not without its sorrow, we all want good things to continue, we want good people to remain in our active lives but life on this side of Redemption is always filled with change. We are a pilgrim people, and pilgrims are always in route to a final destination.
Just because we are pilgrims does not mean that we don’t build community, we don’t form bonds of family, friendship and community. The bonds of communion are essential preparation for our final destination (provided we let grace & mercy bring us home). These little brushes with communion prepare us for the communion that is eternal and the home that is lasting. Thank you all for the blessing you have been in my life and priesthood.
I had no idea what this assignment was going be like when I was asked to accept it on December 5th of 2011. It was an unexpected call and change but I accepted it as a gift from God. For 2 and 1/2 years Mom & I were blessed to live in our little house by the side of the road and I was blessed to continue living there for the next 9 years. Getting to know our parish family and local New Melle community has enriched my life much more than I ever imagined back in the newness of 2012. I was always hopeful, and trusted in God, but one never knows what the future holds and our imagination as a adults is often tempted to prepare for the worst rather than hope for the best. The antidote to that temptation is trust, trust that the same God who blessed us in the past is going to bless us in the future. He is never not with us. He is called Emmanuel for a reason, and we need but open our eyes a little and awaken our slumbering hearts to catch His humble movements in our lives. I have been so blessed countless times to catch Jesus passing by in the moments in my life and in so many of your lives. God is good. God loves us. God is present to us. That message is there everyday in those subtle brushes of faith. It is ok to weep in the moment at changes and losses, but my tears are so small compared to the joy God has given to me at Immaculate Heart of Mary and with this parish family. It is good for us to be here. Thank you for making this one of the happiest times of my priesthood.
Love,
Fr. Tom
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.
Good morning, digital neighbors! Blessed Sunday to all, especially to any fellow disciples of the Risen One and worshipers of the Triune Mystery. Happy Sunday to all the rest of you dear neighbors. Every day is a day for gratitude, but Sundays are days of overflowing gratitude. It is a good practice to count your blessings, listing them as part of your prayer and devotion to God. If you don’t believe in a Divine power, then thank the cosmos for the blessings of the day. If you find yourself bereft of blessings, I pray you find strength, courage, and perspective to see the ones hidden in your trials or buried beneath your burdens.
Faith never calls me to deny reality; on the contrary, it calls me to see things as clearly as possible. It has been my vibe since I was a young person: there can be only one truth. My feeble mind does not grasp it well, but it does seek it. I desire as much as possible to be conformed and transformed by it. It is a slow process and at times tedious. Getting over Tom is a difficult thing. ...
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.”
