"Be not solicitous for the morrow."

The Life of Saint Anthony

Saint Athanasius

The Newman Press

1950

Introduction

Saint Anthony's end

was to be an ascetic

in the eyes of God. 

Prayer, fasting, and manual

labor were the daily means. 

Prologue

Anthony's strife is

the ideal pattern for the

ascetical life. 

Demonic temptations are

the rule, not the exception. 

Birth and Youth of Anthony

1.

Egyptian by birth,

Anthony came from both good

and well-to-do stock. 

He did not take to schooling,

and sought not companionship. 

φιλοκαλία I

The Philokalia
The Complete Text

Volume One

Faber and Faber

2010

St Isaiah The Solitary

On Guarding The Intellect: Twenty-Seven Texts

1.

In your natural

anger do not sin in thought,

in word, nor in deed. 

But like Job, be angry when

thinking, speaking, and acting. 

2. 

We must never leave

our God-given mystical

city of refuge. 

It is the secret weapon

of perpetual praying. 

3.

Our conscience is an
adversary for our good

(it opposes sin). 
If ignored, it delivers

us to evil enemies. 

Drudgery Divine (2026)

January 2026

Thursday January 01, 2026

December the eight, 

nineteen eighty, was the day 

Our Lady met him. 

The Solemnity of the 

Immaculate Conception.  

Friday January 02, 2026

He must learn to see 

the Blessed Virgin in all 

the women of Eve. 

The ACB interview 

was a subtle reminder.  

Saturday January 03, 2026

"I'm gonna love you 

till the wheels come off, oh, yeah" 

(dear Terror of Hell).  

As he sat in Rumi's field,  

he repeated this refrain. 

Sunday January 04, 2026

He was once punished 

but he was not doomed to die, 

all thanks be to Thee.  

The no-man's-land of language 

ends in Marian silence.  

Monday January 05, 2026

Because they don’t care 

what he thinks, nor reads what he 

writes, he ended it.  

It became an exercise 

in polished self-indulgence.  

Tuesday January 06, 2026

Ian Ker’s Newman 

on Vatican II might be 

a framework for him.  

He just needs to work out all

the grammatical details.  

Wednesday January 07, 2026

We contain neither 

our first principle nor our 

final end in life.  

We live, and we move, and we 

have our being in Being.  

Thursday January 08, 2026

To the Lord belong 

all of the poles of the earth: 

He gives and He takes.  

He must not be left to the 

vice of his own devices.  

Friday January 09, 2026

He is a poet 

who produces book reviews 

using structured verse. 

It is his way of whacking 

two birds with one stoned waka.  

Saturday January 10, 2026

It is the German 

(and not the Polish) Pope that 

resonates with him.  

Mediatrix, Saint, and Pope 

are now the circle of three.  

Sunday January 11, 2026

“There is no sense in 

reading nonsense” (so says Saint 

John Henry Newman). 

“Pay close attention to your 

nonsense” (so says Wittgenstein). 

Monday January 12, 2026

Joseph Ratzinger 

makes the Second Vatican 

Council sensible.  

This is a commentary 

on his own fear and trembling. 

Tuesday January 13, 2026

He was reminded 

yesterday that Newman can 

dwell where he cannot.  

This is an occasion for  

renewal, not repentance.  

Wednesday January 14, 2026

Civil discourse has 

become less than civil and 

beneath his concern.  

He refused to dignify 

it by engaging in it. 

Thursday January 15, 2026

He said he was too 

postmodern to become an 

Oratorian.  

Those were wise words then, but now 

he is not modern enough. 

Friday January 16, 2026

The latest silence 

from the picture in a frame 

song remains the same.  

He felt inspired to play 

it despite expectations.  

Saturday January 17, 2026

And just like that it 

all suddenly stopped and felt 

insignificant. 

When it is removed, you are 

left with what is required.  

Sunday January 18, 2026

He does not have a  

continuing city here 

(he seeks it beyond).  

He rejects words of plunder 

and accepts works of wonder.  

Monday January 19, 2026

Undistracted prayer: 

the highest intellection 

of the intellect.  

Prayer is the ancient ascent 

of the intellect to God. 

Tuesday January 20, 2026

He has studied the 

Orthodox order of the 

CGOCA. 

It is a variant of 

the Catholic SSPX. 

Wednesday January 21, 2026

Saint Agnes of Rome 

was offered for husband a 

Roman nobleman. 

She answered that she had found 

a far superior spouse.

Thursday January 22, 2026

He is a poet 

writing verse for the glory 

of the Triune God.  

Masculinity compels 

him to continue Eastward.  

Friday January 23, 2026

"Being" is rather 

the very darkest of all 

words in our grammar. 

The word is an entity,  

but the sinn of it is not.  

Saturday January 24, 2026

The greatness of Saint 

Anthony consists in his 

generosity.  

Without him he would not know 

about Saint Paul the Hermit.  

Sunday January 25, 2026

“Do congregations 

make us crazy, will we get 

better on our own?” 

Because of our history, 

some of us go it alone.  

Monday January 26, 2026

Heidegger’s task of 

destroying the history 

of ontology? 

The ironic sine qua 

non of my orthodoxy.  

Tuesday January 27, 2026

What would be the point 

of continuing to post 

his personal verse? 

He is a sanctuary 

for God’s holy hiddenness.  

