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The Curt Jester

"It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it." GKC

“The Heart and Center of Catholicism”
Book ReviewPrayerPunditry

“The Heart and Center of Catholicism”

by Jeffrey Miller April 26, 2025April 26, 2025
written by Jeffrey Miller

I found this interesting when I read this in Kevin Symonds’ book “Pope Leo XIII and the Prayer to St. Michael: An Historical and Theological Examination.” I found it timely as the Cardinals gather for the coming Conclave.

Our contemporary period is marked by continued governmental assaults on the liberty of the Church, inter-ecclesial disunity and scandal. If demons were involved with such activities in Leo’s day, it is even more imperative to implore the Archangel’s intercession. Perhaps it was more significant than first realized for Pope Francis to have consecrated the Vatican City State to Sts. Michael and Joseph on July 5, 2013 in these words:

O glorious Archangel St. Michael … watch over this City and over the Apostolic See, the heart and center of Catholicism, so that it may faithfully live according to the Gospel and in the exercise of heroic charity…. May you be a bulwark against every act which threatens the serenity of the Church; may you be the sentinel of our thoughts, which frees us from the siege of a worldly mentality; may you be the spiritual leader, who sustains us in the good fight of faith.[1]

Following the lead of the Pastors of the Church, let us pray God through the intercession of St. Michael the Archangel “for the liberty and exaltation” of the Church over her enemies.

This occurred when the Pope was blessing a new new statue of St. Michael the Archangel in the Vatican Gardens. In attendance was also Pope Benedict XVI.

There will be a lot of attention poured on the Vatican now and in the coming weeks, so it is very appropriate to pray for intercession from St. Michael the Archangel and St. Joseph (who has the title “Terror of Demons”).

As for Kevin Symonds’ book:

“We set out to examine the claim that Leo received a vision that was behind the composing of the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel.”

This is a carefully researched book exploring the development of this prayer and the varied accounts that have surrounded around it. Most of these popular accounts are either false, developed much later, or have no evidential sustenance to them. What can be determined is a fascinating story in and of itself. At least half of this book is footnotes, sources, translations, etc.


  1. Kevin’s translation from a radio vaticana article.  ↩
April 26, 2025April 26, 2025 0 comment
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Post-Lent Report
HumorPrayer

Post-Lent Report

by Jeffrey Miller April 23, 2025April 23, 2025
written by Jeffrey Miller

After a season of some fasting and penances, I get on my scale, and it is just as I feared. My ego was roughly at the same weight. I thought perhaps that humility, like muscle, weighs more and that accounts for this. Unlikely.

Each Lent I go in with some expectations of not just seek detachment from materials things, but seeking more attachment to Jesus. Well really, I start off with more materialistic goals of “giving things up” and forgetting about gaining more of all that matters.

I came across this today from Rev. Fr. Peter T. Rohrbach’s book on St. Teresa of Avila, “Conversation with Christ.” From a chapter where he writes on meditation and gives examples.

My eye runs down the page, and I continue reading: “For a man does himself more harm if he seeks not Jesus, than the whole world and all his enemies could do.” … This is something of which I must convince myself and work into the very fabric of my life: that the most grave evil which could befall me is separation from You.

Once again, I was stuck on the process and not on the goal. Thus, setting myself up for disappointment in my Lenten disciplines. I slowly learn that perhaps the worst thing that could happen to me is if I was totally successful in these disciplines and thus attributed any success to my perseverance and effort.

“Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit”, “Man proposes, but God disposes.”, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, Chapter 19.

So “Yeah!” on my failure to “Lent” as I would want. It is impossible to take a selfie snapshot of your own interior life and understand everything going on. Do I love God and others more? I hope so. I at least desire it. Even progress on a glacier scale is progress.

April 23, 2025April 23, 2025 0 comment
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Stay in your lane
HumorPrayer

Stay in your lane

by Jeffrey Miller April 15, 2025April 15, 2025
written by Jeffrey Miller

One discouragement in prayer is knowing that you are not praying as you ought. It is not just the intentions you might pray for or the attempts to have a conversation with Jesus. For me, it is all the distractions in prayer. Even more so, the interior distractions that take your focus away.

