Yesterday, I was listening to the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s “Uncommon Sense” podcast as they were talking about gifts of gratitude and signing up for this year’s Advent reflections series via email.

The “gift” in “Gift of Gratitude” was not just another appeal to donations, giving Tuesday, etc. This time of year I receive way too many appeals from Catholic organizations that feel more grift than gift.

Today I received in the mail my “Advent with G. K. Chesterton” Calendar where each day you can write a specific gift you are thankful for.

I have heard the advice about counting your blessings and acknowledging them, especially as it is easier to count your gripes and vocalize them. Losing perspective on what is actually important. A comment was made in the video to the effect that you can’t have gratitude without humility. Like many obvious truths, I was understanding what was not obvious to me, and really oblivious to me. For example, “The Litany of Humility” has many hard truths in it; yet my reaction was to the seeming over-piety of the lines that I did not really want the grace to desire them.

Thinking about this and my reaction, I was reflecting on the connectedness between humility and gratitude. Praying that litany, I felt more like Uriah Heep in Dickens’s novel “David Copperfield” saying he is “a very umble person.” When on the podcast they referenced a “Litany of Gratitude”, that instantly connected with me. Perhaps I could grow my humility by growing my gratitude.

Another aspect I have been thinking about lately are not just the gifts I am thankful for from God, but more so some of the deprivations of gifts that I would yearn for. That not receiving them is also a gift. That so much of what I desire would not be effective for building the Kingdom of God, but for the aggrandizement of my own ego.

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Co 12:9–10)

If Jesus’s power can be made perfect in my weakness, than I have plenty to offer for fuel. His grace is sufficient, so I can at least amp up my gratitude.

Chesterton’s gratitude for everything, is what has drawn me powerfully to him and his writings.

November 26, 2025December 3, 2025 0 comment

Punditry

The Weekly Leo

by Jeffrey Miller November 26, 2025December 3, 2025

written by Jeffrey Miller

The Weekly Leo XIV 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 Leo covers material released in the last week, from 19 November 2025 to 26 November 2025.

Angelus

23 November 2025 – Angelus,Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Apostolic Letter

General Audiences

Homilies

23 November 2025 – Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe – Holy Mass

Speeches

Social Media

November 26, 2025December 3, 2025 0 comment

Punditry

The Weekly Leo

by Jeffrey Miller October 1, 2025October 8, 2025

written by Jeffrey Miller

The Weekly Leo XIV 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 Leo covers material released in the last week, from 27 September 2025 to 1 October 2025.

Angelus

28 September 2025 – Angelus

General Audiences

Homilies

28 September 2025 – Holy Mass for the Jubilee of Catechists

Speeches

Social Media

October 1, 2025October 8, 2025 0 comment

Book Review Prayer Punditry

“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.

Kevin’s translation from a radio vaticana article. ↩

April 26, 2025April 26, 2025 0 comment

Humor Punditry Theology

I Have a Confession to Make

by Jeffrey Miller December 18, 2024December 18, 2024

written by Jeffrey Miller

Early in my journey within the Church, I experienced many visceral negative reactions.

One was the terminology of the “Reconciliation Room”, compared to the “Confessional Booth.” Part of this was just my ignorance in thinking that reconciliation was a more wimpy word. Added to that was the aesthetics of the reconciliation rooms I found in parishes, or lack of aesthetics. More like a repurposed closet than a fitting place for such an amazing sacrament. If it was a closet, there would be danger of all my past sins falling on me like the junk in Fibber McGee’s hall closet.

Later I would learn this about the world “reconciliation” in Fr. Blake Britton’s book “Reclaiming Vatican II.”

The combination recon means “to come back together.” Cilia is the Latin word for “eyelash.” To be reconciled, therefore, means to be eyelash-to-eyelash with God, to be brought into such a profound intimacy that your eyelashes are touching each other.

I still very much dislike the reconciliation room that is like a multi-purpose room that is repurposed as the parish needs on a day-to-day basis. That the sacrament is available, at all, is what I should be grateful for.

Puns spur many of my internal theological reflections. I am attempting to meditate and then I play with a word, looking for possible puns. That this happens in my mind will not surprise those who know my predilection for puns.

Before Mass one morning, I had observed a line of people in line for reconciliation. I invented a portmanteau “retcon-ciliation” and that this had deeper theological significance I could reflect on. Retcon, the short term for retroactive continuity, as used in various forms of fiction.

For many of us, the story of our lives comes to a point where we want to break out of the restraints we have placed on ourselves. Wanting a new storyline, instead of the constant reruns of our past mistakes. How can I alter previous established patterns of vice and break from them? Am I my authentic self if I break out of them? It is easy to equate our sins with the identification of ourselves. I can think of myself as a fraud if I allow God’s grace to transform me.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (Ps 103:11–12).

Retconning in fiction usually comes across as just a trick to extend a franchise into the future and to either alter or ignore past events. Retconciliation as done in the sacrament, can let us become our authentic selves less marred by sin.

In fiction, we can be annoyed when a character presumed dead, is retconned back. This appears inconsistent and we can lose trust in the storyteller. With retconciliation, you may be brought back from death in mortal sin, and this is totally consistent with a loving God.

December 18, 2024December 18, 2024 0 comment