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Good people will prosper like palm trees, and they will grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. They will take root in your house, LORD God,

blessedbeyondallbelief

ottervii

My Ivy The symbolism of fidelity, friendship, and eternity. Not letting go on what it's attached itself to, binding different plants together and giving its love forever. Oh, lovely loyal ivy, with his eternal faithfulness and devotion, undying desires and protection. Remaining evergreen and thriving no matter how harsh and cold the world may be. Oh, lovely resilient ivy, with his continuous endurance and longevity, a gift that represents lasting bonds. I bid you nothing but tender affection and a fulfilling life, to go forth and intertwine your beliefs and affection for those you want to guard. To those you hold dear To those you fight standing for To those who need your unyielding sword Oh, my lovely little ivy, I know you will do so much. No matter where you stand amongst your fellow plants, I will forever love you and only you. My loyal, resilient, little ivy. My knight.

-o7

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contemplative-prayer-collec-blog

Hope

Centering Prayer is a practice of hope. As we quietly pray, we practice saying “yes” to God’s invitation, giving Him our attention above all else – in all else. Centering ourselves in God’s presence we may not realize that we make a statement. That action is a statement of hope. We are declaring, “I trust You more than anyone or anything else! My hope is in You!” No matter what life may look like – we keep returning to the One who says, “I’m here. I’ve always been here. I’ve got you!”

It’s can be hard at times. The world may seem as if it is out of control. Circumstances may feel crazy – even threatening. But, as we pray, little by little, we learn we are most secure centered on the One who is always present. We find Him in everything. His presence shapes our view of Reality. He is present. That’s our constant. He is trustworthy. In this we find hope.

Please read the words below from Eugene Peterson about hope, and then take a moment to experience a musical moment of worship from Vertical Church in Chicago, IL.

Hoping does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation.

It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions.

It is not compelled to work away at keeping up appearances with a bogus spirituality.

It is the opposite of desperate and panicky manipulations, of scurrying and worrying.

And hoping is not dreaming. It is not spinning an illusion or fantasy to protect us from our boredom or our pain.

It means a confident, alert expectation that God will do what he said he will do.

It is imagination put in the harness of faith. It is a willingness to let God do it his way and in his time.

It is the opposite of making plans that we demand that God put into effect, telling him both how and when to do it.

That is not hoping in God but bullying God.

I pray to GOD – my life a prayer – and wait for what he’ll say and do. My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning. [1]

[1] E. H. Peterson. (1980). A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society, p. 132.

contemplative-prayer-collec-blog

CP and the “Silent Fog”

I’ve got a wonderful quote for you. Have you ever had those moments of frustration in CP? Have you ever been irritated at your seeming inability to see and hear God when you are truly making an effort to say yes to Him? Have there been times when you couldn’t seem to penetrate that “silent fog” between you and the One you love? Thomas Merton has some thoughts about this very situation. “Suppose your meditation takes you to the point where you are baffled and repelled by the cloud that surrounds God?… Far from realizing him, you begin to realize nothing more than your own helplessness to know him, and you begin to think that meditation is something altogether hopeless and impossible. And yet the more helpless you are, the more you seem to desire to see him and to know him. The tension between your desires and your failure generates in you a painful longing for God which nothing seems able to satisfy. Do you think your meditation has failed? On the contrary, this bafflement, this darkness, this anguish of helpless desire is a fulfillment of meditation. For if meditation aims above all at establishing in your soul a vital contact of love with the living God, then as long as it only produces images and ideas and affections that you can understand, feel and appreciate, it is not yet doing its full quota of work. But when it gets beyond the level of your understanding … it is really bringing you close to God."

– Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

London calling

1 John 2:6 - Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

Eden Park, Auckland, N Z

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Rugby Championship 2023

Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needi

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“You are not accidental. The world needs you. Without you, something will be missing in existence and nobody can replace it.”

— (via amargedom)

james-webb-space-telescope

Check out this binary pair of rare stars in the constellation of Cygnus, located 5,600 light-years away. See those rings of light? Those rings are actually dust that's emitted when the two stars interact - sending shells of dust out into the space surrounding them over time. The dust is actually glowing in infrared, which is why Webb's MIRI cam can capture them in stunning detail. These stars, consisting of a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 140) and its massive O-type star companion, are what is known as a colliding wind binary. Their elliptical orbit means that they don't orbit in circles around each other, but rather in an oval-shape. When these two stars are closest to each other (still 30% greater than the distance between Earth and the Sun), they become close enough that their powerful winds collide. These colliding winds also induce episodes of dust formation as the material in the colliding stellar wind cools. This process can be seen in the animation below.

The dust is a form of carbon, which absorbs ultraviolet light from the two stars. This heats the dust, causing it to re-emit thermal radiation – which is what is observed by Webb in infrared wavelengths. The dust is then blown outward by the stellar wind, resulting in the expansion of the partial dust shells. They expand and cool as they are blown outward, losing heat and density. What you're looking at in Webb's image is a bit like a series of bubbles; the edge of each dust shell is more visible because you're looking at a denser concentration of material due to perspective.

Because the binary star's orbit has a 7.94-year period, the wind collision and dust production occur like clockwork every 7.94 years. This means you can count the rings of the nebula around the binary, like tree rings, to determine the age of the outermost visible dust shell.

Around 20 rings are visible, which means you can see around 160 years' worth of dust shells in the Webb image.

Every time you give to the poor you make a loan to the Lord. Don’t worry—you’ll be repaid in full for all the good you’ve done.

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death

does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil

The LORD your God is with you; his power gives you victory. The LORD will take delight in you, and in his love he will give you new life. He

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