Our only true misery

Greetings from 2022 out of a long silence! I have perhaps been quiet through a mental midwinter (I did so like that little article - and found it strangely reassuring). I am puzzled as to why I have collected so many new email subscribers here of late, from out of the silence, and suspect some kind of spam or bot, but if you are one of those people receiving this then perhaps you’d like to comment or message to enlighten me. 

I do continually hope to resurrect this space and return to posting but I have well learnt to make no such promises. For today, I thought I’d just briefly mention a book I have very much enjoyed of late, called The Shattering of Loneliness - On Christian Remembrance, by Erik Varden, a Cistercian monk. Books always land on us depending on the particular time and personal state and circumstances within which we read them, and I found this one be so nourishing for me just now. The caveat is that you will have to digest a certain amount of Catholic mysticism along the way, and with my feet firmly grounded in my protestant reformed upbringing I don’t swallow that too soon myself, but there is much soul food and richness to be gained. I’ll hopefully say more about his 'theology of longing' soon, but for now, here is something I am taking for my slogan or mantra for 2022 (in which he is quoting Saint Seraphim):

'Our misfortune, our only true misery, is ‘our inattention to [God’s] care for us’, our ignorance of his gifts.’

Isn't that worth pondering?