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Jon M. Sweeney

@jonmsweeney.bsky.social

2.3K followers 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 · 7h

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

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Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney.bsky.social · 17h

Our Lady of Think Twice Before Saying It

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

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

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

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 · 1d

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 · 2d

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 · 3d

Vermont vineyard

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

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 · 4d

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

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 · 5d

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 · 5d

Wonderful. Thank you.

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

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 · 5d

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 · 6d

Cubs win.

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

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 · 7d

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

To my Jewish friends, Tzom kal (“Easy fast”) this Yom Kippur. I’ll be with you in shul tonight and tomorrow.

And to my friends with a devotion to St. Francis, may we have a blessed Transitus, followed by the feast of St. Francis on Saturday. Anyone have a blessing of the animals planned for Sun.?

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

I sometimes wonder if scholarly books are copyedited at all anymore. Here’s a couple examples from what I’m reading now, published by one of the largest and most respected university presses on the planet.

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

"The rich man in the Gospel has no name, he is simply 'a rich man.' Material things, his possessions, are his face; he has nothing else."

Pope Francis, from a Sept. 29, 2013 homily

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

I’ve come back to the scene of book publishing—Woodstock, Vt. This is where I started working in 1997 at Jewish Lights Publishing, and then started SkyLight Paths Publishing. They don’t exist anymore. You see our old warehouse back door. And the office that says for rent was mine.

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

Wherever you are today, there will be someone who’s just having a very bad day. Or who feels sad or angry for reasons as yet undefined. Try to give them a break. Try to be forgiving and kind.

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

Good morning pose.

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

Saluting my translator friends everywhere, on this, the feast day of St. Jerome.

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

This novel is already a bestseller, which is not at all why I reviewed it. I reviewed it because it’s an important book about spiritual practice.

www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews...

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans | Review | Spirituality & Practice

A novel about living with vitality.

www.spiritualityandpractice.com

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