Wednesday January 28, 2026

He too has taken 

up his staff and searched for God’s 

will in the desert. 

And like his namesake, he found 

it and wrapped it in a cloak.  

Thursday January 29, 2026

He has walked away 

from people, places, and things 

(never to return). 

He does not deserve to live 

among the monks of Athos.  

Friday January 30, 2026 

While growing wiser 

he groveled to the mountain 

of mysticism.  

It is here that he shall stay 

to the very end of days.  

Saturday January 31, 2026

He reads the Scriptures, 

he studies the Junker Jörg,

and prays the three Prayers.  

Much complexity produced 

this three-fold simplicity. 

February 2026

Sunday February 01, 2026

He was baptized as 

Protestant, and was confirmed 

as Roman Catholic. 

He then entered into the 

desert of ἡσυχία.  

Monday February 02, 2026

He will no longer  

use elaborate schemas 

to order his life. 

He will use the Great Schema  

Monks for his inspiration. 

Tuesday February 03, 2026

Deciding to change 

the dedication to him 

was deliberate. 

Resonation requires 

this kind of recognition.  

Wednesday February 04, 2026

He will pray his way 

into the stillness of the 

Philokalia.  

The consequences of his 

prodigality remain.  

Thursday February 05, 2026

“Don’t forget about 

me” simultaneously 

functions in two ways. 

One way is one that he wants

to do his best to forget.  

Friday February 06, 2026

He is not worthy 

to be an Orthodox or 

Catholic monastic.  

He remains as he's always 

been (a protesting hermit).  

Saturday February 07, 2026

Das Unbedingte 

and Vorgriff have their being 

within Sein und Zeit.  

The sine qua non of both 

is Heidegger’s gift to us.  

Sunday February 08, 2026

He is trying to  

define "protesting hermit"

now that he can hear. 

Here is his definition: 

repentant prodigal son.  

Monday February 09, 2026

"And after that no 

one dared ask Him any more 

questions to test Him." 

He is always the measure, 

never the One that’s measured.  

Tuesday February 10, 2026

He gets hypnotized 

by the music before he

retires each night.  

He snaps out of it once he

remembers her history.  

Wednesday February 11, 2026

Luther’s De Votis 

Monasticis explains why 

he is not a monk.  

The protestant principle 

never ceases to amaze.  

Thursday February 12, 2026

Barthianism 

is Dialecticism 

dressed in Calvin’s drag.  

You shall know them by their fruits 

(and not by their institutes).  

Friday February 13, 2026

Today he was told 

he needs to avoid each and 

every one of them.  

This is how he will learn his 

many Lutheran lessons.  

Saturday February 14, 2026

Today marks the one 

year anniversary of 

her painful fracture. 

He does not regret choosing 

to end his independence.  

Sunday February 15, 2026

His manly mentor 

is Mihailo Tolotos 

(pure orthodoxy).  

You can’t live with them, but you 

can live without seeing them.  

Monday February 16, 2026

He's experienced 

both of these worldly systems: 

marriage and divorce. 

This prevents him from being 

seduced into them again.  

Tuesday February 17, 2026

Around and around 

in confessional circles 

... until he lets go.  

He bows his head and prays: "I 

beg you, show me your glory."  

Wednesday February 18, 2026

Aristotle is 

“the master of those who know” 

(and we are many). 

It’s Dante's way of saying:  

compared to him, we’re all hacks.  

Thursday February 19, 2026

Every day is like 

the movie Fifty First Dates 

(redux edition).  

The day is spent informing 

them, then they fall back asleep.  

Friday February 20, 2026

“There was a man sent 

from God, whose name was John” (Lord, 

have mercy on him).  

All things work together for 

good for those who have been called.  

Saturday February 21, 2026

In his thumos he 

won’t sin against them, despite 

their maliciousness.  

Penitential repentance 

restrains the beast within him.  

Sunday February 22, 2026

The year he was born 

determined his place within 

Catholic history.  

His history is shaped by the 

Second Vatican Council.  

Monday February 23, 2026

Charles Taylor is 

a Catholic philosopher 

worth admiring.  

In nineteen sixty-four he 

published his very first book.  

Tuesday February 24, 2026

He remains confused 

over the state of Roman 

Catholicism.  

This is why Saint Paul of Thebes

is such an inspiration.  

Wednesday February 25, 2026

In the darkness, the 

“I feel a sin coming on” 

post was a warning.  

He remains a sinner in 

the hands of an angry God.  

Thursday February 26, 2026

Because hell hath no 

fury, he buries himself

in bureaucracy.  

Dreams remind him why he stopped 

paying attention to them.  

Friday February 27, 2026

“At this stage, they can 

all go fuck themselves, as far 

as I am concerned.” 

This is one way of saying 

that he lives in indifference.  

Saturday February 28, 2026

The saintly “Doctor 

of the Church” argument rears 

its head when he's lost.  

His only consolation 

is that the strife gets shorter.  

March 2026

Sunday March 01, 2026

It was Orthodox 

Monasticism, then the 

Jesuit Order.  

This process confirms he is 

an Oratorian Man.  

Monday March 02, 2026

Reaching out rather 

than simply reacting will 

be the end of him.  

Another day, another 

relational lesson learned.  

Tuesday March 03, 2026

The war in Iran 

caused his position to drop 

thousands of dollars.  