In general, the saints have told us that when we realize we have become distracted, is to return our focus to praying. Repeat as necessary.

St. Teresa of Avila talked about such tendencies as “wild horses.”

Whoever experiences the affliction these distractions cause will see that they are not his fault; he should not grow anxious, which makes things worse, or tire himself trying to put order into something that at the time doesn’t have any, that is, his mind. He should just pray as best he can; or even not pray, but like a sick person strive to bring some relief to his soul; let him occupy himself in other works of virtue. This advice now is for persons who are careful and who have understood that they must not speak simultaneously to both God and the world.1

So there I was, kneeling in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament with minimal external distractions and popping in and out of prayer. If somebody had been in a mental lane behind me, they would be calling 911 about the probably drunk driver ahead of them. I am distracted by thinking about distractions and wanting to return to some attempt at prayer. If only I could get warnings when I am veering off. To quickly return my focus.

So I thought about how cool it would be to have Botts’ dots, those round, raised pavement markers that warn you when you are losing focus and get you back on the straight and narrow. I think, maybe I should write about this metaphor. So convoluted of going from prayer to distraction, to thinking about distractions, thinking about metaphors for distraction, then thinking about writing about distractions.

I once joked my strategy should be to sit down and spend time in distraction before Mass, and that prayer would break out to interrupt my attempt at distraction.

I had recently heard a caller to Catholic Answers Live talk to Jimmy Akin, complaining about his ADHD and difficulty in prayer. To loosely paraphrase what Jimmy said, he talked about how it is part of our survival mechanism that we are not totally focused on only one thing. That we have a certain “bounciness” and that the called just had more “bounciness.” That is a metaphor I can absorb and to bounce back when I am aware of my bounciness.

  1. St. Teresa of Avila, “The Way of Perfection”, Chapter 24, 5
April 15, 2025April 15, 2025 0 comment
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The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 550

by Jeffrey Miller April 10, 2025April 10, 2025
written by Jeffrey Miller
pope-francis2-300x187

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc., which I also cross-post on Jimmy Akin’s blog.

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week, from 13 December 2024 to 9 April 2025.

Angelus

  • 6 April 2025 – Angelus

General Audiences

  • 9 April 2025 – Catechesis prepared by the Holy Father for the General Audience – Cycle of Catechesis – Jubilee 2025. Jesus Christ our Hope. II. The life of Jesus. The encounters 4. The rich man. Jesu

Homilies

  • 6 April 2025 – Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers – Holy Mass

Letters

  • 13 December 2024 – Letter of the Holy Father to Bishops in support of the Pontifical Lateran University

Messages

  • 26 March 2025 – Message of the Holy Father to participants of the National Pilgrimage from the Czech Republic [29 March 2025]
  • 27 March 2025 – Message of the Holy Father to the participants in the XXXV Course on the Internal Forum organised by the Apostolic Penitentiary [24–28 March 2025]
  • 28 March 2025 – Message of the Holy Father to participants in the II Synodal Assembly of the Churches in Italy [Audience Hall, 31 March – 3 April 2025]
  • 29 March 2025 – Message of the Holy Father to Pilgrims from the Diocese of Rieti (Italy)
  • 2 April 2025 – Message of the Holy Father to participants in the 29thIX General Chapter of the Salesian Congregation [Valdocco, Turin, 16 February – 12 April 2025]
  • 7 April 2025 – Message of the Holy Father to Pilgrims of the Dioceses of Grosseto and Pitigliano-Sovana-Orbetello

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April 10, 2025April 10, 2025 0 comment
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The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 549

by Jeffrey Miller April 3, 2025April 3, 2025
written by Jeffrey Miller

pope-francis2-300x187

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc., which I also cross-post on Jimmy Akin’s blog.

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week, from 19 March 2025 to 2 April 2025.

