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Jon M. Sweeney

@jonmsweeney.bsky.social

2.3K followers 1.1K following 1.2K posts

Author ‘The Complete Francis of Assisi’, ‘Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart’, etc. Partner at Monkfish Books. Editor of Living City. Book reviewer at SpiritualityandPractice. Catholic married to Recon rabbi.

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · Jun 6

I'm happy to announce that the final book I'll write about Francis of Assisi will publish next January, from Monkfish Publishing, in time for the 800th anniversary of the saint's death. Here's the cover!

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 2h

Any Australian friends remember this bookseller?

Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 6h

Thich Nhat Hahn’s 99th birthday is today.

“When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself and it's spilling over. He doesn't need punishment. He needs help." -Thich Nhat Hanh

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 7h

The Aberdeen Bestiary, One of the Great Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts, Now Digitized in High Resolution & Made Available Online www.openculture.com/2025/10/the-...

The Aberdeen Bestiary, One of the Great Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts, Now Digitized in High Resolution & Made Available Online

For thousands of years, ordinary people all over the world not only worked side-by-side with domestic animals on a daily basis, they also observed the wild fauna around them to learn how to navigate a...

www.openculture.com

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Reposted by Jon M. Sweeney

Salvador Ryan @salvadorryan.bsky.social · 7h

In today’s @independent.ie
I review Victoria Whitworth’s new book on the #BookofKells held at @tcddublin.bsky.social. Whitworth’s study is sumptuously produced and a fascinating read. I’m just not crazy about the title…

m.independent.ie/entertainmen...

The Scottish village now touted as being the birthplace of The Book of Kells

In 1912, a Polish rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich (1865-1930) purchased a manuscript from a Jesuit college near Frascati in Rome. Now housed at the Beinecke Library, Yale University, the Voynich Man...

m.independent.ie

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 7h

Meister Eckhart from Meister Eckhart’s Book of Secrets 📚🙏

Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 1d

Sometimes it just feels like a poem was written exactly for you. I've read this one a hundred times, have even heard WB read it, but when I began to read it this morning the first line brought tears to my eyes.

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 1d

Had a notice from a shipping broker today that I owed $1.60 duty + a processing fee of $11. before I could receive a book I ordered from Britain. I wrote the bookseller to complain. These are new Trump tariffs, he responded, and we no longer want to ship to the US as a result. I paid the damn thing.

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 2d

A decade ago I was having breakfast with a friend and telling him my problems. He said, remember to stay closer to the Tree of Life than to the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil. I often return to that wisdom.

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 2d

My friend Brother Paul has a new book coming in June.

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 3d

Our Lady of Think Twice Before Saying It

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 4d

Did you hear about this poetry review, and the uproar around it? Interesting stuff. Full of possible misogyny and other things. I just find it heartening that people give a damn. www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Len Pennie — Scotland’s worst poet since William McGonagall

Poyums annaw, the latest collection by the TikTok-famous poet Len Pennie, deals with serious issues — but it’s hard to take her poems seriously

www.thetimes.com

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 4d

When I bought this as a public library discard, the publisher ribbon was still where it is when these books arrive from the bindery, as if for years in the library no one ever read the book or even opened it midway enough to jostle the ribbon from its tight place. How is that possible?

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 4d

I came across this copy of Thomas Merton's "The Living Bread" in a used bookstore.

As you see, it was once in the library at MIT, on reserve for undergraduates doing "Humanities Religious Reading." An odd choice, this book, at a place like MIT, but testament to Merton’s popularity in 1956.

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 4d

We were invited to glean leftovers from a neighbor’s late summer garden. We did pretty well.

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 5d

Vermont vineyard

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 6d

With a prompt from Jon M. Sweeney's 2024 memoir, a Salt Lake Tribune commentator asks, 'What books have carried you in life?'
www.sltrib.com/religion/202...

Commentary: National Book Month reminds me of the books we carry and that carry us

Tribune guest columnist Michael O'Brien reflects on the beloved books that have influenced his life.

www.sltrib.com

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Reposted by Jon M. Sweeney

PPresti 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰🇪🇺 @ppresti.bsky.social · 6d

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 7d

One would like to astound the world, to save the world, but one can do neither. We are summoned to deeds that are of moment only to our village. (Czeslaw Milosz)

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 7d

Giotto, in Fresco 20 of the Upper Church of San Francesco in Assisi, did not consider a moment of pause between St. Francis' death and his ascension to heaven.

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 7d

Wonderful. Thank you.

Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 8d

The Transitus is tonight, when 799 years ago St. Francis of Assisi passed from one life to the next.

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 8d

What I've been reading www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews...

Karmic Relief by Philip Goldberg | Review | Spirituality & Practice

What karma is and how to use it for happiness.

www.spiritualityandpractice.com

Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 8d

Cubs win.

Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 9d

Happy birthday to my favorite agnostic Catholic, novelist Graham Greene, born in 1904.

He wrote: “You cannot conceive, nor can I, of the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God.”

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 9d

I was invited to add a reading for Kol Nidre tonight. This is what I chose. I was also able to read it at the service.

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