He wonders whether he will 

recover from this result.  

Wednesday March 04, 2026

Someone once said that 

Vatican II is a “get 

out of jail free card.” 

If this means that it sets the  

captives free, then so be it.

Thursday March 05, 2026

“It’s not right for us 

to neglect the word of God 

to serve at tables.” 

There are many if any 

ways to serve, and to be served.  

Friday March 06, 2026

He goes back and forth 

when it comes to disclosing 

his words to the world.

His latest Buddhist musings 

made him publish everything.  

Saturday March 07, 2026

On the sixty-sixth 

day of the year his father 

kindly reminds him. 

He will never forget where 

he was, nor where he now is.  

Sunday March 08, 2026

There is a reason 

why shots are fired at doors 

in public places. 

Is it terrorism? No.
It's a protest against it. 

Monday March 09, 2026

Living on borrowed 

time is now the new normal 

for the old oblate.  

He will eventually  

end his life like he began.  

Tuesday March 10, 2026

He is living through 

the last two vows that he made 

to God years ago. 

This is why he is slowly 

disappearing from the world.  

Wednesday March 11, 2026

Last night he knocked on 

a closed door that must never

be opened again. 

Thankfully, the key that he 

used no longer worked for him.  

Thursday March 12, 2026

As he slowly walked 

away from the closed door, he 

threw away the key. 

It sank to the bottom of  

the Holy See (never seen).  

Friday March 13, 2026

It just might be his 

hypersensitivity 

that made him retreat. 

The nocturnal muse does not 

care about his privacy.  

Saturday March 14, 2026

All educated 

Christians enter on this path, 

but few pursue it.  

Only those who are given 

this task finish what they start.  

Sunday March 15, 2026

“After that thou shalt 

come to God’s hill and be changed 

to another man.” 

He needs to be both old and 

gayhaired before this happens. 

Monday March 16, 2026

Having two columns 

on every page brings him back 

to the beginning. 

Is this another instance 

of cynical nostalgia?   

Tuesday March 17, 2026

In such a quiet 

state the unmoved and humble 

spider lives his life.  

Not even Pythagoras 

can match his mute detachment. 

Wednesday March 18, 2026

The West has betrayed 

him; he must begin at the

beginning again.  

Heidegger’s Sein und Zeit is 

his Orthodox eulogy. 

Thursday March 19, 2026

The everyday life 

of that womanless land is 

his daily ideal. 

Maximos the hut-burner 

only loved Theotokos. 

The Master of Those Who Know

Aristotle's Theology: The Primary Texts

Aristotle

Hackett Publishing Company

2022

0. Introduction

Aristotle is 

“the master of those who know” 

(as Dante put it). 

This was his way of saying:  

compared to him, we’re all hacks.  

1. Early Intimations

De Interpretatione 4.17a3-4

Prayer is a sentence 

that is neither true nor false 

(it is something else).  

So, truth or falsity is 

not found in every sentence.  

De Interpretatione 13.23a23-24

The activities 

sans potentialities 

are very unique. 

They are designated as 

the primary substances. 

Prior Analytics 1.36.48b35-37

The opportune time

for a god is opportune,

but is not needed.

This is because for a god

nothing is ever needed. 

Topics 1.11.105a5-7

Those who so puzzle

over whether snow is white

lack clear perception.

Those who so puzzle over

honoring a god must pay. 

Topics 2.2.109b33-35

Since a god cannot

be harmed, he also cannot

suffer injustice. 

This truth is found by asking

"What is doing injustice?"

Topics 2.11.115b30-35

All will say with no 

exception that honoring

a god is noble. 

But some will say it’s noble 

to sacrifice one’s father.

Topics 4.5.126a34-b1

A god and a good

person are both capable

of doing base things. 

But they are unlike the base

because they do not choose them. 

Topics 5.1.128b19-20

A man is only

a rational animal

(brighter than the brutes).

A god is an animal

too, but an immortal one. 

Topics 5.4.132b10-11

What can truly be

said of a god that also

can be said of men?

They share in scientific

knowledge as living beings. 

Topics 5.6.136b6-7

Since all living things

are perceptible, this is 

not a special thing. 

So, being intelligent

is not special for a god. 

2. The Immovable Mover

Physics 8.1.251a8-252a5

We say that movement

is the activation of

what is movable.

For each movement, there are things

that are capable of it. 

Physics 8.4.255b31-256a3

All things that are in

movement, are moved by something

and not by nothing. 

They are moved by nature or

not by nature but by force. 

Ménage à Trois

Karl Barth: A Life in Conflict

Christiane Tietz

Oxford University Press

2021

"At this very time we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Protestantism, the breaking of that bubble of 'Bible-Christianity.'" (Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman)

“The number one cause of atheism is Christians. Those who proclaim Him with their mouths and deny Him with their actions is what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable.” (Karl Rahner SJ) 

Barthianism is Dialecticism dressed in Calvinist drag. And considering what Christiane Tietz has disclosed about Karl Barth's private life in her 2021 biography Karl Barth: A Life in Conflict, we can no longer take his gesticulated words at face value, let alone give him the benefit of the polygamous doubt. It is now clear in hindsight that his thirty-year long deliberate engagement in adulterous spousal abuse (what Tietz describes as the troubling “Ménage à Trois” between him, his wife Nelly Barth, and his mistress/assistant Charlotte von Kirschbaum), is nothing but the reductio ad absurdum of the “White Whale” (his Kirchliche Dogmatik) that is now beached and continues to rot on the sinking sand of modern protestant theology.

