PRAY FOR LIGHT

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PRAYER AT NIGHTFALL

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O Lord,

support us all the day long,

until the shadows lengthen,

and the evening comes,

and the busy world is hushed,

and the fever of life is over,

and our work is done.

Then in thy mercy,

grant us a safe lodging,

and a holy rest,

and peace at the last.

Amen.

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Book of Common Prayer

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LOOKING THROUGH THE KALEIDISCOPE

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I had a blog up on Kaleider software

some time back, and thought it was time

to do something more, just for a hoot.

Here's some simple mandalas using it.

You can take any photo, graphic, etc. and

create an unlimited number of variations -

various kaliediscope patterns,

mirror and funnel imagery, and more,

either as full-frame screen rectangles,

circular mandalas (think T-shirts) like these,

and whatever else you could dream up using

a little imagination.

The files on the images above

are large enough for a screen saver,

or whatever. Click away if you like 'em.

The textile-looking ones are from

photos of Navajo rugs.

No, I've not been paid to do this -

I just enjoy creative software that's

inexpensive and really neat.

Find out more about the fun:

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http://whizical.com/

I'll get a video piece using the software

up when I have the time - wild stuff...!

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OLD TIME RELIGION AND AMERICAN CULTURE

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From: SELLING GOD - American Religion

in the Marketplace of Culture,

by R. Laurence Moore

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Religious leaders had started national life

aware that they had to deal with competition.

They said so in many forums, and in one way or

another they declared it a problem.

All procedures were in the beginning ad hoc.

Innovation was a forced option. One locus

of competition was between denominations,

but in some ways that was the easy part of it.

The unexpected proliferation and prosperity

of new religious groups aided church leaders

generally. Looming as a bigger problem was

competition with non-religious enterprises on

the cultural landscape that attracted people's

attention and energies. Many of those

enterprises were changing the nature of leisure

in the United States. Increasingly, they turned

casual pastimes into organized businesses.

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Religious leaders entered a long struggle

to try to control the direction that commercial

culture took. In many ways, religion's determined

intrusion into the marketplace of culture made

that arena the central moral battleground of

American life. What religious leaders did early

in national history, they continued to do later.

They opposed many new forms of commercial

culture as they came along. They tried to set up

attractive, alternative diversions under church

sponsorship. They fought with cultural

entrepreneurs who resisted the idea of running

their businesses according to guidelines dictated

by a Protestant moral economy.

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These efforts gave American religious life a

distinctive quality that was radically different

from what it had been in the colonial era.

For one thing, almost all of them committed

religious leaders to a process of popularization.

They had to attract people to what they were doing.

Whether they were trying to clamp controls

on the marketplace of culture or not,

they found themselves using the language

of selling and commodification.

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THOUGHTS ON PRAYER - 4

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Mysticism, as the technique of the

consciousness of the presence of God,

is altogether praiseworthy, but when such

practices lead to social isolation and culminate

in religious fanaticism, they are all but reprehensible.

Altogether too frequently that which the overwrought

mystic evaluates as divine inspiration is the uprisings

of his own deep mind. The contact of the mortal mind

with its indwelling Adjuster, while often favored by

devoted meditation, is more frequently facilitated

by wholehearted and loving service in unselfish

ministry to one's fellow creatures.

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The great religious teachers and prophets

of past ages were not extreme mystics. They

were God-knowing men and women who best

served their God by unselfish ministry to their

fellow mortals. Jesus often took his apostles away

by themselves for short periods to engage in meditation

and prayer, but for the most part he kept them in

service-contact with the multitudes. The soul

of man requires spiritual exercise as well as

spiritual nourishment.

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Religious ecstasy is permissible when

resulting from sane antecedents. but such

experiences are more often the outgrowth of

purely emotional influences than a manifestation

of deep spiritual character. Religious persons must

not regard every vivid psychologic presentiment

and every intense emotional experience as a divine

revelation or a spiritual communication.

Genuine spiritual ecstasy is usually associated

with great outward calmness and almost perfect

emotional control. But true prophetic vision

is a superpsychologic presentiment.

Such visitations are not pseudo hallucinations,

neither are they trancelike ecstacies.

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The Urantia Book

Part III, 91, 7

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ISRAEL GETS PUSHY AGAIN - NOTHING NEW HERE

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From TIMESONLINE, January 21, 2010

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Israel has stopped issuing work permits to

foreign aid workers in the West Bank and

East Jerusalem, sparking fears about the future

of relief operations in the Palestinian territories.

The move came amid pressure from right-wing

Israeli groups to crack down on non-governmental

organizations, which are often seen as having a

political, anti-Israeli bias.

Some left-wing Israeli groups have accused Israel

of "declaring war" on foreign groups such as

Human Rights Watch and Oxfam, which have been

critical of Israel's blockade of Gaza.

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Read the entire story here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6995812.ece