ICEMANforChrist

Smoke in This Life not the Next — Tue, Jul 7  Virtue: Exactitude & Poverty Cigar: Connecticut — pale, disciplined  Bourbon: Four Roses Small Batch — bright, truthful  Reflection: What small liberties do I excuse that holiness does not? Holiness is never sloppy. Yesterday’s meditation on purity and courage sharpens today into something quieter but more severe: exactitude . The Bishop of Foligno’s careful verification of Sister Teresa’s suffering reminds me that heaven pays attention to details we treat as optional. Her terrible expiation was not for dramatic sins, but for small transgressions against the poverty of her rule — tiny liberties taken in the sacristy, little comforts that seemed harmless. “Ah, how much I suffer… Dio, che peno tanto!” she cried, not in despair but in truth. Her suffering was the correction of a soul that wanted to be exact, to be clean, to be fully aligned with the poverty she professed. A Connecticut cigar fits the day: simple, restrained,...