In fact, Barth’s mother demonstrated far more theological discernment than he did when she confronted him about his domestic triangle and asked: “What good is the most discerning theology when it suffers a shipwreck in your own home?” His dialectical handwaving about what he called the notgemeinschaft (the "emergency association" between him, his wife, and his mistress), and his all-too-convenient use of what he called a “boundary case” as applied to the seventh commandment (neither marital fidelity nor adultery), clearly demonstrate that it is (almost) good for nothing, except perhaps to show how absurd it is.

For example, in a letter to Nelly in which he attempts to explain how their notgemeinschaft is an instance of an ethical "boundary case" he writes: “each one - bound and not bound in a particular fashion with the other two - has a special place, a special security, but also a special burden and pressure, without having to end our marriage legally and outwardly, and without having to deny and suppress that which connects me to Lollo.” How sentimental of him ("Lollo" was his pet name for his mistress). And how dialectical of him (there is no either/or here, only neither/nor). I leave it to the reader to assess the persuasiveness of this disturbingly self-serving apologia for adultery. "Your problem does not become my emergency" comes readily to mind as the appropriate response. 

Barth tried and failed to theologically justify the "permanent crisis" of the ménage à trois he forced his wife and his mistress to endure for over thirty years while the three of them lived and moved and had their being under the same roof (along with his and Nelly's five children). And to add intimate insult to ironic injury, the three of them were ultimately buried together in the same "family” plot in the Hörnli Cemetery in Basel, Switzerland, according to Barth's wishes.

Tietz's biography could be used to both condemn Barth's polygamy and defend his theology. His critically realistic dialectical narrators have used versions of this divide and conquer strategy ever since Eberhard Busch intimated about Barth's intimacy with his mistress in his 1976 biography Karl Barth: His Life From Letters and Autobiographical Texts. However, Tietz's book can be put to much better use.

The real value of her work consists in giving us very serious pause over whether the entire vocabulary of Barth's theology is still worth using. His abuse of words like "emergency association" and "boundary case" suggests not. To borrow and theologically apply Gottlob Frege's context principle from his Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik is helpful here: one must never ask for the meaning of a theological word in isolation, but only in the context of a dogmatic system. Hence the reductio. 

You shall know them by their fruits, and not by their own version of the Institutes (speaking of Calvinist drag). Of course, Barth's dogmatics is not the only protestant instance of this brand of dialectical absurdity. Tillich's apologetics also suffers from a similar ultimate concern in the shadow of his sadomasochism (but I digress).

Love of the Beautiful

The Philokalia

The Full Text

Volume 1-5

Virgin Mary of Australia and Oceania

2024

Saint Nikodemus the Hagiorite

Preface

We must keep our minds 

completely unshaped and pure 

while praying the prayer.

Doing so is the only

way to attain theosis. 

Saint Anthony the Great

Advice on Human Morality and Virtuous Life in 170 Chapters

1. 

Rational people

do not take pride in knowing

the ancient teachings. 

For us rationality

consists in humility. 

2.

The rational soul
has one concern: to obey
and glorify God. 
Regardless of position,

we train for this perfection. 

3.

It's foolish to think

everything happens without

reason or purpose. 

This is what the mad man means

when he says there is no God. 

4.

Those far worse than us 

rely only on human 

words and worldly wealth. 

They gesticulate about 

the medium of exchange. 

5.

'Love' is another

word for paying attention

(we must love ourselves).

Loving is living a cost

benefit analysis.

Corpus Dionysiacum I

The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite

Aeterna Press

2014

Acts 17:34

The Divine Names

Caput I

Section I

Only it alone 

gives an authoritative

account of itself. 

It is the syntactical

measure of all things measured. 

Section II

Trying to apply 

The Divine Names and notions 

to God is nonsense.  

All that we can do is use 

theological grammar. 

Section III

What is beyond thought 

and beyond being is the 

Source of every source.  

To those far away it calls 

them back to begin again.  

Section IV

The diversity 

of what we are leads us to 

divine unity.  

This explains the energy 

of our own fecundity.  

Section V

It encompasses, 

circumscribes, and embraces 

each and everything.  

It also so eludes the 

grasp of each and everyone.  

Section VI

We praise the nameless 

by every name, knowing the

inner irony. 

Since it is so wonderful,

why do we seek to speak it? 

Section VII

The unnamed goodness 

causes all and contains all 

things within itself.  

This is why it transcends all 

and is named by all that is. 

Section VIII

Hierarchical 

law leads as we study the 

conceptual names.  

The uninitiated 

remain in their lawlessness. 

Caput II

Section I

Through perversity 

one denies that the grammar

shows the Deity.  

When it comes to scripture, it 

is all and nothing at all.

Section II

When we watch over 

the scriptures, we are also 

watched over by them.  

By guarding them, we will be 

guarded and grounded in them.

Section III

The unified names

are trinitarian in

their formal essence. 

All the transcendental terms
terminate in the Godhead. 

Section IV

Divine unity

and differentiation

must be understood. 

The total union of lights

does not contain confusion. 

