Blessed Lent Friends & Neighbors! Some more spiritual goodness from St. Francis de Sales. While far from any expertise on St. Francis de Sales, I believe his idea of "resignation" is what we mean today by acceptance of God's will. Resignation is not defeated surrender, but rather trusting obedience to God's providential love.
Nothing can bring us a more profound peace in this world than to look upon our Lord in all the afflictions that befell him from his birth to his death. In his life we see so much calumny, poverty, dependence, pain, torment, injury, and every sort of bitterness that, in reflecting on them, we see that we are wrong to call our little trials afflictions and pains and to think that we need more patience in order to endure them, inasmuch as a little drop of modesty is all we really need to enable us to bear with what happens to us. Your soul has all these movements of sadness, astonishment, and anxiety because it is not yet sufficiently grounded in the love of the Cross and in resignation to God’s will.
A heart that greatly respects and loves Jesus Christ crucified loves his death, pain, torment, insults, hunger, thirst, and shame, and, when some small participation in them comes, such a heart rejoices and embraces it lovingly. Every day you should bring to mind the sufferings our Lord endured for our redemption — not while at prayer, but at another time, such as when taking a walk — and consider how good it is for you to participate in them. Find out how to do so, that is, how to frustrate your desires, and especially your most just and legitimate desires; and then, with a great love for the Passion and Cross of our Lord, cry out with St. Andrew, “O blessed Cross, so beloved to my Savior, when will you receive me in your arms?”
St. Francis de Sales Roses Among Thorns: Simple Advice for Renewing Your Spiritual Journey
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
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.

Said the Disciple to the Lover, “Sir, before I left the world I heard certain men who were held in high esteem and thought to know the will of the Beloved say that those who loved the Beautiful did not love the Beloved but loved idols, yet in the Garden of the Beloved we are ever striving to create beauty for the pleasure of the Beloved. Were they then speaking the truth?”
The Lover answered, “Those who said this had never glimpsed the form of the Beloved nor ever truly sought Him, for all beauty is but the reflection of the beauty of the Beloved, although seen very dimly as in a dark and faulty mirror, even as all goodness is a dim reflection of the goodness of the Beloved. So it is that those who love beauty and goodness recognize dimly in them the form of the Beloved and though often in ignorance those who are seeking the Beautiful and the Good are seeking after the Beloved.”