Discerning a Christian Vegan Eremitic Vocation with a Psychiatric Disability

Yesterday I congratulated the Canadian people on their elections because it felt like the right thing to do. Then I read  Broad ‘apprehension’ from Canadian Jews in response to Carney’s election  and  Will Islamists Play Kingmaker in Canadian Election?  Now I am second-guessing yesterday's post. Why shouldn't I keep this blog entirely out of politics? Sister Laurel also has me asking this question of myself. Her article  On Hermits and Involvement in Politics  is required reading in this field. H ow much involvement in politics is appropriate for the Christian hermit? (On a side note, Sister Laurel appears to be in the minority among US Catholics on the significance of the 2024 presidential election:   Catholic voters favor Trump over Harris nationally and in swing states, exit polls show | Catholic News Agency .) I am leaning in the opposite direction from Sister Laurel on the question of a hermit's involvement in politics. At least to start. We will ...

The Guardian has less than perfect faith in Witkoff : "To solve three conflicts simultaneously would be a daunting task for anyone, but it is especially so for a man entirely new to diplomacy." Diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour makes some important points in his article, but on the whole, I think Wintour is being rather unfair to Witkoff, Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu, and to the potential for peace and justice they represent.  We should be doing everything in our power to help these four men succeed in their peacemaking efforts in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran.  There is no doubt that Ukraine is negotiating from a position of weakness relative to its April 2022 position in Istanbul. What exactly happened to the Istanbul talks? Did Boris Johnson scupper an agreement or not? The Guardian seems to be covering for Johnson: Did Boris Johnson really sabotage peace talks between Russia and Ukraine? The reality is more complicated | Emma Ashford | The Guardian   Zelenskyy rejects claim B...

After a month of experimentation, yesterday I changed the title of this blog to The Messiah Complex . I also changed the description to "Discerning a Christian Vegan Eremitic Blogging Vocation with a Psychiatric Disability. Published Daily at Noon Eastern." The Messiah Complex is a complex concept. It alludes to several related ideas that I plan to touch on intermittently in the months and years ahead, God willing: What is the past, present, and future of the Messianic idea in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? What is a Messiah in secular terms? Are all major religions, including civil religions, messianic to some extent? What are the features of an unhealthy Messiah Complex? What are the features of a healthy Messiah Complex? Have there been times when the Synagogue, Church, or Mosque considered non-belief a sign of mental illness? On other hand, have there been times in the history of the state when belief in Judaism, Christianity or Islam was taken as a sign of mental illn...

May Canada, North America, and the world be well served by the recent election results. The people have spoken. God bless!

The starting point of this thread on the topic of Theology Proper is a 33-minute YouTube video of William Lane Craig presenting  The Concept of God in Islam and Christianity at the 2015 National Religious Broadcasters Convention. I am not endorsing Craig's position, provocative as it is, but simply taking his awe-inspiring presentation as the starting point for a hopefully long and constructive conversation about the nature of Theology Proper.  Here is a good initial definition of Theology Proper from Wikipedia: Theology proper is the sub-discipline of systematic theology which deals specifically with the being, attributes and works of God. In Christian theology, and within the Trinitarian setting, this includes Paterology (the study of God the Father), Christology (the study of Jesus Christ) and Pneumatology (the study of the Holy Spirit). One quibble. I am not sure I would call Theology Proper a sub -discipline of systematic theology as much as a meta -discipline or ongoin...

Yesterday morning I decided to continue this blog with daily publication at noon for the time being.  I am still allowing myself up to five posts per day and  will limit each entry to a single main topic. I will also strive to limit each entry to only one label.  Looking back over my twenty entries since 28 March 2025, I note the following distribution: Bibliology (2) Blogging (4) Church (5) Family Contact (1) Nicene Gauntlet (3) Politics (5) Sleep (2) Third Temple (6) There is much I can do to improve the breadth, depth, and coherence of my writing within and across topics moving forward.

It's 7:15 AM on Sunday and I have just completed morning prayer. Sunday morning feels like the right time for me to think in a sustained way about my passage through the Nicene Gauntlet , because the Nicene Creed is recited at every Sunday Mass in the Catholic tradition, except on Easter, when the renewal of baptismal promises replaces the Creed (cf.  Is the Nicene Creed Required at Sunday Mass? ) I begin this morning's deliberations with a review of the first article of the Nicene Creed: I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. Next, I consider the first article in the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations' Statement of Faith: There is one God, who has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Every divine action in the world is accomplished by the Father working through the Son and in the power of the Spirit. This God has revealed Himself in creation and in the history of Israel as transmitted in ...