Section V

Theology deals

with what is beyond being,

life, wisdom, and gifts. 

Circles and seals are only

constructive comparisons. 

Section VI

The prime example 

of differentiation 

is the human Word.  

The Father and the Spirit 

simply do not share in it.  

Section VII

We are at a loss 

concerning the flowering 

of the transcendent.  

We can neither represent, 

let alone scent, its bouquet.  

Section VIII

The divine Spirit
is located beyond all 

divinization. 

Fire which warms and burns is
never warmed and never burnt. 

Section IX

The incarnation

cannot be grasped by the mind,

nor enclosed in words.

Those who are "sympathetic"

with such matters remain mute. 

Section X

Our Lord's Deity

embraces both part and whole

inside of Itself. 

It's the one and the many

(if any) of everything. 

A Quieter Revolution

Roberts Gallery

"A magnificent duty falls on us: history elects us to preserve the precious treasure it bequeaths."

(Paul-Émile Borduas)

For the past 75 years the Wildridge family has owned and operated the oldest and one of the most prestigious art galleries in Canada. They celebrated their diamond jubilee on Saturday June 10, 2023, in their new location at 631 Dupont Street in Toronto, Ontario. Paul Wildridge (the gallery Director) and his wife Charlene (the gallery Administrator) hosted the event, along with their daughter Allie, their son Tom, and their graphic designer and social media specialist Taya Dekker. 

Paul started working at the gallery in 1978, with Charlene joining him full-time in 2000. Allie and Tom have been part of the family business for over a decade as well, with Allie starting in 2012, and Tom joining two years later. Under Paul’s wise guidance, and informed by Charlene’s acute attention to detail, Allie and Tom currently share the responsibly for both preserving and promoting their vast collection of Historic and Contemporary Canadian art, and for supporting and representing some of the very best artists in Canada (and the world).  

Celebrating 75 Years

They used their annual Sketches Exhibition of Canadian Historical art to rightly showcase their own history. Their many friends and patrons that attended the show experienced a retrospective exhibition that served as a commentary on the historical context, the contemporary interest, and future significance of Roberts Gallery in Canadian art history.  

Much can be said about their contribution to this history. Indeed, a book could (and should) be written about it. Let the following two examples suffice (there are many). First, everyone knows and admires the reputation that Roberts Gallery has for exhibiting Canadian landscape painting through their close association with and support of the Group of Seven. But what might be less well known is the role they played (and continue to play) in the history of Canadian abstract painting. 

Roberts Gallery is the sine qua non of the success of the Painter’s Eleven precisely because they were the first gallery in Canada and the world to exhibit their work back in 1954. That show put Canadian abstract painting on the map. American art critics like Clement Greenberg took notice and were impressed enough to take it seriously. While Greenberg was distastefully wrong to criticize Kazuo Nakamura as being “just a bit too captured by oriental ‘taste’” to be of any abstract use, he was decisively right to recognize Nakamura's significance and the contribution he made to modern art in Canada. We have Roberts Gallery to thank for making this kind of international recognition possible.

Kazuo Nakamura | Forest, 1953

The second example concerns the circumstances that drew the famous French mime artist and actor Marcel Marceau into the gallery back in early 1970. Marceau was at the O’Keefe Center in Toronto for a week’s worth of mime performance shows. One day while he was on a long walk he ended up in front of Roberts Gallery. He looked into the window and saw a number of Japanese Kabuki actor pieces on display. Marceau went into the gallery and was blown away by them. He asked Jack Wildridge (the Director of the gallery) who the artist was, and Jack told him that it was John Gould. Marceau then asked him if there would be any way he could get in touch with the artist. Jack set up a meeting between the two of them. 

Marceau commissioned Gould to go to New York later that spring and draw him from backstage for eight days in a row while he was performing. Two years later (1972), the gallery had an exhibition of the sketches Gould made of that run of shows in New York. The significance here is that the gallery brought Marceau in, and Gould's art sought him out. Marceau had to do something in response. We have Roberts Gallery to thank for introducing these two artists, for the impact they had on each other's lives, and for the art they produced.

John Gould | Caligrapher, 1990

The history of Roberts Gallery began back in 1842 when William Pell, a gilder from London, England, established the gallery’s first location on King Street West in Toronto. That was 180 years ago. In 1870 a fine art dealer from England named Samuel E. Roberts (after whom the gallery is named) acquired the gallery from William Pell. For the next 78 years the Roberts family ran the gallery until 1948 when Paul’s grandfather Sidney Wildridge, along with Paul's father Jack Wildridge, acquired the gallery from the Roberts family and reopened it at 759 Yonge Street in Toronto. In 1961 they moved the gallery to 641 Yonge Street. After many years of doing business there, they eventually moved it to its present location on Dupont Street (saving the best location till last – but more on interior design later).

You cannot appreciate the significance of this history without mentioning the role that A.J. Casson played in its development. After Sydney Wildridge sadly passed away in the mid-1950s, Jack Wildridge took all that he had learned as Sydney’s young apprentice and applied it to running the gallery as a relatively young man in his late 20s. He had a level of ambitious maturity beyond his years that drew many of the Toronto artists of the time into the gallery’s orbit. Chief among these artists was Casson who had already come into his own as an artist of note. Casson was not only the founding member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1925, but also joined the Group of Seven painters in 1926 to replace Franz Johnston who had just resigned. Casson was 30 years Jack’s senior when they first met. And yet this age difference did not prevent Casson from seeing something significant in him, not only as a shrewd businessman, but also as a devoted family man.  

