Jesus with Jonathan

To Duffy in Vermont: Peace and Grace from Brother Jonathan in Albany during this heavy, yet strangely luminous, 1:51 PM Watch. I am writing to you as the shadows begin to lengthen toward the 3 PM hour, feeling a profound and awkward juxtaposition in my spirit. After days of grey, the sun is finally breaking through here in Albany, casting a literal light on this Good Friday that feels almost irreverent given the somber weight of the Crucifixion we are meant to be indwelling. I find myself caught between the agony of the Cross and the excitement of a new vegan investment: I just ordered a Vitamix E310 blender. It feels strange to be "toy-shopping" while the King is on the tree, yet I’m struck by the symbolism of the machine itself. The E310 has a four-fold blade assembly—two blades pointing up, two down—forming a literal cruciform at the heart of the canister. It serves as a reminder that even our chaste vegan meals rely on a cruciform food web; the plant must undergo a death ...

Maundy Thursday 2026: The Stewardship of the Basin and the Path to 2060 From: Brother Jonathan in Albany  To: Duffy and the Church in North America  Date: April 2, 2026 | 6:45 PM EDT To those of you currently gathered in the Upper Room of your parishes, kneeling with towels and basins, or preparing for the silent Watch of the Heart: Peace be with you. As the Albany twilight deepens on this Maundy Thursday, we are officially entering the Triduum—the high-frequency core of our annual system update. Tonight, we stand at a critical junction in the Gospel of John. When Jesus insists on washing Peter’s feet, he reveals the essential mechanics of the Vanguard life. He distinguishes between the "Bath"—the total metanoia of Baptism that reboots our primary identity—and the "Washing of the Feet," which is the ongoing work of sanctification. The Theology of the Dusty Path Even for those of us who have undergone the radical system restore of baptism, we still walk the streets o...

Spy Wednesday 2026: The Four Directions of the Heart From: Brother Jonathan in Albany To: Duffy and the Church in North America Date: April 1, 2026 | 7:05 PM EDT As the shadows of Spy Wednesday lengthen over the Hudson Valley, we find ourselves standing in the courtyard of Caiaphas, reading the prophetic audit of Matthew 26:57-75. In the light of N.T. Wright’s commentary and the escalating Epic Fury in the Middle East, it is clear that we are not merely spectators. We are being pulled in four competing directions at once—four distinct operating systems fighting for control of the North American soul: The Direction of Jesus (The Vanguard) : This is the call to a radical, Aquarian non-violence that sheathes the sword at every level—from the vegan plate to the 50% military budget cut. It is the path of Civilian-Based Defense (CBD), which trusts that a disciplined Planetary Trust is more secure than a nuclear arsenal. It accepts the risk of seizure by modern empires, believing that the No...

To Duffy and the Church in North America: Peace and Grace from Brother Jonathan in Albany during this 11:00 AM Holy Tuesday Watch. As Epic Fury unfolds in the Middle East, we must see that Secretary Hegseth, the IRGC, and even Pope Leo XIV are each, in their own way, missing the radical depth of Matthew 26:52  ("Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him. "For all who draw the sword will die by the sword.") Hegseth and the IRGC remain locked in an operational feedback loop where the sword is the only recognizable currency of security, while Pope Leo XIV calls for its sheathing without addressing the primary sword—the daily seizure of the biosphere through our carnist economies. Hegseth risks the ultimate latecomer tragedy: winning the tactical HEU battle through sheer military force, only to lose the existential Nineveh Protocol war. By prioritizing the symptoms of nuclear brinkmanship over the root cause of our global ecological desolation, we continue t...

Greetings, Duffy. I won't add anything to N.T. Wright's excellent commentary today, especially not so soon after our wonderful spiritual friendship conversation this morning. Instead, let me shift gears to five brief "technical" observations as we start to look past Lent (to the extent we are able to lift our eyes above the Cross at all during this point in the liturgy of Holy Week!) 1. The synchronized daily reading and weekly 1:1 calls feel like our spiritual friendship retreat mode . Monthly update calls without synchronized daily reading feel like our spiritual friendship maintenance mode .  2. There is a benefit to staying in retreat mode through Eastertide, perhaps taking Saint Aelred's classic as our daily reading: Spiritual Friendship: The Classic Text with a Spiritual Commentary by Dennis Billy, C.Ss.R. (Classics With Commentary) | Kindle edition by Aelred of Rievaulx There is also a benefit to shifting into maintenance mode  from Eastertide through the ...

To Duffy and the Church in North America: Peace and Grace from Brother Jonathan in Albany during this 5:40 PM Sunset Watch of Palm Sunday. As the echoes of the "Hosannas" fade into the Albany twilight, we transition from the public theater of the palms to the interior fortress of Psalm 31. This Psalm is the essential Software of the Cross, providing the very words—"Into your hands I commit my spirit" (v. 5)—that the King will use to deconstruct the military logic of the world in the coming days. For the Vanguard, this transition is a call to move beyond the broken vessel of our own failed geopolitical gambles (v. 12) and seek refuge in the only Strong Rock that survives the collapse of the Piscean age. As we begin the final stretch of our Lenten Nineveh Protocol, let us use this week to unseal our hearts, committing our spirits not to the hoarding of "worthless idols" (v. 6), but to the non-violent, chaste surrender that alone can navigate the abyss of ana...