Good morning, Digital Neighbors! Happy Sunday Friends & Refugees, Early Birds & Later Dayers, Conversants, Lurkers and Lost, Misfits & PHAM, Awakening Wonders & Curious Questioners, ADD Irregulars, WSN Aficionados and the Curmudgeon Quorum.
Sunday is my favorite day. It ought to be given the direction of my life, but I guess for some priests, preachers & ministers it might not be. If you don’t love who you are and what you do (most of the time) it is time to change what you are doing and who you are becoming. Some poor souls never seem to discern that or possess the courage to change it. They settle for less and receive even less than life has to offer. To realize that is your current state is existence is a painful revelation, to remain there is even worse.
Worship for me is gratitude. Gratitude for what I believe God has done, what He is currently doing in my life and what I believe He has promised for my future. I know God does not need my worship, does not gain anything from what I offer that He does not already posses in spades. He certainly does not need me or the halfhearted efforts and attempts I make at discipleship. As my parishioners have heard over the years, “no pedestals for the living.” Everyone is struggling with something, known or unknown to them in their pilgrimage of life. There is no perfection to be found on this side of veil. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t appreciate, encourage and thank others for their efforts at virtue and service, but rather to humbly remember even the best of us are still marked by brokenness and sin.
Gratitude changes everything for me, it is one of my favorite recurrent topics in my ramblings. I hope you have reasons for gratitude, if not I hope you can discover something to prompt your gratitude. Begin the practice of recognition of the giftedness of life even if your life currently sucks. No sugar coating, just a realization I have been given a seat at the table without ever having been asked. Happy Sunday my digital neighbors. If you have never read David Whyte, he is worth your time. A quote from Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.
Gratitude is not a passive response to something we have been given; gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us. – David Whyte
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.
Quite apart from the fact that I utterly admire, even love, her, this is the best possible response to an idiot, who, in his defense, asked a pretty good question.
https://x.com/TBifford/status/2087992591279407133/video/1?s=61
The Beautiful
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.”