A.J. Casson | Church at Rosenthal, 1955

Not long after their first meeting Casson decided to entrust his career to Jack Wildridge by making Roberts Gallery his exclusive representative. This was a decisive stamp of approval both for the business and for Jack. Casson’s decision more than paid off for him. His first solo exhibition at Roberts Gallery in 1959 was the first of 11 more solo shows of his work (along with one more posthumous show in 1998 to mark the centenary of his birth). During this time Casson introduced Jack to other important artists, directors of public institutions, and influential art critics, thereby using his considerable influence to solidify Roberts Gallery’s already established business reputation within the art world.  

Throughout the years Casson and his wife Margaret Alexandria Petry became very close friends with the Wildridge family. To thank them for their friendship and support, Casson designed the Wildridge Coat of Arms and presented it to Jack and his wife Jennie as a surprise Christmas gift in 1972. The coat of arms remains as the gallery logo branding to this day, both in their signage and in their letterhead. It serves as a reminder that Roberts Gallery cannot be understood apart from its history.  

Coat of Arms

What is significant about this history, and why does it matter? Andy Warhol was perceptive enough to know that "good art is good business" (as he put it). What is good business? Through their own purposely understated and unspectacular hard work of running a successful art gallery for the past 75 years, the Wildridge family has given us a unique answer to this question: good business is family business. This is “the Wildridge way,” as Allie wisely reminds the family every so often when they discuss whether they should possibly change their successful business strategy in response to the latest consumer trends. 

Jack and Jennie Wildridge

Understanding the kind of man Jack Wildridge was gets to the heart of their strategy. I asked Charlene to describe him to me. She said that Jack was a gentleman, a very admired person, a very honest person, and someone you could trust. “I believe that Casson saw this in him,” Charlene went on to say. “He saw this young man, he got it, and he understood business.” Like father like son. 

Artists, art dealers, and clientele alike put their trust in Paul Wildridge for the same reason Casson put his trust in Jack. And like his father before him, Paul is a successful businessman because he is a devoted family man. They say you know you have lived a successful life when your children want to spend time with you when they get older. Success, indeed.

Paul's life embodies a philosophy of art that is the product of the values he received from his parents and siblings, values that he has passed on to his own family. What is this philosophy of art that has made the Wildridge way so successful? It is the philosophy of serious generosity: art worthy of the name is generous enough in that it invites you in to admire its beauty, but it is serious enough in that it demands something of you. And in this case, what is true of the art is true of the gallery.

When you walk into an art gallery you might feel what the poet Philip Larkin once described as an “awkward reverence.” Where there is art, there is reverence. No doubt. But in the case of Roberts Gallery there is this difference: the reverence is not awkward, but awakening. And this reverent sense of awakening is the result of how serious generosity informs every aspect of this gallery, including its interior design. 

When the gallery moved to its present location on Dupont street in 2020, Charlene designed a space that is based on the important architectural distinction between a building and a dwelling. A building is a space that you do things in, but a dwelling is a home where you become someone. While all dwellings are buildings, not all buildings are dwellings. Roberts Gallery is a building that is a dwelling. It is domestically designed around the art that it displays, expertly hung on its clean white walls by Allie (who has turned the functional technique of hanging art into an art form). 

Charlene's decision to design the gallery in this way is based on the aesthetic she used to design her own home. She told me that it is designed around a single painting by the Canadian abstract painter Paul-Émile Borduas. I asked Charlene what it is about this painting that deserves such attention. She talked about its beauty as a reason for its centrality, as well as its meaningful history with their family. She also talked about the importance of Borduas' role in the avant-garde Automatiste movement in Quebec, and how the Refus Global manifesto he authored in 1948 signaled the dawn of the Quiet Revolution. However, the influence that she takes from Borduas is less political, and far more personal. For her Borduas represents what can be called a Quieter Revolution that transpires within you in response to art that is before you. In this sense, Marcel Marceau was a silent revolutionary. 

Paul-Émile Borduas | Frou, Frou, Aigu, 1956

The aesthetics of Roberts Gallery is minimalism with a mission: it creates a dwelling that generously directs your attention to the art that it serves, in order to prepare you for what it seriously demands. Art demands your active attention and your existential reaction. The point is to reverently awaken you, to gently change you, to make you better than you were before you encountered it, and to inspire you to have the same kind of artistic influence in your dealings with others (family and friends alike). You need a home to help you become someone, and the gallery is designed with this in mind. It is a domestic family dwelling, the very thing we all want our homes to be.

Whether you are an artist who is represented by the gallery, a collector who is advised by the gallery, or (in my case) a fine art advisor who works with the gallery, everyone is made to feel like they are part of their extended family. Roberts Gallery is a second home for us. There is even a backyard outside of Paul's office, complete with a table, chairs, and an umbrella!

At the end of a very enjoyable discussion with Paul in his office, filled with lovely family anecdotes and informed artistic commentary, I asked Paul the following question: “What is the lasting legacy of Roberts Gallery?” Without hesitation he answered: “Respect.” Paul is not given to false modesty. He knows that he is the pater familias. And he is as confident as he is humble about his place in Canadian art history. His Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art Dealers Association of Canada in 2018 is a testament to his faithfulness in carrying out the magnificent duty that has fallen on him and his family: to preserve the precious treasure of art that history has bequeathed to them, and to us. Roberts Gallery has earned our respect. 

