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ThothStudio (JCofMars)'s avatar

I am going to read more and more of your essays and contemplate them and learn to pray in one way or another. I hope that one day I can meet you in person, too. I’m 66 and feel as though I’m just getting started. Tabula rasa.

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Jim Davidson's avatar

Methuselah lived to be 969 so you have the best centuries ahead of you.

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ThothStudio (JCofMars)'s avatar

Haha! Thank you, that’s kind of how I like to think of it, too.

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Jim Davidson's avatar

In 2005 a friend of mine, Aubrey de Grey, spoke at a gathering of freedom enthusiasts in Colorado. He said that the first person who would live to be a thousand years old had already been born. In happier times, I donated some funds to his foundation, which he named after Methuselah.

Let's add that to the list, very long lives. While we are designing the future we want for ourselves and our posterity.

I have a cousin born in 1916 whose soul passed away in 2016. He made it a little past the century mark. You may have seen him in the film "Sleepless in Seattle." He played the dad at the holiday supper table in one of the early scenes. Kevin O'Morrison.

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ThothStudio (JCofMars)'s avatar

That’s cool. I never saw the movie. It’s nice to know there were, and likely still are, good people in filmdom. Must have been an amazing 100 years. My father was born in 1913 and passed a long time ago now.

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Heather Boylen's avatar

I am a Christian and I pray often but I worry I don’t do it well. Other people seem to have a relationship with God that I struggle with. Do you have any suggestions to help me be better at it? I feel like I am missing something.

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Jim Davidson's avatar

Each soul is different, which illustrates the infinite creativity of God. So what works for me may not be best for you. My own pattern of prayer has changed a great deal.

One thought is to pray a certain set of prayers every day at about the same time. About the time all the recent mess began, in late 2019, I felt led by the Holy Spirit to the prayers on this page:

https://www.theworkofgod.org/Devotns/bridget_12years.htm

So I began to pray those prayers. It is a set of 21 prayers in seven groups, structured around the Lord’s prayer and focusing on the times identified in Scripture when Jesus shed his blood. My habit for some years has been to pray these seven prayers before my evening meal. Presently, I take food only that one time a day.

You might also call to mind the Apostle’s creed, which is the prayer with which we begin the rosary. I encourage the carrying of the rosary and the praying of the original fifteen mysteries, known as the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries. The rosary is a symbol of God’s divine love and it is a weapon against evil.

These are a few thoughts that come to mind. Please let me know your views and experiences as they arise. Thank you. God bless you. Amen.

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