I take note of  Situation in the State of Palestine: Appeals Chamber reverses the Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision on Israel’s challenge to the jurisdiction of the Court and remands the matter to the Pre-Trial Chamber | International Criminal Court . Of the 68 paragraphs in the judgment, I find myself preoccupied with paragraph 3:  On 29 November 2012, the UN General Assembly (hereinafter: "UNGA") issued Resolution 67/19, which, inter alia, reaffirmed “the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to independence in their State of Palestine on the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967” and accorded Palestine “non-member observer State” status in the UN. It seems to me that A/RES/67/19  may be a misapplication of law, on the grounds that it violates 1) Article 12 of the UN Charter, 2) the Oslo Accords, 3) uti possidetis juris, 4) the Montevideo Convention, 5) the Balfour Declaration, and 6) the San Remo Conference. This is amateur speculation on my part, ho...

Friday Focus with Lazar Berman: There is No Temple Mount Status Quo  is an important recent reference interview on the Third Temple question.   

I rose at 4 AM this morning to watch President Trump and the First Lady attend the funeral mass for the Roman Pontiff Francis . I watched in bed on my cellphone. I do not have a television in my hermitage.

A graceful, solemn, heartwarming short video from the Abrahamic Family House. Very much appreciated.

There is an important meeting between the US and Iran coming up in Oman this weekend. If I understand the situation correctly, China does not believe that unilateral US sanctions on Iran are appropriate, regardless of Iran's malign nuclear activities, its sponsorship of terrorism, and its human rights abuses. The Trump administration, on the other hand, has inherited a very different perspective on the Iran file. In my opinion, the Trump negotiating team may want to propose to the Iranian delegation that enrichment of uranium on Iranian soil is a possibility if Iran wants to address all categories of its sanctions in one agreement. But if these are strictly nuclear talks leading strictly to a nuclear agreement that brings only nuclear sanctions relief, then the Emirati model may be as good as it can get for Iran. Put another way, perhaps the Trump team should say that Iran might be able to enrich its own uranium up to 3.67% if the nation seriously commits to improve its human right...

The next Pope will surely influence my spiritual journey. Taking into account the fascinating dialogue between Amanda Borschel-Dan and Lazar Berman in yesterday's Times of Israel podcast titled " Day 565 | Why Pope's final Gaza statements won't heal rift with Israel ," I am framing my prayers for the next pope as a decision between Cardinal Pizzaballa and Cardinal Sarah. Today I noted  Latin patriarch of Jerusalem among candidates to succeed Pope Francis | The Times of Israel  and  Pope Francis' possible replacement: Anti-woke Cardinal Robert Sarah's top quotes | Fox News .  Cardinal Sarah underscores my faith that Messianic celibacy is a gift from God, not a pathology. But from an ecumenical perspective, I support married clergy and women bishops, too, at least in the non-Catholic branches of the Church. I am not sure if we need more celibate clergy in Protestantism, more married clergy in Catholicism, more of the status quo, or more ecumenical unity. Per...

I introduced the idea of a Nicene Gauntlet in  my 11 April 2025 entry  as follows: "Will I decide by the end of this 1700th commemoration year that God is indeed calling me to seal my faith with a water baptism in obedience to the Nicene Creed , or will I conclude that I instead subscribe to some kind of ante-Nicene or post-Nicene vanguard statement of faith?" Maybe I am too much playing the devil's advocate, but I am inclined to argue that a unifying Creed for the Church in the third millennium should meet five basic criteria: The Creed should minimize controversy. The Creed should be as simple as possible. The Creed should be timely updated. The Creed should maximize ecumenism. The Creed should promote sound interfaith relations. I am willing to concede, after due persuasion, that one or more of these criteria may be inappropriate, or that additional criteria may be required. I am also willing to concede that the Nicene Creed already meets all of these criteria. But as ...

It's important that Egypt, Israel and the US warm relations back up. Pressure on Egypt to open its southern border to Gazan refugees must be balanced with respect for Egypt's contrary interests and for global Muslim shock at what many perceive to be a blatant case of Palestinian genocide. I am not entirely up to speed on where South Africa's case against Israel now stands at the International Court of Justice and welcome a briefing on the topic, but apparent Israeli noncompliance with the Court's last order does not seem to be a Hamas negotiating issue. From what I can see of the first ICJ order of 26 January 2024, the ICJ called for the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages held by Hamas in paragraph 85, but oddly enough, it did not vote on a provisional measure that the state of Palestine should do so. Why on earth not? Is this because Hamas is not part of the state of Palestine? Hamas holds a majority in the Palestine Legislative Council. Perhaps Pa...

It's 10:35 PM on Tuesday evening. Earlier today, I attended a Panim el Panim Zoom class on right-wing antisemitism at 1 PM, then a Vegan Christian Discipleship School class titled " Will God ever bring back the temple practice of animal sacrifice? " from 2-4 PM. Each class covered very challenging material that I felt inadequate to properly address as it was unfolding. Call it learning curve management. I had enough energy afterward for a short walk in the fine spring weather, but then I fell asleep at 5 PM and did not wake again until after 10 PM. Now I am settling in for a late-night writing session, which is unusual for me, but I feel myself back in relative consolation.  Rabbi Joshua Brumbach and Christian Vegan Discipleship-Maker Craig Wescoe have me thinking about the nature of the Messianic Third Temple. Rabbi Brumbach has me imagining the Third Temple as a world free from post-October 7 antisemitism on both the left and the right. Craig Wescoe has me imagining the...

