It gets sacred in the places where you have been torn open, where you’ve bled and felt abandoned. This is the quiet power of Christmas: not that it erases the ache, but that it enters into it with a tenderness fierce enough to hold what’s broken. You are held, not despite the pain, but because of it. The grace that comes is not the smooth salve, bu…

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What's up with the talk about re-enchantment lately? Why are people interested in “re-enchanting the world”? What’s at stake in the question and what is expected by those who pursue it? What good are old stories and are we prepared to risk our lives to find meaning and purpose? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donav…

Perhaps God does not want us to be modern because modernity too often blinds us to the eternal. In our rush to build, invent, and achieve, we forget to behold, to wonder, to worship. We lose the ability to see the sacred in the ordinary: the bread on the table, the sun rising over a field, the child laughing in a garden. These are not obstacles to …

What was once called “woke” has splintered into an anarchic patchwork of terms that don’t make sense unless you’ve swallowed the Kool-Aid and been dumped into a pit of postmodern nonsense. “Critical social justice,” “identity politics,” “gender studies,” “fourth-wave feminism”—the list grows like a mutant vine, changing shape faster than a bad acid…

History is dead. Or, so I was told. For a long time, I believed it. Not because I wanted to, but I could see the world around me. It was plain as day that I did not live in the world of my heroes. Myth and legend had ended, history had marched to its lackluster end, and we were all fated to live out our days in a lethargic, decaying, neo-liberal he…

Today on the show, ruminations on Irish poets, winters-bane, and mythic tales that lead to heavenly truth. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/support

When, because of their fear, they do away secretly with such men, who is left for them to use save the unjust, the incontinent, and the slavish? The unjust are trusted because they are afraid, just as the tyrants are, that someday the cities, becoming free, will become their masters. The incontinent are trusted because they are at liberty for the p…

Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, A…

"Humanity had thought itself sufficient, and even now we think we can escape our destiny by our own efforts. Escape!--that is our only thought. To escape from the insanity, the hell of modern life is all we wish. But we cannot escape!!! We must go through this hell, and accept it, knowing it is the love of God that causes our suffering. What terrib…

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So what will we do? Will we remain on the shore, dipping our toes in the water now and then, or will we plunge in, fully, recklessly, trusting that this river will carry us where we need to go? That is what true love is—it is a surrender, a letting go of our need to control, to manage, to predict. It is a wild rumpus, a leap into the unknown, a cry…

You may remember the Green Knight arriving at Camelot after fifteen days straight of feasting. King Arthur has asked for a story so that the tribe could remember itself but none of the assembled have the gumption to respond. A deeper story was required. Perfectly on time, the Green Knight bursts through the door. In the act of being beheaded but th…

I go on a walkabout through life and death, saying what needs to be said, taking our human condition seriously, and being thoughtful about the big picture. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/support

The basic question in this vortex is whether man can be liberated from fear. This is far more important than arming or supplying him with medicines—for power and health are prerogatives of the unafraid. In contrast, the fear besets even those armed to the teeth— indeed, them above all. The same may be said for those on whom abundance has been raine…

"To the extent that propaganda is based on current news, it cannot permit time for thought or reflection. A man caught up in the news must remain on the surface of the event; he is carried along in the current, and can at no time take a respite to judge and appreciate; he can never stop to reflect. There is never any awareness -- of himself, of his…

Propaganda is made, first of all, because of a will to action, for the purpose of effectively arming policy and giving irresistible power to its decisions.* Whoever handles this instrument can be concerned solely with effectiveness This is the supreme law. which must never be forgotten when the phenomenon of propaganda is analyzed. Ineffective prop…

No pressure, no diamond. You don’t become a good captain by never meeting a storm. And so, at the end of your life – many years from now God willing – there is but one tree, vines threaded gloriously and ramshackley together – holy in its way – offering you a place to sit down and rest awhile, its branches sagging under the weight of timeless fruit…

