Good Morning Digital Neighbors, ADD Irregulars, Refugees, and Phamily! Sort of a reprint from last year on the 17th with some additional comments and observations. It is one of those TL/DR posts, but some of you may find interest in it.
Blessed Sunday to all! In the wilds of Cath-O-land we begin focusing on the coming of Jesus in the flesh on the 25th. I know many of us have been Christmasing it up since Halloween when all you could find were Christmas outfits. 😜 So for those of you tempted to yawn about now at things religious, I hope to use the various Messianic titles of the given days as a springboard for things more conversational for all while still being true to the spirit of the day in my own neck of the spiritual woods.
Wisdom - Different from knowledge. One can know many things and have little to no wisdom. Wisdom doesn't take books, videos, podcasts or even instructors, it takes time and generally a marinating inf silence & stillness. Without silence and stillness, we will usually miss those moments of wisdom that grace us. I suppose one can be busy and still stumble into wisdom. It is a strange reflecting about life and self without being preoccupied with self. Wisdom tends to flow from tested observation that is open to growth, nuance and refinement based on one's own experience as well as that of others. Wisdom may come with age but doesn't necessarily rely upon age as the main determinant factor. Silence, stillness, questions proposed to self, the slow tumbling of things in our thoughts, a willingness not to be preoccupied with our knowledge, training, expertise or prideful accomplishment, its often flows from imagination and a malleable and supple will. All of those habits of the heart allow us to be surprised by wisdom and benefit for her visitations.
Wisdom from on High - I guess that prompts the question for anyone if there is something or someone higher than self? If there is not, is the only option for one to make themselves the only higher power in their world? I don't think so, I have met so many good unbelievers, agnostics and atheists that I assume they have higher aspirations, virtues or life compass orientation apart from belief in my favorite invisible friend. ✝️ 😊
I often wonder if the creation of invisible friends for our children don't contribute in some way to the more widespread disbelief. Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny & the Tooth Fairy all lend to some magical workings in life, but this cluster of magical friends who don't exist seem to beg the question if the Mysterium Tremendum & Mysterium Fascinans is not among their ranks. Why isn't God just the primary member of the Santa, Bunny & Fairy cult? Those three childhood friends fall on the Fascinans side of the Divine Mystery. A little note on the Mysterium Fascinans:
In mysterium fascinans we find the numen attractive, alluring, charming, fascinating, and enchanting. Otto phrases it as follows:
“The mystery is for [the person experiencing the numen] not merely something to be wondered at but something that entrances him; and beside that in it which bewilders and confounds, he feels a something that captivates and transports him with a strange ravishment, rising often enough to the pitch of dizzy intoxication...” —Rudolph Otto
So what is so fascinating, alluring, enchanting, and even intoxicating in the numen? It resembles what is fascinating and enchanting in the natural world: love, goodness, beauty, home, and the joy that arises out of them. These qualities are attributed to God in all major religions, and they are attributed to the experience of God in all major mystical traditions. When they are experienced in the numen, they have a purer and more integrated reality than when they are experienced in the natural world.
Divine or no Divine in your life, I pray there is something fascinating, alluring, enchanting and compelling in your life. I hope it is something more than self-interest or personal power. Go find Karl if you believe those are the only two real pursuits in life, the results are widely known. We all know that the next exercise in communism will be different this time. No wisdom to be found there. Well, whatever path you are on my friend, I hope that it affords you a few bits of wisdom along the way and that others are fortunate to share them with you. Happy Sunday Digital Neighbors & Friends!
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.
Kind of. This "explanation" tries to pin it on being a bit naive, being a bit too aggressive in their analysis...
No. Climate narrative was a global conspiracy to allow a global elite to rule the world. To delete 80% of the world population. To destroy all western governments by forcing them to ruin their economies. By forcing immigration to destroy the backbone of western civilization. By poisoning the world population with drugs and fake food and spraying them with chemicals. You will own NOTHING, not even your children. Their goal is to enslave and remove all rights for the rest of humanity, whomever survives.
They are doing a hell of a job implementing this. In the meantime, here's their shit mea culpa.
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.”