Yesterday I broke my Easter Course Correction  blogging rule with my entry titled  Engaging FFOZ: Did Corrupt Priests Rewrite Parts of the Torah?  My rule is as follows: "I am going to allow myself up to five entries a day, all published at noon local time, and all made up of as many paragraphs as needed, but each post must be limited to a single main topic." I broke this rule by classifying my FFOZ entry under two separate topics, also known as tags or labels: Torah Inerrancy and Third Temple.  To write on a single main topic per entry means only one label or tag per post, at least as I was thinking about it on Easter. This restriction is challenging, and it may ultimately prove counterproductive, but I will do my best to follow through with it for the rest of the week.  Resolving to do better moving forward is straightforward enough, but what else should I do if I break one of my blogging rules? Perhaps the first thing I need to do is publish an update that I ...

Channeling m y ascetic inner Abba on the question of mattress size is rather like channeling the captain of a climate change rescue submarine. From this perspective, a full-size mattress is a waste of space and resources the church cannot afford to normalize for adult singles on an eco-spiritual mission to save the world from Gehenna and high water. Especially not for those who profess a vow of poverty. Hermits following a future "Rule of Jonathan" will need to stick to a twin-sized berth and aspire to no more than that! It's not regressive downsizing to go from a full-sized bed to a twin-sized bed if the eremitic vocation is genuine; it's adult vocational rightsizing. Sister Laurel's deep insight, on the other hand, is helping me channel my complementary inner Amma. This Amma takes the needs of the climate change rescue submarine into account while bringing additional values and nuance to bear. For example, the full-size berth infrastructure of the mothership is ...

Jacob Fronczak over at First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ) is an important voice in the Messianic movement. I take his latest episode of FFOZ Reacts as an opportunity for spirited, charitable, and patient education within the body of Messiah. I am thinking especially of education about the Jewish Christian Ebionites, the Pseudo-Clementine literature, and contemporary Jewish vegetarian discourse.  Jacob makes many insightful points, but ultimately, I do think there is a strong counterargument here: that it is reasonable for some Messianic Jews and Gentiles interested in the Jewish roots and branches of the faith to learn first about the Ebionites ; then about  Jewish-Christian Interpretation of the Pentateuch in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies ; and then about the Messianic vegetarian vision of Rav Kook . None of this means they are joining a cult. On the contrary, they are exploring a perfectly natural and venerable strand of Messianic Jewish thought. Perhaps the Ebionites of ear...

It's 6:12 AM on Easter Monday morning and I have just lit a candle for Pope Francis upon learning of his passing during my Google lectio shortly before my morning Centering Prayer.  (Some believe the book of world events is written by the hand of God, so perhaps my brief time getting caught up on the headlines between my 1-minute wakeup prayer at 5:01 AM and Centering Prayer at 5:40 AM can indeed be considered a form of lectio. It's a good question for spiritual direction). The memory of Pope Francis is dear to me. He was elected to the papacy during March 2013, precisely during the period I was separated from my ex-wife, some six months before our divorce. At the time, I thought our first Pope Francis should be a climate-conscious vegan with a compassionate, eco-mystical relationship to animals and Creation. This rather self-centered and fantastical projection of my Generation X Franciscan image on the Argentinian Silent Generation head of the Catholic Church created a barrier...

Every day is different, and the Holy Spirit will make different demands on each hermit. Some hermits - maybe most - are not likely to have a strong vocational call to blogging. Others, like Sister Laurel at Stillsong Hermitage,  may have a very strong call . Her  Alleluia! He is Risen!! Alleluia, Alleluia!!  is an Easter masterpiece and I look forward to reading her closely through Pentecost this year. Her blog will be my Eastertide devotional reading. Taking modern godsends like Sister Laurel into account, I would say that 4-6 hours each day is not too much or little time for a disabled hermit with a strong writing vocation to spend on contemplative blogging. Maybe some days it will need to be more, and other days less. Sister Laurel can probably manage in less time, on average, but I am just learning the ropes, and I need to spend much of my time in prayerful contemplation of the Blogger dashboard.  This is what an advanced lesson looks like:  Blog, a solitary...

It's 8:01 AM on Easter Sunday morning and I am wondering if I should make a significant course correction to this blog. Specifically, I am asking the Holy Spirit whether I should stop publishing five paragraphs every week on Friday evenings at 5 PM ET and instead start publishing as many paragraphs as needed once daily at noon.  After praying on it for an hour, I have decided to try daily noontime publication for one week. I will evaluate the results next Sunday morning. My tentative new blog description is "Published Daily at Noon Eastern." Do I need to publish anything more than this today, Holy Spirit? Should I continue further on with this same line of thought, or switch to a different topic, either in this entry or in the entry for tomorrow? Ah, well I see that I have Easter messages to consider. I have Vatican News English, the White House, Bishop Robert Barron, Washington National Cathedral, the IDF, and Blessed by His Word all with uplifting Easter messages to rev...