No matter how much we love the city, or our home, or the land, they will never love us back. They do not give birth to hope. They destroy us in the pursuit of it. And so, to survive you must learn to recognize those who don’t hope, who aren’t really alive, and be wary of their doomed decisions. They are to be avoided at all costs because their fear…

The complaint of the depressive individual, “Nothing is possible,” can only occur in a society that thinks, “Nothing is impossible.” No-longer-being-able-to-be-able leads to destructive self-reproach and auto-aggression. The achievement-subject finds itself fighting with itself. The depressive has been wounded by internalized war. Depression is the…

Like is the digital Amen. When we click Like, we are bowing down to the order to domination. The smartphone is not just an effective surveillance apparatus; it is also a mobile confessional. - Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/support…

“That kindness is invincible, provided it's sincere- not ironic or an act. What can even the most vicious person do if you keep treating him with kindness and gently set him straight” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/support…

We are mud people with a holy breath sweeping through us. That is a comfort, Jesus says. Not tree people so much, or zebra people, or pomegranate people, but mud people. There is a primality in it. It is an image we can get behind. It is not nice. It is not a florid Renaissance sketch, but something we can imagine seeing daubed on a cave wall befor…

“What is addiction, really? It is a sign, a signal, a symptom of distress. It is a language that tells us about a plight that must be understood.” Alice Miller, Breaking Down the Wall of Silence --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/support

Technology is our new god. What would a refusal to worship look like? Paul Kingsnorth offers a vision of resistance, which I discuss in this week's episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/support

If God gave us what we asked for all at once, it would wipe us out. Too much reality. We have to chew on one piece of manna at a time. God’s announcements to the heart are so prestigious that too much and we are floored. And there are lots more that feel nutty and restrictive in their eccentricity. Then a year later or more and that, in turn, bloss…

“I myself have resolved to follow the path of righteousness henceforth. More than anything, devote yourself to learning and act in accordance with the teachings of the past.” - Katsu Kokichi, Musui's Story --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/support

“I realized that this was true for both China and Japan: every one of those who had been brought to ruin or lost their lands had been punished by Heaven for neglecting the proprieties between sovereign and subject, the bond of affection between parent, child, and brother, and for wallowing in greed and extravagance. All the more wondrous, then, tha…

It was not long then until there was the spirit coming, by God’s power, the holy breath, going under the hard stone to the corpse! Light was at that moment opened up, for the good of the sons of men. The many bolts of Hell were unlocked. The road from this world up to heaven was built. Brilliantly radiating, in such a way that the guards, tough sol…

Many and powerful are the agents who would bar the door to the key to the universe, many who would throw a veil over him. Moses, you recall, was hard to see. David, perhaps more so. None of this has been easy. And yet there lies between us and Jesus two-thousand years of war, famine, disease, and death. Jesus is God. He is the turning point of hist…

Those who do not want to live under God’s government will not be forced to. That would erase the principle of love upon which the cosmos is founded — no one will be sent away from the presence of God who wants to stay. So God’s people have prayed for millennia that there will be no such people. But we know it happens, and that there are too many to…

David was a stone in the path upon which the Paradise King trod. This King is the earth shaker. He is the cloud rider. He is the guardian of widows and orphans, and a servant-king who withholds nothing from his people. His face is young, yet old beyond the reckoning of this or any age, for he hails from eternity past. It is a beautiful face, full o…

After his death, the people waited for a prophet like Moses to appear because Moses had told them to watch. “Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.” Moses had said, “To him, you will listen.” And so, the invitation is in front of you too, to hear him. “Come,” Jesus says, “and follow me. Come and …

The gods came down. Slinking, slithering, prowling, whispering, they sought out earthly kings. And so, Pharaoh Merneptah heard a voice in the dark and the voice said his name. He woke, and there was Ptah with a plan. The old kings of Uruk also were tutored. Ayala had the fish creature, Adapa, for an advisor. Alaglar had Uanduga from the sea. In his…

