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When he quoted Tolkien, my heart stopped. This passage might provide you with a suggestion on how to live a virtuous life: "The twentieth-century Catholic auth
by theletterf 5mo ago
When he quoted Tolkien, my heart stopped. This passage might provide you with a suggestion on how to live a virtuous life:
"The twentieth-century Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien, in the words of a protagonist in one of his novels, described our responsibility in this way: “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.” [187] The civilization of love will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization."
- redfloatplane 5mo agoThat is a really beautiful passage, thank you for sharing - I hadn't made it to that section yet and still haven't. I'm still reflecting on the stuff in the opening! > If we focus only on contingencies, we risk letting the succession of emergencies dictate the direction of our path. We are living through a rapid phase of transition, a “change of era,” in which — while some are vying for the future of new technologies and others dedicate themselves to reflecting on the matter — most people are watching and waiting, observing from afar and merely hoping for the best. For this very reason, crucial questions impose themselves on our conscience and can no longer be avoided: Where are we going? Toward what goal do we wish to orient ourselves? What direction should we choose as a people and as a human community?
- Animats 5mo ago> If we focus only on contingencies, we risk letting the succession of emergencies dictate the direction of our path. That's a maxim for leaders generally. It's quite common for CEOs to spend all their time on managing crises and not enough on trying to progress and improve the business. It's even worse for politicians.
- redfloatplane 5mo agoYes, I found that really striking. I am still making my way through this document, but I think there's quite a high wisdom-per-sentence value. For me, there's a lot to learn from here, and I'm very grateful for it!
- Animats 5mo agoIt's a classic management remark, but one that you don't see that often. One form it takes is that a manager should spend a sizable fraction of their time with the subordinates who aren't having problems. They're the ones who move things forward.
- bradrn 5mo agoI am immediately reminded of my favourite quote from the Jewish book Pirkei Avot (‘Ethics of the Fathers’): > It is not your duty to finish the work [of perfecting the world], but neither are you at liberty to neglect it. [https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_Avot.2.16?ven=english|Mishnah_Yomit_by_Dr._Joshua_Kulp&lang=bi https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_Avot.2.16?ven=english|Mishnah...]
- jfengel 5mo agoI grew up Jewish. I have lost my faith, but that quote is still fundamental to how I see my place in the world.
- kuerbel 5mo agoI'm an atheist but I really like: >Therefore man was created single in the world to teach that for anybody who destroys a single life it is counted as if he destroyed an entire world, and for anybody who preserves a single life it is counted as if he preserved an entire world. (Directly from the Mishna in the Talmud Yerushalmi)
- michaelchisari 5mo agoI'm not Muslim (an agnostic Catholic if anything) but I love the Hadith | If the final hour comes while one of you has a seed in his hand, if he can plant it before it takes place, let him do so. I take it to mean it is never too late to do something good, even (or especially) something you will never benefit from.
- lukan 5mo agoTo me that never made sense. If the world is really ending, there is no point in planting a tree. It only made sense as in, you never know if the world is really ending. So assume it is not and do the right thing, even if things seem dark. Everything we do matters. Always.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- oulipo2 5mo agoSure. And this is what everyday people do. And this is why CEOs and billionaires refuse to do (doing their fair share), and freeride on the people's work and dedication
- zimpenfish 5mo ago> When he quoted Tolkien, my heart stopped. I wonder if meeting Colbert played any part in that.
- wowoc 5mo agoI doubt it, there is a much simpler explanation: virtually all English-speaking Catholics dig Tolkien.
- jimbokun 5mo agoLewis and Tolkien hanging out at pubs in Oxford remains the apex of nerdy Christian geekery.
- zimpenfish 5mo agoI had a look and yeah, Popes quoting Tolkien does seem to be a thing, at least in the last couple of decades.
- girvo 5mo agoIt’s a whole thing. The priest at my high school was way into Tolkien and, more interestingly to me as a teenager: the Wolfenstein series of games!
- Aeolun 5mo agoThe priest at your high school? This is a set of words I’ve never heard in the same sentence. Where was this? If you don’t mind me asking.
- girvo 5mo agoAustralia! Catholic high school, though in practice amusingly secular
- zimpenfish 5mo agoI went to a school run by monks[0]. Technically at least two were also priests (although I wasn't sure of the distinction then and I'm still not sure decades later.) [0] Alas, a dodgy branch of monks who have since encountered many legal issues around child care, etc., as have at least one of my teachers.
- lordgrenville 5mo ago"But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."
- svieira 5mo ago> Certainly, the decisive turning points in world history are substantially co-determined by souls whom no history book ever mentions. And we will only find out about those souls to whom we owe the decisive turning points in our personal lives on the day when all that is hidden is revealed. Edith Stine
- simonw 5mo agoI wondered if that was the Pope's way of throwing shade at Palantir and Peter Thiel.
- moffers 5mo agoI had the exact same thought, and JD Vance too.
- michaelchisari 5mo agoMost certainly but after two thousand years the Magisterium have mastered the art of universalizing the moment. A direct call out would age poorly. A hundred years from now, nobody will remember Thiel or Palantir (inshallah) but the sentiment will still most certainly ring true.
- jimbokun 5mo agoAnd many will still remember Tolkien fondly.
- wyclif 5mo agoIt totally is. That was the first thought that went through my head when I got to the JRRT quote.
- portmanteur 5mo agoThe Lord of the Rings is a fundamentally Catholic work, written in English, and one of the most popular works of literature of the past century. So it is not unusual for an English-speaking Pope to quote from it. Further, what shade would be thrown, and why? What criticism of Palantir would the Pope be attempting to make here?
- hackyhacky 5mo ago> The Lord of the Rings is a fundamentally Catholic work That's a bit of a stretch. I've read the whole thing and I can't recall any mention of Christianity at all. > So it is not unusual for an English-speaking Pope to quote from it. Interesting. How many other popes have quoted Lord of the Rings in an Encyclical Letter?
- ycitm 5mo agoThe next sentence in the quote hasn't aged so well - "What weather they shall have is not ours to rule."