Angelus

  • 30 March 2025 – Angelus

General Audiences

  • 2 April 2025 – Catechesis prepared by the Holy Father for the General Audience – Cycle of Catechesis – Jubilee 2025. Jesus Christ our Hope. II. The life of Jesus. The encounters 3. Zacchaeus. ’Today

Messages

  • 19 March 2025 – Message of the Holy Father to Missionary priests of Mercy on the occasion of their Jubilee pilgrimage [28–30 March 2025]
  • 25 March 2025 – Message of the Holy Father on the occasion of the enthronement of the Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania [29 March 2025]
  • 29 March 2025 – Message of the Holy Father to Participants in the Jubilee Pilgrimage of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service [3 April 2025]

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April 3, 2025April 3, 2025 0 comment
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The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 548

by Jeffrey Miller March 27, 2025March 27, 2025
written by Jeffrey Miller
pope-francis2-300x187

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc., which I also cross-post on Jimmy Akin’s blog.

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week, from 20 March 2025 to 26 March 2025.

Angelus

  • 23 March 2025 – Angelus

General Audiences

  • 26 March 2025 – Catechesis prepared by the Holy Father for the General Audience – Cycle of Catechesis – Jubilee 2025. Jesus Christ our Hope. II. The life of Jesus. The encounters 2. The Samaritan Woman

Messages

  • 20 March 2025 – Message of the Holy Father to the participants at the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors [24–28 March 2025]
  • 22 March 2025 – Message of the Holy Father to participants in the Jubilee pilgrimage of the Archdiocese of Naples and other dioceses

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March 27, 2025March 27, 2025 0 comment
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Spirituality

Echoing through creation

by Jeffrey Miller March 25, 2025March 25, 2025
written by Jeffrey Miller

I was thinking about how some events echo through creation. In the Genesis creation narrative, we have God’s fiat to bring about creation and light. From chaos to order.

“Dixitque Deus: Fiat lux. Et facta est lux”—“And God said: Let there be light. And there was light.”

The day four narrative of the first chapter of Geneses, we have works of distinction and adornment.

One event I was reflecting on that continues to echo, or more accurately radiate, throughout creation, is the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This was first accidentally detected on May 20, 1964 by two American radio astronomers in New Jersey. They won the Nobel Prize in Physics for this, along with a Soviet scientist. The detection of CMB provided significant evidence for the Fr. George Lemaître’s “Primordial Atom” theory, better known as the “Big Bang” theory. Fred Hoyle was wrong about the steady-state model, but boy could he come up with a catchy disparaging name for a competing theory.

The specific event I was reflecting on while at Adoration today was another fiat and one that still echoes throughout creation and discovered well before 1964. The initialism is not something like CMB this time, but BVM. Mary’s fiat is much more impactful for every single one of us.

“Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum”—“Let it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

"Annunciation of San Giovanni Valdarno" Fra Angelico

“But Jesus’ conception itself requires an act of faith that infinitely transcends that of Abraham (and especially that of Sarah, who laughed in her unbelief). The Word of God who wills to take flesh in Mary needs a receptive Yes that is spoken with the whole person, spirit and body, with absolutely no (even unconscious) restrictions, that offers the entirety of human nature as a locus for the Incarnation. Receiving and letting in need not be passive; in relation to God, they are, when done in faith, always supreme activity. If Mary’s Yes had contained even the shadow of a demurral, of a “so far and no farther”, a stain would have clung to her faith and the child could not have taken possession of the whole of human nature. The freedom of Mary’s Yes from all hesitation comes perhaps most clearly to light where she also says Yes to her marriage with Joseph and leaves it to God to reconcile it with her new task.” (Hans Urs von Balthasar)1

This was such a complete yes, it is hard to compare it to anything in our experience. The purity of my “yesses” is blended with wheat and tares. Try to say “All generations will call me blessed” uncontaminated with pride and without laughing at the thought. Mary could. Yet, our own fiat to God and final perseverance also leads to the beatific vision. Where truly all in that state are called blessed by all generations.

