About the Book
In "Deep Work," Cal Newport argues that our ability to focus deeply and produce high-quality work in a distraction-filled world is becoming increasingly rare and valuable. He offers strategies for cultivating deep work habits, including setting boundaries with technology, scheduling dedicated time for deep work, and embracing boredom to fuel creativity. Newport also explores the benefits of deep work, such as increased productivity, satisfaction, and fulfillment in our work and lives.
St. Patrick
St. Patrick, (flourished 5th century, Britain and Ireland; feast day March 17), patron saint and national apostle of Ireland, credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland and probably responsible in part for the Christianization of the Picts and Anglo-Saxons. He is known only from two short works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Letter to Coroticus, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish Christians.
Patrick was born in Britain of a Romanized family. At age 16 he was torn by Irish raiders from the villa of his father, Calpurnius, a deacon and minor local official, and carried into slavery in Ireland. He spent six bleak years there as a herdsman, during which he turned with fervour to his faith. Upon dreaming that the ship in which he was to escape was ready, he fled his master and found passage to Britain. There he came near to starvation and suffered a second brief captivity before he was reunited with his family. Thereafter, he may have paid a short visit to the Continent.
The best known passage in the Confessio tells of a dream, after his return to Britain, in which one Victoricus delivered him a letter headed āThe Voice of the Irish.ā As he read it, he seemed to hear a certain company of Irish beseeching him to walk once more among them. āDeeply moved,ā he says, āI could read no more.ā Nevertheless, because of the shortcomings of his education, he was reluctant for a long time to respond to the call. Even on the eve of reembarkation for Ireland he was beset by doubts of his fitness for the task. Once in the field, however, his hesitations vanished. Utterly confident in the Lord, he journeyed far and wide, baptizing and confirming with untiring zeal. In diplomatic fashion he brought gifts to a kinglet here and a lawgiver there but accepted none from any. On at least one occasion, he was cast into chains. On another, he addressed with lyrical pathos a last farewell to his converts who had been slain or kidnapped by the soldiers of Coroticus.
Careful to deal fairly with the non-Christian Irish, he nevertheless lived in constant danger of martyrdom. The evocation of such incidents of what he called his ālaborious episcopateā was his reply to a charge, to his great grief endorsed by his ecclesiastical superiors in Britain, that he had originally sought office for the sake of office. In point of fact, he was a most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped āidols and unclean thingsā had become āthe people of God.ā
The phenomenal success of Patrickās mission is not, however, the full measure of his personality. Since his writings have come to be better understood, it is increasingly recognized that, despite their occasional incoherence, they mirror a truth and a simplicity of the rarest quality. Not since St. Augustine of Hippo had any religious diarist bared his inmost soul as Patrick did in his writings. As D.A. Binchy, the most austerely critical of Patrician (i.e., of Patrick) scholars, put it, āThe moral and spiritual greatness of the man shines through every stumbling sentence of his ārusticā Latin.ā
It is not possible to say with any assurance when Patrick was born. There are, however, a number of pointers to his missionary career having lain within the second half of the 5th century. In the Coroticus letter, his mention of the Franks as still āheathenā indicates that the letter must have been written between 451, the date generally accepted as that of the Franksā irruption into Gaul as far as the Somme River, and 496, when they were baptized en masse. Patrick, who speaks of himself as having evangelized heathen Ireland, is not to be confused with Palladius, sent by Pope Celestine I in 431 as āfirst bishop to the Irish believers in Christ.ā
Toward the end of his life, he retired to Saul, where he may have written his Confessio. It is said that an angel conveyed to him that he was to die at Saul, the site of his first church, despite his wishes to die within the ecclesiastical metropolis of Ireland. His last rites were administered by St. Tussach (also spelled Tassach or Tassac).
Legends
Before the end of the 7th century, Patrick had become a legendary figure, and the legends have continued to grow. One of these would have it that he drove the snakes of Ireland into the sea to their destruction. Patrick himself wrote that he raised people from the dead, and a 12th-century hagiography places this number at 33 men, some of whom are said to have been deceased for many years. He also reportedly prayed for the provision of food for hungry sailors traveling by land through a desolate area, and a herd of swine miraculously appeared.
