PROGRESS

I don’t remember it always being this way, but it seems we have developed a corporate mentality that says results are not good unless they are immediate. There is a time for everything. As Scriptures points out:

Ecclesiastes 3 NRSVCE –

Everything Has Its Time

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:² a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

One of the lessons I have learned, thankfully before I die, is that God moves at His pace, not mine. God is not someone we can Tweet and expect an immediate reply. This idea is paramount in my image of me sitting on a park bench in the dead of Winter, straining for Christ to show up and sit next to me. Even though God is everywhere and always with me, it is my anticipation of the coming of the Lord that I must never take for granted. God response comes when I make myself acceptable through humility and obedience to God’s will. How long this takes is unclear. I perform the Cistercian practices to put myself in the presence of God and wait for whatever comes.

REFLECTIONS ON PRAYER AND SOME TIMEFRAMES OF HOW LONG WE HAVE WAITED FOR THINGS TO HAPPEN

THE UNIVERSE- How old is the universe? What is the oldest thing we know of? https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Oldest+Object+in+the+Universe&&view=detail&mid=CFAA2378EB475BE5E877CFAA2378EB475BE5E877&&FORM=VRDGAR

Based on what I have read on Youtube, what we call The Universe is 13.5 billion years old. Yet, I am writing about this today so from the beginning to now is there for a reason. I just realized it right now and made that part of how I look at how all things fit together into one. I think back that, from the beginning of time, God created all that is so that I might be an adopted son of the Father.

THE EARTH — How old is the Earth? Within the framework of the universe, the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. Watch Youtube on the age of the Earth. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=how+old+is+the+earth+youtube&&view=detail&mid=86ADC0DDCC09E669516086ADC0DDCC09E6695160&&FORM=VRDGAR

We were not there to see the beginning of Earth’s formation. Does that mean it did not take place? It is the classic dilemma if a tree in the forest falls and you don’t hear it, did it really fall? Logical thinkers like to do mental gymnastics with these ideas. Why is the Earth one of the very few places where any life can exist? Coincidence?

ADAM AND EVE — Whether you hold that the Genesis story was an actual historical event or an ancient myth describing the human condition as it affects our relationship with God, you are reading it. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01129a.htm

The Genesis event foreshadows the coming of Christ, the second Adam. The Christ event gives rise to our adoption as sons and daughters of the Father, one of the most significant events and also one that would not have happened had there been no platform upon which to build our ability to reason. Do you see a pattern here?

CHRIST —
If any of these events did not take place, we are not only not here, but would not be able to give glory to the Father through the Son. Christ was a historical figure who lived among us. Read Philippians 2:5.

THE CHURCH — The interface between Christ and reality is the Church, his mystical body, the living body in each age as we attempt to have in us the mind of Christ Jesus. This is the Church Universal.

YOU — All of this formation, all of this time is for you to be able to live your life for the next reality, to know, love, and serve God in this life so we can be with God forever.

Lay Cistercian contemplative practices and charisms help those who use them to have in them the mind of Christ Jesus here and now.

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