  1. “Mary: The Church at the Source”, Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Ignatius Press.
March 25, 2025March 25, 2025 0 comment
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The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 547

by Jeffrey Miller March 20, 2025March 20, 2025
written by Jeffrey Miller
pope-francis2-300x187

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc., which I also cross-post on Jimmy Akin’s blog.

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week, from 16 March 2025 to 19 March 2025.

Angelus

  • 16 March 2025 – Angelus

General Audiences

  • 19 March 2025 – Catechesis prepared by the Holy Father for the General Audience – Cycle of Catechesis – Jubilee 2025. Jesus Christ our Hope. I. The Infancy of Jesus. 9.

Messages

  • 19 March 2025 – Message for the 62nd World Day of Prayer for Vocations 2025

Papal Twitter/X

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March 20, 2025March 20, 2025 0 comment
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The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 545

by Jeffrey Miller March 6, 2025March 6, 2025
written by Jeffrey Miller
pope-francis2-300x187

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc., which I also cross-post on Jimmy Akin’s blog.

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week, from 11 February 2025 to 5 March 2025.

Angelus

  • 2 March 2025 – Angelus

General Audiences

  • 5 March 2025 – Catechesis prepared by the Holy Father for the General Audience – Cycle of Catechesis – Jubilee 2025. Jesus Christ our Hope. I. The Infancy of Jesus. 8. ’Son, why have you done this to

Homilies

  • 5 March 2025 – Holy Mass, Blessing and Imposition of the Ashes

Letters

  • 11 February 2025 – Chirograph of the Holy Father instituting theCommissio de donationibus pro Sancta Sede

Messages

  • 11 February 2025 – Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the 2025 Fraternity Campaign of the Church in Brazil
  • 26 February 2025 – Message of the Holy Father on the occasion of the course for those responsible for episcopal liturgical celebrations at the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant’Anselmo
  • 26 February 2025 – Message of the Holy Father to participants in the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life ‘The End of the World? Crises, Responsibilities, Hopes’ [3–5 March 2025, Augustinianum Conference]

Papal Twitter/X

  • Pontifex

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  • Franciscus
March 6, 2025March 6, 2025 0 comment
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The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 544

by Jeffrey Miller February 27, 2025February 27, 2025
written by Jeffrey Miller
pope-francis2-300x187

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc., which I also cross-post on Jimmy Akin’s blog.

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week, from 6 February 2025 to 26 February 2025.

Angelus

  • 23 February 2025 – Angelus

General Audiences

  • 26 February 2025 – Catechesis prepared by the Holy Father for the General Audience – Cycle of Catechesis – Jubilee 2025. Jesus Christ our Hope. I. The Infancy of Jesus. 7. ’My eyes have seen your sal

Homilies

  • 23 February 2025 – Jubilee of Deacons – Holy Mass with Ordination of Deacons

Messages

  • 6 February 2025 – Lent 2025’ Let us journey together in hope

Papal Twitter/X

  • Pontifex

Papal Instagram

  • Franciscus
February 27, 2025February 27, 2025 0 comment
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About Me

Jeff Miller is a former atheist who after spending forty years in the wilderness finds himself with both astonishment and joy a member of the Catholic Church. This award-winning blog presents my hopefully humorous and sometimes serious take on things religious, political, and whatever else crosses my mind.

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About Me

Jeff Miller is a former atheist who after spending forty years in the wilderness finds himself with both astonishment and joy a member of the Catholic Church. This award winning blog presents my hopefully humorous and sometimes serious take on things religious, political, and whatever else crosses my mind.
My conversion story
  • The Curt Jester: Disturbingly Funny --Mark Shea
  • EX-cellent blog --Jimmy Akin
  • One wag has even posted a list of the Top Ten signs that someone is in the grip of "motu-mania," -- John Allen Jr.
  • Brilliance abounds --Victor Lams
  • The Curt Jester is a blog of wise-ass musings on the media, politics, and things "Papist." The Revealer

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I also blog at Happy Catholic Bookshelf Twitter
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