Good morning, digital neighbors. Happy Wednesday to all! The heat advisory that has been part of our daily experience for the last three weeks — with an occasional cool day thrown in to keep us from completely frying — continues for at least a few more days. All things being equal, I will take summer hot days over miserable cold days.
Ecclesiastes 12:12 says: “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” I don’t agree that study is always a weariness. Subjects of low interest can weary us, but subjects that do interest us end up being added to the growing stack of “yet to be read” or “one day I will get to this one” that any book lover possesses. Of the buying of books there is no end — that is my own twist on the phrase from the Bible.
Every Moment Holy is one of those “stumbled across” books on Amazon (which places them right on your path based on past purchases, don’t you know?). I miss the days of shelf browsing and stumbling across an unexpected book title or an author who intrigued you. It was always a crapshoot: the book may be a bust in the end, but one never knows until you have had an opportunity to meet it. Used bookstores used to be like the quicksand pits that seemed to be everywhere in my childhood memories of TV. Walking into one could mean the loss of a morning or afternoon. There are fond memories of hours lost among books in the past.
Every Moment Holy is an invitation to invite God into every moment of life with explicit “liturgies” of prayer. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I have found it inspirational and illustrative of recognizing that God is present in all things, even if we are often too busy with ourselves to know that He is present to us more than we are to the moment at hand. This prayer/liturgy was found thumbing through the book, and I paused because of knowing so many older parishioners caring for loved ones with memory issues.
A LITURGY FOR THOSE FACING THE SLOW LOSS OF MEMORY
When I no longer know the faces of my family,
Yet will you know me, O Lord.
When I can no longer remember my own name,
Yet will you remember me.
This will be my enduring hope, until at last I wake from my long fog into a bright morning of clarity and see you face to face, remembering again all that I had forgotten, and knowing then even as I am known.
In light of this promise, give me peace even now, secure in the knowledge that what is obscured from me is not truly lost, only tucked away and waiting to be revealed fully in that eternal light.
O God, though all else be hid from me — all memory, all knowledge, all understanding — do not hide your presence. Be to me more present, more immediate, more abundant in grace and peace, than ever I knew.
Though I know nothing else, still let me know You. And if a morning dawns when I can no longer name You or remember to call upon You, be more immediately present to me then than my own confusion, than my own breath.
Be to me a peace and a light and an abiding sense that I am loved and held and that all will be well.
Give grace and mercy also, O God, to those who grieve my decline, to those who love me, who must suffer the heartache of such slow loss. Bless their patient sacrifice on my behalf. May their hope and their humor hold, and their hearts be strengthened beyond expectation.
Thank you for the years of health and love we were given to share. May those memories and your grace sustain them in sorrow.
Be near us now.
O Father, in my weakness, be strong.
O Jesus, in my loss, be found.
O Spirit, in my absence, be present.
O God, in my forgetfulness, remember me, your child.
Amen.
Artwork from the book
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
Afternoon Chats - Most Tuesday, Friday & Sundays 2:00 PM Central
Always invited, never expected.
Other chats as posted in the community.
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.”
