Merry Christmas, dear digital neighbors! Welcome to Day 6 and the geese a-laying! Some say these represent the six days of Creation mentioned in the Good Book. Either way, I pray your Christmas season is a good one. As this year winds down, I hope your experience of 2025 contained some of the richness of this little prayer/reflection. If this year was a rough ride, I hope that 2026 will offer you a new path with more grounding experiences of life and its goodness. I am not a fan of drama—especially the “sky-is-falling” variety or the manufactured outrage that drives likes and farms engagement on the internet. I know the world is not a perfect place and that humanity needs a massive amount of grace and conversion.
The challenge for me has always been the same: to venture forth into the world and be aware, informed, and thoughtfully engaged where I can, without being consumed by its brokenness and insanity. When it comes to the internet, it is doubly so, since everyday encounters are so infrequent there. The internet—and your particular feed—is filtered and refined to offer you the best in distraction, obsession, and outrage. Like any good drug dealer, it wants you returning for your next fix. Other than venturing onto Locals and Substack to deliver these reflections, I try my best to avoid the larger world of the internet for the first hour or two of the day. I am happier that way. I am sure the later hours will have plenty of opportunity for doom-scrolling, distractions aplenty, and the occasional good find. Creation is grand; more time with it can do a lot to heal the distortions and infections caused by internet overdosing. Blessed Tuesday, my friends. See you around the more sane neighborhoods on the internet.
In the universe, law;
In the conscience, goodness;
In the mind, truth;
In nature and art, beauty and order;
In the heart, love.
— Bradford Smith, What is God?
Drei zinnen, Dolomites, Italy - Thomas Vitali - Pixabay
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.
Happy Friday, Digital Neighbors!! Slept in a little this morning. Woke up at my ordinary time, hit the hour timer, and wandered back into short, incoherent dreamland. It was a good hour to try and get a little more rest after a long day yesterday. We had a good staff team-building day with personal prayer and then looking at the DISC tool as a way to appreciate our gifts as we work together for the good of our parish family.
Had a meeting in the evening to explore using our auditorium for an Emergency Overnight Shelter in the winter for the homeless and unhoused in our local area. Lots of potential, lots of work if that is to come to fruition. As I mentioned last night, this is where the rubber hits the road on personal charity. People feel comfortable giving money to support charities, but the possibility of hosting and staffing one is way out of the comfort zone for most. Prayer and time will tell.
Off to some “ifferisms” for your Friday cup of Joe.
If you get gloomy, just take an ...
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.”
