Thank you for this. I love reading the wisdom of Bishop Varden. Thank you for conducting this interview with him and sharing his words with us. Merry Christmas!
Spending another Christmas on my own this year, and I'm quite grateful for Bishop Varden's reflections, and Luke/the Pillar putting them out there.
There is a destructive way of being alone, and this we call "isolation," but there is also a healthy and necessary way of being alone, which we call "solitude." May the Lord provide the grace of his presence to turn the former into the latter for many people this Christmas.
I spent my holidays from my mid 20s to my mid 30s making sure Michigan State University's library was not on fire when it was closed. 2 or 3 of us took turns during all breaks. It was one of the most peaceful jobs I ever had. The solitude was wonderful.
I really appreciate this interview. Last weekend, my children and I met a woman who tearfully told us she would be spending Christmas alone. Her husband is in a long term care facility hours away and her grown children have their own plans. Her loneliness was so heavy it spilled out into a passing conversation with my 7 year old son. We've been praying for her and lit a candle for her at church that will burn through all the Christmas liturgies. I wondered how many people have Christmases like her's and how Christ can redeem this suffering. Bishop Varden's reflections are helpful and hopeful.
Echoing what others here appear to share in feeling:
Thank you, Pillar Folks, for stumbling upon what to me would have been this totally
random bishop overseeing a comically distant and foreign corner of the world. This guy is 10/10 awesome, please continue checking in with Bishop Varden for the good of all of us.
I'm so glad Bishop Varden said this. I am much happier and at peace spending a holy time in quiet and solitude than I was during many of the Christmases where I had social engagements with extended family across multiple states in bad weather. I did love my family (who are mostly all deceased now) but having to work at my job till a few days before Christmas and then spend a week or more essentially doing a second "job" of stressful traveling, helping with the cooking and decorating, and finally socializing at multiple homes, was not the greatest backdrop for quietly reflecting on the birth of Our Lord.
For some years now I've celebrated Christmas and Easter and other days as primarily religious holidays and the other stuff like shopping, decorating, cooking and socializing I keep much more low key, and that works better for me.
With due respect to everyone else, Bishop Varden's reflections are my most favorite thing to read on this website. Merry Christmas to everyone at The Pillar!
Thank you for this. I love reading the wisdom of Bishop Varden. Thank you for conducting this interview with him and sharing his words with us. Merry Christmas!
I'm a simple guy. I see Bishop Varden, I click.
Merry Christmas, all!
Me too. And I get his weekly collection of short comments, in case you didn't know about them. Coram Fratribus if you have to hunt for them.
Me too, me too. Check out desertfathers.com a new series for the year by bishop Varden.
His books are fantastic too.
I read everything by him! My personal dream and prayer is that he one day be pope.
Spending another Christmas on my own this year, and I'm quite grateful for Bishop Varden's reflections, and Luke/the Pillar putting them out there.
There is a destructive way of being alone, and this we call "isolation," but there is also a healthy and necessary way of being alone, which we call "solitude." May the Lord provide the grace of his presence to turn the former into the latter for many people this Christmas.
Thanks! I loved hearing the story of St Thérèse. And it warms me to see the pic as my son just fixed our log splitter so we just used it yesterday!
I spent my holidays from my mid 20s to my mid 30s making sure Michigan State University's library was not on fire when it was closed. 2 or 3 of us took turns during all breaks. It was one of the most peaceful jobs I ever had. The solitude was wonderful.
I really appreciate this interview. Last weekend, my children and I met a woman who tearfully told us she would be spending Christmas alone. Her husband is in a long term care facility hours away and her grown children have their own plans. Her loneliness was so heavy it spilled out into a passing conversation with my 7 year old son. We've been praying for her and lit a candle for her at church that will burn through all the Christmas liturgies. I wondered how many people have Christmases like her's and how Christ can redeem this suffering. Bishop Varden's reflections are helpful and hopeful.
Echoing what others here appear to share in feeling:
Thank you, Pillar Folks, for stumbling upon what to me would have been this totally
random bishop overseeing a comically distant and foreign corner of the world. This guy is 10/10 awesome, please continue checking in with Bishop Varden for the good of all of us.
I'm so glad Bishop Varden said this. I am much happier and at peace spending a holy time in quiet and solitude than I was during many of the Christmases where I had social engagements with extended family across multiple states in bad weather. I did love my family (who are mostly all deceased now) but having to work at my job till a few days before Christmas and then spend a week or more essentially doing a second "job" of stressful traveling, helping with the cooking and decorating, and finally socializing at multiple homes, was not the greatest backdrop for quietly reflecting on the birth of Our Lord.
For some years now I've celebrated Christmas and Easter and other days as primarily religious holidays and the other stuff like shopping, decorating, cooking and socializing I keep much more low key, and that works better for me.
Outstanding interview! Thank you Bishop and Luke.
With due respect to everyone else, Bishop Varden's reflections are my most favorite thing to read on this website. Merry Christmas to everyone at The Pillar!