My Prayer

                                 My Prayer

When the twilight is gone and no songbirds are singing
When the twilight is gone you come into my heart
And here in my heart you will stay, while I pray

My prayer is to linger with you
At the end of the day in a dream that's divine
My prayer is a rapture in blue
With the world far away and your lips close to mine

Tonight while our hearts are aglow
Oh tell me the words that I'm longing to know

My prayer and the answer you give
May they still be the same for as long as we live
That you'll always be there at the end of my prayer

                                By the Platters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDlcqhlzDqQ

When I begin to pray, usually out on my backporch, but really anywhere and anytime, I usually begin by reading some text from the Gospel of Mark, or John.  Then I picture Jesus coming across the hills to the Sea of Galilee at his first meeting with those who are to become his disciples and saying to them:
    
     "The present moment is the right time, change the way you
      think  for the Kingdom of God is within you! 
      Believe THIS 'good news'".[Mk1:16]

Then I say to Jesus: "I do believe this good news. Not because I can see it, hear it, smell it, touch it or taste it; nor because I can imagine it nor conceive of it; but only because you said it."

I then focus all of my intention WITHIN and begin to focus on Jesus and the Father within me.

When I was younger I met young women and grew to know them. At first, I would be very nervous and exceedingly self-conscious in their presence. My hand perspired and I felt like a stiff, unable to relax. I rehearsed what I was going to sound like before making a phone call to them to ask if they would like to go out on a date.  After a while, I began to suspect that they liked me and I began to relax. If I liked them as well, I would be very careful to listen to them and laugh with them about things we shared. Eventually, if things progressed as I hoped, we would grow affectionate and talk about everything, even the deepest interior thoughts and feelings, hopes and aspirations for we knew we could trust each other. As our love grew, we would eventually fall into deep silences, not of insecurity as before, but of deepening affection. 

As I grew much older, I grew to want to be closer to God in a similar way. The first step was to believe, really believe that God was WITHIN me and that God loved unlovable me. Jesus' words helped me to believe this because I firmly believed that Jesus was not a liar, and He could be trusted. I firmly believe that God was not only WITHIN me, but that God was WITHIN everyone else as well.  God's being WITHIN us is God's gift to us. My gratitude to God for what God has done began to fill up my mind and heart and so my prayer began to consist in being in this silent room with all the lights off and accepting God's presence WITHIN me. This is my prayer.

A few years ago, I heard a song sung by Alison Krause and Union Station which became my favorite. The lyrics are:
                                  
                         "A Living Prayer"

In this world I walk alone with no place to call my home
But there's one who holds my hand
The rugged road through barren lands
The way is dark, the road is steep
But He's become my eyes to see
The strength to climb, my griefs to bear
The Savior lives inside me there

In your love I find release
A haven from my unbelief
Take my life and let me be
A living prayer my God to thee

In these trials of life I find
Another voice inside my mind
He comforts me and bids me live
Inside the love the Father gives

In your love I find release
A haven from my unbelief
Take my life and let me be
A living prayer my God to thee
take my life and let me be
A living prayer my God to thee

 
             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gmVzbjxwl4

Astrophysical- Spirituality II

          Astrophysical- Spirituality

                                 

                                                            

                                                      

                                                         

                  

          Approximately 13,700,000,000 years ago, the first thing to happen, happened. According to the best current astrophysical theory, energy of an infinite quantity was emitted from a point of no dimensions. Since that point had no dimensions, it did not occupy space, and indeed, there was no space before that, and even more startlingly, there was no “before” before that, i.e., no time, no space. Thus there was no thing in that “now”, “present”.

For any person to be able to “conceive” of a such a state, that person would have had to have had  a sensible experience of that reality prior to his/her being able to conceive of it. Thus, for a person to conceive of a “whale”, that person must have had a previous sensory experience of a whale, either in the flesh or through viewing a photo or sketch of one. A person can also construct a concept by having experienced an object in parts, i.e., one can conceive of a “flying green whale” only because one has had a previous experience of “whaleness”, “flight”, and “greenness”.

 Thus, God, if there is a God,  the reality must be humanly inconceivable; unless this “conception” was by God Him or Herself. This is what Christians believe:  That the God Whom we cannot conceive, conceived of Himself in the womb of a young Jewish girl with her permission, and took on all the limitations of humanness.    

And when we ask “Why should we believe this?”,   one can only come to this conclusion if  someone absolutely trustworthy has told us to believe it; and since we absolutely trust that person, we can say “I believe you.”

But what person do we hold to be so absolutely trustworthy? We might say, “Our mother”. I certainly would hope so, but some mothers are not trustworthy. Some may believe, but in light of events in their lives, they may entertain doubts. So whom should we trust then?   Well, after reading all about Jesus, his life, his teachings and the way he died, we might reasonably say, “Jesus”.

And that is what Jesus apparently asks of us according to the accounts in the NT wherein he comes into Galilee as an unknown adult and says: “ The present moment is the right time, change the way you think about reality for the Kingdom  of God is WITHIN you. Believe this good news.” [Mark 1:14-16]

                                                                         Charlie Mc

                                                                                                                                                           

         

         

Euthanasia?

I believe that as one ages, it is very advantageous to know how to "go into your private room, and there pray to your (loving) Father, and your Father, who knows what you say in your inner room, will reward you." We all have this inner room and the key to using it is to BELIEVE that God indwells, that the Kingdom of God is WITHIN us; and within everybody else. This is how we can relate intimately with God and deal most Christlike with all others. Why believe this? Not because we can see it, hear it, smell it, touch it or taste it; nor imagine it nor conceive it; but we can believe it, because we believe Jesus, who never lies, said so. 

How do we learn this? Perhaps a suggestion might be to read some of the works of Thomas Keating or Thomas Merton on Contemplative Prayer. The habit of praying and living a contemplative life has brought a new and wonderful joy into the lives of monks, elderly, infirm and even in prisoners with life sentences so that the idea of suicide becomes unthinkable

 My favorite time of day is sitting silently on my backporch and BEING with God within me.

I have diabetes, 85% Kidney failure, Cancer operations on my bladder, my colon with a total collectomy, a tumor growing outside my bladder and leg neuropathy requiring a wheelchair, but I am, thank God, grateful and at peace and very busy reading and writing a blog. More people should be given help along the lines in which I have been helped so much. Thank you.

                                                                         Charlie Mc