The Wildridge Family

Madness And Civilization I

The Sayings Of The Desert Fathers

Cistercian Publications

1975

"A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, 'You are mad, you are not like us.'" (Abba Anthony)

Anthony the Great

1. Accidie

This is the question:

What must I do to be saved?

When Saint Anthony

experienced accidie

he asked it courageously. 

2. Attention

This is a question:

Why are there both rich and poor?

When Saint Anthony

received his answer to it,

he did not ask any more.

3. Ground

Have the grounding ground

under your feet at all times, 

live the sacred texts,

and do not easily leave

your heuristic hermitage.

4. Work

This is the great work:

take the blame for your faults and

expect temptation

to be your dark passenger

until the end of your days. 

5. Temptation

Experiencing

temptation in this life is

the sine qua non

of heavenly membership.

You can't have it without it. 

6. Control
Abba Pambo asked

the great Abba Anthony:

"What ought I to do?"

His three-fold answer ended

with emphasis on control. 

7. Humility

"Humility" was

the answer that a voice gave

to Anthony when

he (groaning) asked how to get

through all the enemy's snares. 

8. Discernment

Asceticism

without discernment keeps one

far away from God.

Somatic affliction is

only part of the process. 

9. Community

Gaining a brother

is the same as gaining God.

Sometimes hermitic

life can be meaningless if

cut off from community.

10. Intensity

The intensity

of hermitic life is lost

once solitary

being is slowly replaced

with secular loitering.

11. Desert

Hearing, speech, and sight

are the three conflicts that one

can simply avoid

by living in the desert

of their own isolation. 

12. Hermeneutics

Only Anthony

the Great could create something

from the nothingness

of their demonic visions. 

He knew his hermeneutics.

13. Brethren

The brethren will stretch

but not break only if their

own personal needs

are met by an elder who

is both older and wiser. 

14. Amends

We are not told what

sin the young monk committed

that caused him to weep. 

Sometimes God only gives us 

five days to make our amends. 

15. Better

Is it better to 

be thoroughly insulted

or sincerely praised?

If you are an empty cell,

then better does not matter. 

16. Hyperbole

What is great about

Saint Anthony is his use

of hyperbole. 

Of course he prays for the monk,

he just does it differently. 

17. Ignorance

It is not without

significance that Abba

Joseph did not know. 

Those so named have found the way

through semantic ignorance. 

18. Door

If you lack a door

then you do not have a cell

to be silent in. 

And if you have a door make

sure that it is always closed. 

19. Invalids

"We cannot do this

and we cannot do that" is

said by invalids. 

Invalidity of this

kind requires food and prayer.

20. Renunciation

To reject the world

requires a radical

renunciation. 

Pulling this off is next to

impossible, but worth it. 

21. Authority

Abba Anthony

sent the tempted monastic
back from where he came. 
Those monks who had cast him out
received him with guilt and shame. 

22. Movements

The natural and
gluttonous and demonic
movements must be known. 
They each affect us toward
bodily sin and evil. 

23. Weakness

If men were weak when

Saint Anthony was alive,

how weak are we now?

This question should humble us

and cause us to seek His grace. 

24. Equality

There was an urban

doctor who gave to the poor

and sang the Sanctus.

Even the Angels agreed

he was Anthony's equal. 

25. Sanity

The time is upon

us when the mad men think we

are out of our minds.

To protect our sanity

we enter cells and lock doors. 

26. Moses

Abba Anthony

went out into the desert

to talk with Moses.

He knew that the primary

of all sources would teach him. 

27. Enough

"It is enough for

me to see you, Father" said

the silent Father. 

This text allows us to see

how silence answers questions. 

Of Whom The World Was Not Worthy

The Wisdom Of The Desert
Thomas Merton
New Directions
1970

“Of whom the world was not worthy: wandering in deserts, in mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth.” 

(Hebrews 11:38) 

I.
What should he do now?
Don't place any confidence
in private virtue.
He must control his hunger,
and he must control his tongue.

II.
Sit in submission.
Live as clean as possible.
Always be thankful.
These are the ways to practice
the silent presence of God.

III.
Keeping his heart safe
can be done by faithfully
listening to it.
It alone knows what is best.
Only then can he do good.

IV.
There are more than three
wise men found in the Bible.
Noah, Job, Daniel
can be added to the list
of those who knew to adore.

V.

Hating vanity

and a very easy life:

the sine qua non

of freedom from distracting

communitarian strife. 

VI.

If Abbot Pambo

is right, then he won't even

begin to begin

at the beginning during

this life of obedience.

VII.

Brother to Elder:

"How is the fear of God gained?"

Elder to Brother:

"It is gained through poverty,

humility, and mercy."

VIII.

Hermit to Hermit:

"Be careful not to water

any vegetables."

The young cenobites could not

outwit these wise old serpents. 

IX.

This is the monk's work:

love the Lord and hate evil.

This is how it's done:

obeying, meditating,

and walking with Enoch's God. 

X.

He does not argue.

“You know what you are saying”

is the end of it. 

And if someone speaks the truth,

he simply lets his Yes be.

