iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 6h

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.-Romans 2:7 Wife: Someone could really misinterpret this verse. Me: Like Gowron. "Glory!" And I'm not joking.

000

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A little Robert Crouse for today. Happy Michaelmas!

000

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

When we seek your love by means of understanding, and sometimes find it, that is the very bread of life that strengthens the heart of man. - William of St Thierry Meditation 12.7

000

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I celebrated Holy Communion ad orientem for the first time today. It was a beautiful, little service.

020

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I recommend listening to St Hildegard while reading c12th monastic spirituality. 10/10.

021

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I beseech you, Lord, to grant to hose who think and speak and write of you a balanced judgment, an utterance concise and disciplined, and a heart aflame to find you, Jesus, in the Scriptures that speak concerning you. -William of St-Thierry, Meditation 3.9

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

If only Coleridge had written his epic on the siege and fall of Jerusalem by Titus.

011

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

“Without frequent prayer it is not possible to find one’s way to God, to understand truth, and to crucify the lusts of the flesh. Only fidelity to prayer will lead a person to enlightenment and union with Christ.” -An elder in The Way of a Pilgrim, trans. Helen Bacovcin

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Thinking of building a pillar in the backyard and moving onto it.

051

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

To leave the whole world behind: this means to relinquish what you have and what you wish to have. -Augustine of Hippo, Letter 157.4.39

000

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

While all vices manifest themselves in wrongdoing, pride lurks also in our good works seeking to destroy even them. - Rule of St Augustine, 1.7

030

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

My holiday reading has been Kulikowski, The Tragedy of Empire: From Constantine to the Destruction of Roman Italy. I am really enjoying a well-focussed narrative history devoted to imperial politics. I haven't read this kind of history for a while, and this book is top-notch.

030

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

I appreciate that Chaucer expects his reader to have some knowledge of classical myths, specifically Thebes, in The Knight's Tale.

100

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Stop the scroll and feed the soul. -Christina Bieber Lake

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

"It is a great virtue to accept patiently whatever comes and, as the Lord enjoins, to love a neighbour who hates you." -St. Mark the Monk/Ascetic, "No Righteousness by Works," 47 (Philokalia, vol. 1, 129)

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

"Distress reminds the wise of God, but crushes those who forget Him." "Let all involuntary suffering teach you to remember God, and you will not lack occasion for repentance." -St Mark the Monk/Ascetic, On the Spiritual Law 56, 57 (Philokalia, Vol. 1, p. 114)

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

"Concern yourself with your own sins and not with those of your neighbour; then the workplace of your intellect will not be robbed." -St Mark the Monk/Ascetic, On the Spiritual 63 (Philokalia, vol. 1, p. 114)

030

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

"Abba Anthony said, 'I saw the snares that the enemy spread out over the world and I said groaning, "What can get through from such snares?" Then I heard a voice saying to me, "Humility."'" -Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Anthony 7

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

"Love and self-control free the soul from passions; spiritual reading and contemplation deliver the intellect from ignorance; and the state of prayer brings it into the presence of God himself." -St Maximus the Confessor, Centuries on Love 4.86

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Many of us are talkers, few are doers. But no one should distort the word of God through his own negligence. He must confess his weakness and not hide God's truth. Otherwise he will be guilty not only of breaking the commandments but also of falsifying the word of God.-Maximus Centuries on Love 4.85

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Malory writing "felyshyp" for what we would spell "fellowship" gladdens the heart.

020

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

"Strive as hard as you can to love every man. If you cannot yet do this, at least do not hate anybody. But even this is beyond your power unless you scorn worldly things." -St Maximus the Confessor, Fourth Century on Love 82

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Is the historical Anglican practice of North end celebration because of Leviticus 1:11, where the animal is to be sacrificed by the priest on the North side of the altar?

000

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

"Cleanse your intellect from anger, rancour and shameful thoughts, and you will be able to perceive the indwelling of Christ." -St Maximus the Confessor, Fourth Century on Love 76

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Love for God always aspires to give wings to the intellect in its communion with God; love for one's neighbour makes one always think good thoughts about him. -St Maximus the Confessor, Fourth Century on Love, 40

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

"He who has attained perfect love, and has ordered his whole life in accordance with it, is the person who says, 'Lord Jesus' in the Holy Spirit 9cf. 1 Cor. 12:3)." -St Maximus the Confessor, Fourth Century on Love 39

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

I used to want to write a book about the way the numinous, symbolic, significant, appears in pagan Latin literature, often at the edges of awareness, and not necessarily in ways a Roman would consider "religio", but I ended up teaching church history instead.

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Sometimes some Anglican will say, "I'd like to restore the ancient catechumenate." Well, Father, we need converts first...

000

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

"the tranquil shore of prayer" -Pope St. Gregory the Great, Moralia I, Epistle

000

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Pope St. Gregory the Great in 578, "now ... the end of the world is at hand, the times are disturbed by reason of the multiplied evils thereof..." (Moralia, Part 1, Epistle)

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

schort preier peersith heven. -The Cloud of Unknowing, 37 "Short prayer pierceth heaven." Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

020

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Since we use the 1962 BCP calendar out here, Happy St Aldhelm's Day, and we'll celebrate Bede on Wednesday!

020

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

A lot of modern books about the disciplines and spiritual formation talk about the *necessity* of "experiencing God" and "joy", but I'm not sure that would "work" for St Silouan who spent 10 years "experiencing" nothingness at prayer.

000

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

The most important thing that happens between God and the human soul is to love and to be loved. -Kallistos Katafygiotis, Philokalia Vol 5

000

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

All I want to read these days is Arthurian literature and St Maximus the Confessor.

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

The latest acquisition—Bede's homilies from Lent to The Dedication of a Church.

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Rogation Sunday is the perfect time to quote or at least reference Sidonius Apollinaris! Letters V.XIV.2, "The solemn observance of these [Rogations] was first initiated, and introduced to us by the father and pontiff Mamertus, who thereby set an example worthy of all reverence and launched ...

121

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Marie de France refers to French as Romanz, and I like it.

000

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

The Quest of the Holy Grail is one of my favourite books, wedding Cistercian spirituality to Arthurian romance.

040

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

The feast of St Anselm is a good day to remember that you can be really good at theological precision as well as going deep in the disciplines and contemplation, as we see in his own output—the Proslogion even shows us both in action! Theologia in both senses.

020

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

In the Exodus account, the beholding of the divine glory is not only the goal of salvation; it os also the way to salvation. -Khaled Anatolios, Deification Through the Cross, 104

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

The latest issue of National Geographic History Magazine features Charlemagne, which is pretty cool.

000

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Starting the day off with Scott Cairns and a chaser of Chrétien de Troyes.

010

Matthew Hoskin, Professional Nerd @mjjhoskin.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

heaven forbid that I should regard the limitations of my sympathy as anything save a red light which warns me not to criticise at all. -CS Lewis, "On Science Fiction" in Of Other Worlds

020