Publisher @OrbisBooks, saint-whisperer @GiveUsThisDayLP. #TolstoysTalesofTrump. #MastersofSocialIsolation. Seeking meaning in the sacred and the absurd.
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#MastersofSocialIsolation #7. Evagrius Ponticus, a 4th-cen desert ascetic, wrote a manual of practical counsel for those living in solitude. The desert monks did not so much flee people, but the deadness of a world consumed with the quest for power, wealth, and passing pleasure.
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40 yrs ago today, while saying Mass, San Oscar Romero had a clear sight of the sniper who was about to shoot him through the heart. It was a fate he clearly foresaw. “One who is committed to the poor must risk the same fate as the poor.”
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“I have frequently been threatened with death. I must say that, as a Christian, I do not believe in death but in the resurrection. If they kill me, I shall rise again in the Salvadoran people. Martyrdom is a great gift from God that I do not believe I have earned. ..
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Eventually we’ll hear: “Every year we lose far more children to school shootings, but that doesn’t mean you are going to ban assault rifles.”
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Now styling himself a “war time master,” the master summoned his staff and peasants for daily briefings on his latest health tips. Today it was “beet root—served al dente,” and of course his famous steaks. “In combination the results are frankly incredible.” #TolstoysTalesofTrump
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#MastersofSocialIsolation #6. Blessed Sibyllina Pavia, 14th-cen anchoress. At 12 she went blind, but found a Dominican community that took her in. She delighted in her new life but prayed to St Dominic to recover her sight. One night she had a dream: St D took her hand...
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...and led her thru a dark passage to a field of sunshine. “In eternity, dear child,” he said. “Here, you must suffer darkness so that you may one day behold eternal light.” Waking, she discerned she was not meant to recover her sight, but that her life was no less meaningful...
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...for her disability. She asked to be enclosed as an anchoress in a cell attached to the church in Pavia to devote herself to prayer. Thus, at 15 she entered the cell where she would remain alone for the next 65 yrs. In electing solitude she didn’t turn her back on humanity.
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Such commentators seem to have no memory or understanding of how “respectful critics” were treated under previous papal administrations: condemned, silenced, blacklisted, subjected to kafkaesque investigations with no right of appeal, treated as heretics or apostates...
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One small step for Twitter. One giant leap for #TolstoysTalesofTrump and #MastersofSocialIsolation. 🔥💥💫🌝
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#MastersofSocialIsolation no. 5. Buddha. An ancient Buddhist sutra, “On Knowing the Better Way to Be Alone,” describes an encounter between Buddha and a monk named Thera, who liked to live alone. After hearing from Thera a description of his life, Lord Buddha instructed him on...
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“the better way to be alone”: “It is the way of deep observation to see that the past no longer exists and the future has not yet come, and to dwell at ease in the present moment, free from desire. When a person lives in this way, he has no hesitation in his heart. ...
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...He gives up all anxieties and regrets, lets go of all binding desires, and cuts the fetters which prevent him from being free.” The implication of this sutra is that there is no particular merit or value in simply being apart from other people.
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If solitude is to bring us happiness, the physical act of sitting quietly must be joined by a corresponding internal stillness or quiet. In his commentary on this sutra Thich Nhat Hanh writes: “To return to the present is to be in contact with life. ..
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...Life can be found only in the present moment, because ‘the past no longer is’ and ‘the future has not yet come.’ Buddhahood, liberation, awakening, peace, joy, and happiness can only be found in the present moment. Our appointment with life is in the present moment. ...
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