Good Morning, Digital Neighbors! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Welcome back to Monday—a real Monday that feels like Monday, not a fourth Saturday or “what Sunday is this???” Twelve drummers drumming supposedly points to the articles of the Apostles’ Creed, but that is of course not agreed upon by everyone. I guess I prefer the catechetical links interpretation because being a person of faith is a twofold venture: the relationship you have with God and your ability to articulate what and why you believe. Many Catholics have joined the ranks of the inactive or been poached because they could not articulate their faith in any manner, and so it begged the question: “Then why do you believe?”
I am not a fan of poachers. One of our neighboring churches up the road, when I was in New Melle, had sessions called “Recovering from Catholicism.” I always wanted to drop in on that session, but I thought it would just be a dick move in response to their dick initiative. I often thought, what if we were to hold: “There is more to faith than emotional worship-tainment”? There is nothing positive to be gained by mutual dickery among Disciples of Christ, but we sure do engage in it often. The corrosive secular world and the militant Islamic world should give us pause to cooperate rather than compete.
Creeds in their simplest form help you articulate and agree—something human beings do not often come by easily. Creeds are not a replacement for a prayerful relationship with God, nor are they the same as living out the faith you profess, but they are a statement of belief and consent to revealed truths. This is what we (however large or small the group is) profess and live by. Everyone has a creed of some sort, articulated or unarticulated. Many live by creeds completely unexamined as they go about their unreflective and impulsive day-to-day living.
Watch how they live, listen to how they talk, spend enough time with them, and their creed will become more evident. You probably won’t get a 100% fix on it, but you will get a foothold on what matters to them, and that is their personal creed. Again, none of us can mind-read, but we can observe behavior, pay attention to words and patterns of speech, and that is more revealing than most speakers realize. Perhaps the odd saving grace is that, while so many go about being unreflective, they are met by an equal number of inattentive observers who pay them no heed.
That you are reading this gives me hope in the ever-growing number of attentive and reflective people who are out there. Not to pat ourselves on the back—it is too easy to slip into automated living and become a cog—but at least we are trying to be more engaged and aware. Creeds involve some sort of intentional living, and intentional living is the best beginning to meaningful living. Have a great day drumming your path into 2026!
Thou takest the pen—and the lines dance.
Thou takest the flute—and the notes shimmer.
Thou takest the brush—and the colours sing.
So all things have meaning and beauty
in that space beyond time where Thou art.
How, then, can I hold back anything from Thee?
DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD, 1905–61, MARKINGS
Winter Road- Javid Naderi - Unsplash
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.
Good morning, digital neighbors! Blessed Sabbath and Saturday to all you fine souls milling about on Substack and Locals in the various communities I visit and enjoy, especially my home crew at Padre's. I hope all of you had a wonderful week while I was away at the Lake of the Ozarks. The weather was great, perhaps even a bit too warm, but the mornings and evenings were outstanding autumn weather with that crisp tone. Buckle up: TL:DR is on the way.!
The late-summer drought continues. I doubt it will be a colorful autumn for any trees; they mostly look either green or that yellowish tinge of distress. I suspect this will be a "brown and down" kind of autumn with barely any vibrancy. Time will tell. At least Unsplash will provide some wonderful autumn photography. That is where most of my photos come from, with the photographer credited.
The main presentation of the week was Dr. Scott Hahn's six lectures on the Road to Emmaus as a paradigm for understanding the Sacred Scriptures and the Eucharistic ...
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.”
