Author: a fool

All alone with Jesus

wager!

Life in Religion is the ultimate wager on the existence of God. The Church should always be engaged in doing things that make no sense if God does not exist. This is the reason why I hold the Religious life in the highest esteem. Through the commonality of goods, the life of obedience and above all the commitment to shape life around the Opus Dei (that is, prayer), the monastic life models for all Christians what it means to live fully and abundantly, with and for Christ.

The Most Rev’d Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury (2013 – 2025), Foreword to: Anglican Religious Life 2016-17

travel through the book

What’s a movie or book that inspired you to travel?

I have never intentionally travelled – I have moved from one place to another but that was utilitarian. I have no desire nor do I have the “nerve” to travel. But I have travelled through books – that is, the book itself has taken me on a journey of discovery.

So which book? Just one: The Romanovs: The Story of Russia and its Empire 1613-1918. It made me fall in love with Russia and Russian Orthodox culture. (As an aside, I also read Rasputin: The Untold Story and The Last Tsar: The Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs, both of which made me want to read more.) The context and culture is so different to what I have experienced. (Yet, so similar!)

Anyway …

freedom?

What in sooth is freedom? Freedom is the will to be responsible for ourselves. It is to preserve the distance which separates us from other men. To grow more indifferent to hardship, to severity, to privation, and even to life itself. To be ready to sacrifice men for one’s cause, one’s self included.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, 38

aliens!?

I have started a hall of heroes – a collection of individuals whose faith and life I admire. One of those is St Elisabeth – Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia,

So here is an interesting article: A Horizon Beyond the Storm – St Elisabeth’s Gift to Us. (Filled, I must say, with very nice pictures. And, as an aside, St Elisabeth went to the visit Anglican “religious houses” before establishing her own. Now there is a book waiting to be written.)

Just one quote, from St Elisabeth:

We are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. This visible world is but the place of our sorrowful exile. Earthly days are full of deceit. For each one there comes the hour when he must go home, to the Heavenly Fatherland. God’s holy ones await death as the greatest joy. For them, the end of earthly life is the meeting with the Creator, to Whom the soul had ceaselessly reached out. A person who has given himself to God believes that the Lord watches over him in all things. Trusting in God’s saving Providence, he bears every pain and sorrow.

There is much to be said about the Romanvos. And a lot more about audocrarcy. As with all martyrs and passion-bearers, a reminder that this world is not my home. I am an alien!!!!

why?

I saw someone on TikTok ask, “why does God send people to hell?”.

Good question. So here is my completely not asked for response:

God respects people’s choices. God respects “rejection” so that I can choose to love. Without that freedom, and God’s absolute respect for my freedom, there is no real love or faith.

Also, and let’s be honest, for people who choose to reject God in this life to spend all eternity with God is just another example of hell! Right!?

Completely without authority (or insight).