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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud)

@contemplativeinthemud.com

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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 5d

A reflection on the face—or flesh—of contemplation in Pope Leo’s first apostolic exhortation, 𝘋𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘪 𝘛𝘦.

Encountering the Lord of History

Yesterday, on the memorial of St. John Henry Newman, Pope Leo’s apostolic exhortation to all Christians on love for the poor, Dilexi Te, was published online. I’d been eagerly waiting for this docu…

contemplativeinthemud.com

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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 17h

In weeping be my joy,
My rest in fright,
In sorrowing my serenity,
My wealth in losing all.

— from a poem for the profession of Isabel de los Ángeles by St. Teresa of Ávila

Reposted by Ben (Contemplative in the Mud)

Charles, OFM Cap. @frcharles.bsky.social · 18h

I clearly see that if we expect to please him and receive an abundance of his graces, God desires that these graces must come to us from the hands of Christ, through his most sacred humanity, in which God takes delight. ~ St. Teresa of Ávila (Office of Readings)

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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 2d

“Solidarity is seen as a concrete expression of Christian love today, which seeks roots in the cultural traditions of the indigenous peoples of Latin America.” — Gustavo Gutiérrez

Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 2d

Contemplative life “is not an escape from the world, but a regeneration of the heart, so that it may be capable of listening, a source of the creative and fruitful action of the charity that God inspires in us.”

Contemplation in Pope Leo’s Address to Hermits

On Saturday, Pope Leo gave an address to Italian hermits who were in Rome participating in the Jubilee of Consecrated Life, and I think that the words he offered are particularly appropriate to dra…

contemplativeinthemud.com

Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 3d

Absolutely!

Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 3d

“Sometimes we think that the Lord comes to visit us only in moments of contemplation or spiritual fervour... Instead, the Risen One is close to us precisely in the darkest places... Nothing that we are, no fragment of our existence, is foreign to him.” — Leo XIV, 8 Oct 2025

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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 4d

Knowing this in advance, I'd wear Orange Shirt Day apparel to Mass.

Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 4d

Sounds to me like the right order to do things in! 😄

Reposted by Ben (Contemplative in the Mud)

Amigo de Frodo @bpdflores.bsky.social · 4d

Los caminos de los santos cambian el contorno de la tierra.

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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 5d

A reflection on the face—or flesh—of contemplation in Pope Leo’s first apostolic exhortation, 𝘋𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘪 𝘛𝘦.

Encountering the Lord of History

contemplativeinthemud.com

1 3

Reposted by Ben (Contemplative in the Mud)

Christophe Chaland @cchaland.bsky.social · 5d

"C’est à travers [mes voisins roms] que j’ai découvert cette capacité à se centrer sur l’essentiel: la vie, le moment présent, dans l’abandon confiant à la Providence. En cela, ils sont mes maîtres spirituels."
Petite sr Clémence, frat. des Petites Srs de Jésus, Rome
vaticaninfo.com/2025/10/dile...

« Dilexi te » : « Ensemble », témoignage de petite sœur Clémence (texte complet)

Photo : capture © vaticaninfo.com; sœur Clémence « Ensemble, avec eux, comme nous y invite le Saint Père, mettons-nous au travail pour faire advenir

vaticaninfo.com

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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 5d

Little Sisters of Jesus (of Charles de Foucauld) report that LS Clemence from Tre Fontane, Italy, shared her experience at the Dilexi te press conference:

“Through Roma women I discovered the ability to focus on essential things in life and the present moment in trusting abandonment in Providence”

Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 6d

A snake plant flowers if it gets good sun and water but is confined. I've found that this is a surprise to many—myself, some years ago, included.

Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 6d

Libertatis Nuntius—no kidding!

Although it's interesting that what Leo quotes from it is the kind of thing its critics agreed with (and which Libertatis Conscientia went on to discuss at length).

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Reposted by Ben (Contemplative in the Mud)

Nintendo DS Lewis @blueberrymill.bsky.social · 6d

What a thread.

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 6d

A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.

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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 6d

I count in the English translation two or three uses of "choice/choose" (no. 7 and the ch. 2 title-subtitle) and "option" six times (just counting those that aren't quotations).

So, if so, neither is the reasoning explicit nor the translation exclusive?

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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 6d

Barron's schtick (for example) is that anything about the poor or society is all a "moral derivative of the Gospel," so I've been going hard on JP2's "not simply charity, it's a page of Christology." Leo's "not mere kindness, but encountering the Lord of history" will make it a nice pair.

Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 6d

It seems like no. 5 is a beautiful new rendition of NMI 49

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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 6d

Dilexit Te no. 5 is a new NMI 49, and I’m loving it

Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 7d

And in between the two, I was asked to lightly adapt one of my (not-online) writings about "God the Most Vulnerable" for a peer-reviewed journal. Still working on this—but feeling encouraged today!

(The not-online piece is in a similar vein to this: contemplativeinthemud.com/2024/02/01/g... )

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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 7d

Last month, Bishop Hansen CSsR up in the NWT contacted me about my work on First Nations governance values & methods and what we make of synodality:
contemplativeinthemud.com/2024/10/22/d...

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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 7d

I'm feeling pretty grateful today. An LDS guy just wrote a note of appreciation that makes it seem like I'm doing something right.
(re: contemplativeinthemud.com/2024/09/30/l... )

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Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 7d

It's such a noteworthy project. For me it's healing to hear people actually talk about this. There is so much silence.

Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 7d

“It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.” — Walter Brueggemann

Ben (Contemplative in the Mud) @contemplativeinthemud.com · 9d

“There are others who... are so confident in their own cleverness that they ignore [others'] comments... and rely on their own exegesis. ... They are like people who imagine that bells they hear chiming are saying whatever they themselves happen to be thinking of.” — Humbert of Romans