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.
(See the first comment for the explanation of MOAR. It came up early in the morning chat.)
Good morning, digital neighbors! S.H.I.T - SURE HAPPY ITS THURSDAY! We had a radio personality say that every Thursday when he signed on to his program. It must have stuck for I still remember it to this day. Either way, welcome to a new day, and let's continue our visit with M. Scott Peck's collection of quotes.
Today's section on happiness deals with contentment. One of the things I pray for along with an ever deepening faith is to be reasonably content in my life and in my happenings. I don't want to be complacent, which is very similar to contentment in its origin but yields vastly different fruit. Complacency leads to boredom, which seems to be a major affliction in modern living, whereas contentment leads to gratitude and perspective. Well, it ought to if one is really trying to practice contentment, to take nothing for granted, to name your benefits and blessings, and to strive for growth of virtue...
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.”
