Happy Saturday Digital neighbors! Good morning Friends & Refugees, Early Birds & Later Dayers, Conversants, Lurkers and Lost, hey there Phamily & Misfits, Awakening Wonders & Curious Questioners and finally all of you ADD Irregulars, WSN Aficionados and Caffeinated Curmudgeons!
St. Lawrence the Martyr is on the docket in Cath-o-landia to celebrate this morning. We remember and thank God for the witness of Lawrence’s faith and love. Praise God alone, but thank God for the good people, living and dead, who witness to the power of faith. Of course, you will find some misguided souls in Catholicism who will talk about “praying to the saints” and attribute to certain saints answered prayers and the like. God alone answers prayer, but as Catholics we believe that saints can pray for us and with us. Some become patrons for particular causes because of their life or witness in the face of death, but it always and only God who does the answering of prayer offered in communion with a particular individual.
St. Lawrence was a deacon in the 3rd century. He suffered martyrdom during Emperor Valerian’s persecution, shortly after Pope Saint Sixtus II and Companions were killed. St. Ambrose of Milan wrote about St. Lawrence and said when the prefect of Rome demanded the Church’s treasures, St. Lawrence brought forth the poor, widowed, maimed and lepers. He declared these people greater than any treasure the emperor could possess. Constantine the Great built an oratory over his burial site which has been enlarged and beautified by successive rulers. It remains today as the basilica of San Lorenzo.
Lawrence was known for his wit and was roasted to death as his form of execution. As he was dying, he prompted his executions to roll him over because he was done on “this side.” Lawrence was a joyful soul that cared for the poor and suffering and is remembered for his service and ultimately his sacrifice in witness to Christ. Lawrence is the patron saint invoked by fellow deacons, people who serve the poor, and finally cooks. Cooks???? Who says the church doesn’t have a sense of humor? Either way, I hope you have friends who help you celebrate your faith (if you believe in God) and celebrate life. May your faith be thoroughly seasoned with humor so that you can laugh at the trials of life, share joy with your neighbors and cultivate a perspective that that is rich in gratitude. St. Lawrence, pray for us! And don’t forget to pass the bar-b-que sauce!
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.
Blessed Sabbath and Happy Saturday to all of you digital neighbors scattered across the internet. In Cath-O-landia we are celebrating the Solemn Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since about the 5th century the devotion has been recognized in various communities within the Church. By the time of St. Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure it was a widespread devotion and belief among the faithful.
In short, at the moment of her death, the Blessed Virgin Mary was assumed body and soul into Heaven. Our Orthodox brothers and sisters speak of the Dormition (the “falling asleep”) of the BVM, whose soul was received into Heaven at death and whose body was translated there and reunited with her soul. I am not sure how many, if any, outside of Catholicism and Orthodoxy celebrate it, since it is not explicitly in the Bible. Some see it as “Mary worship,” and sadly there are disciples who mistakenly or errantly place too much emphasis on the BVM and lose sight of the fact that ...
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.”