Another legend, probably the most popular, is that of the shamrock, which has him explain the concept of the Holy Trinity, three persons in one God, to an unbeliever by showing him the three-leaved plant with one stalk. Traditionally, Irishmen have worn shamrocks, the national flower of Ireland, in their lapels on St. Patrickās Day, March 17.
blessed even in the worst - how to give thanks in every circumstance
A couple of years ago, social media revolted against the hashtag #blessed. It often seemed to be employed to brag about expensive vacations or impressive accomplishments under the guise of humility. But home dĆ©cor stores do not seem to have gotten the message. They have shelves stocked with all kinds of signs and accessories so we can declare to the world ā or at least anyone who comes into our houses ā that we are indeed āblessed.ā But what do we mean when we say that we are blessed? Is it an expression of gratitude for the things we have, the health we enjoy, or the people we love? Are these things really at the center of what it means to be blessed? The Source of Blessing From the first chapter to the last, the Bibleās story is one of blessing ā blessing pronounced, blessing promised, blessing anticipated, and blessing experienced. We begin to get a sense of what it really means to be blessed inĀ Numbers 6:22ā27: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, āSpeak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.ā These words were not given for Israelās priests to use to ask God for his blessing, leaving them to wonder whether or not God would give it. Rather, God took the initiative to assure his people of his settled intention to bless them. He seemed to want to make it clear that he intended to be personally involved in their lives as the source of all the goodness they would enjoy. So the first thing we learn from this blessing is that God is the source of every blessing in our lives. He blesses us by keeping us secure, extending his grace, and flooding our lives with his healing and wholeness. He is fully engaged, fully determined, and fully able to fill our lives with the security, grace, and peace we all long for. The Substance of Blessing But he is more than theĀ source Ā of blessing; God is also theĀ substance Ā of blessing. Experiencing Godās blessing is not merely getting good thingsĀ from Ā God. The essence of blessing is getting moreĀ of Ā God. It is looking up to see affection and approval radiating from his face. To be blessed is to be confident that God has not and will never ignore or abandon us. āAnything and everything good that emerges from our lives will be a result of Godās sovereign presence in it.ā Since more of God himself is the substance of blessing, whenever we ask him to bless us, weāre essentially inviting him to pervade all of the ordinary aspects of our lives. When we ask him to bless our plans, weāre inviting him into them, inviting him to even disrupt or change them, believing that his plans are always better than ours. In asking for his blessing weāre confessing that the outcome of our lives will not be the sum of our grand efforts or accomplishments. Instead, anything and everything good that emerges from our lives will be a result of his sovereign presence in it. Blessed Even at the Worst Times If we really believe that God is the substance of blessing, we wonāt confess that weāre blessed only in the circumstances that seem good. Instead, when times are hard, and even when the worst things we can imagine are happening to us, weāll be able to say that we are blessed. Weāll call ourselves blessed and mean it because weāre experiencing the presence of God with us and in us ā in ways we were barely aware of when life seemed easy. Because we know the Lord is keeping us and being gracious to us, our sense of security and peace wonāt be so tied to our circumstances. In our desperation for him during difficult times, weāll find ourselves incredibly blessed by an increased sense of his companionship and comfort. The Reason God Can Bless Us So how is it that God can be so good to us? On what basis can God bless us so generously? You and I can anticipate being showered with Godās blessing only because Jesus experienced the full measure of Godās curse in our place. Christ was given what we deserve so that we might be given what Christ deserves. This is the too-good-to-be-trueness of the gospel. āWe enjoy Godās blessing only because Jesus experienced the full measure of Godās curse in our place.ā We can be sure that the Lord will keep and protect us because Christ was not protected. We can revel in having the Lordās face turned toward us only because he turned his face away from his own Son as he hung on the cross. We can be sure that the Lord will lift up his countenance upon us only because when he looks at us, he sees us robed in the righteousness of Christ. He is able to grant us his peace only because his anger was exhausted on another. To be blessed is to be joined to Christ so securely that we have an ever-increasing sense that we are being kept by and for God. Because we are recipients of lavish grace, we can be honest with God and other people about our sin. Because the Lord is giving us peace, we can face the future confident that there is therefore now no condemnation for us because we are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). We can shout it for the world to hear, post it for the social media world to read, and nail it to every wall in our home: we are truly, deeply, eternally blessed in Christ.