Daniel Suelo - a prophet for our times

I think I’m not alone in having trouble concentrating theses days – in watching a long movie, reading a long book, listening to a long sermon. The electronic revolution has changed many things, including this.

But every now and then I come across something I value so much it’s worth the effort of staying with it. In fact this gives me a measure of what’s important to me – what do I stay with?

By nature I wander off. I have been so often disillusioned – things, people, promising much delivered little. Things that looked big from afar were little close at hand. Institutions announcing themselves as holy, as receptacles of the Gospel, turned out to be nothing of the sort. I wander off.

But just here and there I come across something worth listening to, worth staying for, worth following.

The work of Daniel Suelo is exactly that. I have come across no wiser man.

After a long silence, he has put into words the thoughts he has been developing and allowing to put forth blossoms and fruit.

Listen to this man. He is like no one else I have come across. He is a prophet for our times without a doubt.

His recent talk, about the physics and spirituality of the gift economy, is published on his blog. It was given in a book-shop, with accompanying powerpoint slides that are important to follow as he speaks, but unfortunately the camera misses the slides as they appear on the screen, reasonably concentrating instead on Suelo as he speaks.

So in the blog post, Suelo has included the powerpoint of slides for us to advance and follow while watching the video. It took me a short while to get the hang of it, but the content of the slides is so helpful it was well worth doing.

His blog post giving both the video and the slides is here.

The video by itself on YouTube is here.

The talk is an hour and twenty minutes long, so you need to find a stretch of time when you can settle down without distraction – but I cannot recommend it highly enough. He offers wisdom, sense, grace and illumination.