... we must start in the most difficult place: in the beginning. We have to start where the story is not broken or befouled, when wild waves cooled sun-soaked shores and the choruses of birds carried over ebony cliffs, who knows how far. It was a wild world, all welter and waste. Unrestrained rivers carved crooked lines across sprawling green plain…

Almost everyone can agree that one of the big differences between us and our ancestors of five hundred years ago is that they lived in an “enchanted” world, and we do not; at the very least, we live in a much less “enchanted” world. We might think of this as our having “lost” a number of beliefs and the practices which they made possible. But more,…

This is the profound morality of fairy-tales; which, so far from being lawless, go to the root of all law. Instead of finding (like common books of ethics) a rationalistic basis for each Commandment, they find the great mystical basis for all Commandments. We are in this fairyland on sufferance; it is not for us to quarrel with the conditions under…

The Way of combat strategy can be likened to the craft of carpentry. Comparing samurai with carpenters is related to the subject of “houses.” We speak of noble houses, warrior houses and the “Four Houses.” We also talk of the collapse or continuation of a house. In the arts we refer to a school or tradition as a house. It is because the label “hous…

“Never fail to have this attitude of mind, go forward without hurry, learn the essence of things through frequent experiences, taking advantage of every occasion. Fight against all kinds of people and be aware of their mind. Follow a road that is a thousand leagues long one step at a time. Be without haste and be convinced that all these practices …

I got lost in the tall grass of my thoughts after promising at the front end of the podcast that I wasn't going to do it! So, I discuss confidence versus overconfidence, finding your passion, and being a life-long student. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/support…

The Child that was ere worlds begun (… We need but walk a little way, We need but see a latch undone …) The Child that played with moon and sun Is playing with a little hay. - G.K. Chesterton, Aleteia --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/support

“Any passion can become an addiction; but then how to distinguish between the two? The central question is: who’s in charge, the individual or their behavior? It’s possible to rule a passion, but an obsessive passion that a person is unable to rule is an addiction…If in doubt, ask yourself one simple question: given the harm you’re doing to yoursel…

“the spirit of wickedness in high places is now so powerful and many-headed in its incarnations that there seems nothing more to do than personally refuse to worship any of the hydras' heads.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, quote from The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donavon-riley/su…

Myths, Lewis told Tolkien, were "lies and therefore worthless, even though breathed through silver." "No," Tolkien replied. "They are not lies." Far from being lies, they were the best way sometimes the only way of conveying truths that would otherwise remain inexpressible. We have come from God, Tolkien argued, and inevitably the myths woven by us…

“After all, I believe that legends and myths are largely made of 'truth', and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode; and long ago certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and must always reappear.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/…

In this episode, I read three early Anglo-Saxon texts: The Lorica of Loding, Precepts, and Vainglory. Each poem offers encouragement and hope to those who are in need of protection, wisdom, and guidance in spiritual and earthly matters. They also offer us another way to see the world, which to modern eyes, may seem strange and even fantastical. Lin…

Hope is not a wish. It is not optimism or naivety. It is an assertion. It is telling the world, “No, this is not the way things will be; things will be better.” For both Marcel and Tolkien, it is only with hope that we banish despair. You do not haggle with or beg the darkness. Like a blazing torch, you must shine hope brightly and fiercely. - Jonn…

“Obviously there is no need of fighting to overcome this single tyrant, for he is automatically defeated if the country refuses consent to its own enslavement: it is not necessary to deprive him of anything, but simply to give him nothing; there is no need that the country make an effort to do anything for itself provided it does nothing against it…

“…physical attacks lead to a corresponding increase of trust in political leaders and submission to them. This effect is likely the same whether the attack be a surprise, known to political leaders yet allowed to happen, or directly orchestrated by these same leaders who stand to benefit from the increased trust and submission…False flag operations…