XI.

Determination

diminishes once his own

cell is abandoned. 

The no-longer-I reminds

him to remain where he is. 

XII.

First he must flee men,

then he can be led toward

his own salvation.

This penultimate step is

the rooting of not sinning. 

XIII.

If he asked Father

Moses of old for a good

word, would he tell him

to sit within his cell like

Abbot Moses in Scete?

XIV.

How does the elder

know that the laughter he hears

is not an answer

in the presence of the Lord

of the heavens and the earth?

XV.

If he thinks his tongue

is a stone within his mouth,

then he can carry

it easier than Abbot 

Agatho did for three years. 

XVI.

It is not anger

that is the matter with him,

but rather whether

it ever gets to his lips. 

Silence keeps demons afraid. 

XVII.

It was much better

for the brother not to sell

the book he stole from

Abbot Anastasius.

He returned then retained it.

XVIII.

If you lose yourself

through your anger while trying

to correct someone,

you only gratify your

own passionate ambition. 

XIX.

At least eating red

flesh and drinking fresh red wine

is not as bad as

devouring your brother

by detracting his person. 

XX.

It’s better to have 

a cellar cave in on you,

than participate 

in acts that violate your 

level of maturity.  

XXI.

The difference between 

a monk and a perfect one 

can be summed up thus: 

“...you would not even have looked 

...to see that we were women.” 

XXII.

The brother showed him

his lacerated body

that the dogs and birds

were both responsible for.

With devils its even worse. 

XXIII.

Abbot Macarius

spoke to Abbot Theodore

about the one thing

that is needful to truly

profit from his three good books. 

XXIV.

To pray for fourteen

years without ceasing to rid

oneself of anger

is to apply Ephesians
chapter four verse twenty six. 

XXV.

The most manual

monks are those intimately

tried by temptations.

The measure of their manner

is measured by their manners. 

XXVI.

Patiently knowing

one's working limitations

is the hidden key

to getting anywhere in

our own virtuous labours. 

XXVII.

Like a transplanted

tree that does not bear its fruit,

so is the moving

monk who does not remain still. 
He can never be planted. 

XXVIII.

Solitude is both

the furnace of Babylon

for those seeking God,

and an ancient pillar of

cloud for those God is seeking. 

XXIX.

The only response

to those who are traders in

words, and to those who

seek to glory in the words

of another, is silence.

XXX.

Once you put into

practice the things that you write

about, then further

hand waving with words is no

longer a necessity. 

XXXI.
Abbot Moses once

tried fooling a follower

into believing

that he was a heretic

in order to avoid him. 

XXXII.

There is gluttony
of the flesh and of the soul.

To overcome both

one must fast, but in two ways:

avoid food and avoid fools. 

XXXIII.
Martha embodied
Paul's pragmatic principle

"If any man will

not work, neither let him eat."
She's Mary's sine qua non:

there's no "best part" without her. 

XXXIV.

Serapion sold

his copy of the Gospels

and gave the money

to the poor because the book

told him to sell and to give. 

XXXV.
To pray "O God, we
worked hard for the food we eat,

so, thanks for nothing,"
is simply another way 

to pray like Abbot Sisois. 

XXXVI.
To attribute all

things, both good and evil, to

the dispensation

of God's wisdom is the way

that one turns the other cheek.

XXXVII.

"There once was a great

hermit in the mountains" is

all you need to know. 

Being touched by Poeman's words

is the basis for greatness. 

XXXVIII.

To pass through the gate

requires rejecting the

turn to the subject.

This makes you realize that no

one ever gets insulted. 

XXXIX.

Once upon a time

in the valley of the cells

a monk spoke vainly.

It is better to use salt

than it is to speak of it. 

XL.

Those who sin remain

within the monastery

of necessity.

Abbot Bessarion taught

as much when he walked away. 

XLI.

He carries on his 
back a basket full of holes

that sand falls out of. 

What is the basket, what are

the holes, and what is the sand?

XLII.
What do we do when
we lose our nerve when sitting
alone in our cells?

If we don't despise, condemn, 
nor rebuke, then God gives peace. 

XLIII.

He who said that "Thou

shall not fornicate" also

said "Thou shalt not judge."

Bourgeois hermits must show more

compassion toward themselves. 

XLIV.

Abbot Ammonas

said: "Sit in your cell and eat

a little each day."

In this way we ask the Lord

to be merciful to us. 

XLV.

Abbot John the Dwarf

became what he was because
he was no angel.

Dionysius taught us 
about the hierarchy. 

XLVI.

The thoughts in our heart

will rot from the inside out

if not acted on. 

This is a warning to those

called upon to contemplate. 

XLVII.

Tolstoy's Three Hermits
represent our silence and

sickness and service. 

They all prayed: "Three are you, three

are we, have mercy on us."

XLVIII.

When you try to drive
out malice with malice you

remain in the same. 
Abbot Pastor was very
pastoral with this wisdom. 

XLIX.

What does it mean to

be a true monk according

to Abbot Pastor?

Don't quarrel | Don't be angry |

Don't return evil in turn. 

L.

When distracting thoughts
appear our job is to say

no to each of them.

Trying to prevent them is

like trying to catch the wind. 

LI.

Discretion is like

an axe that cuts down a tree

with only one swing. 

Those who lack it hack away

until they are exhausted.