The Denver Tugboat

The Denver Tugboat
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Denver Tugboat

Denver Tugboat
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

See picture below

St. Charles Food

St. Charles Food
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

St. Charles Farmers Market

St. Charles Farmers Market
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Nobody eats like Louisanaians.

Fashion Plantation

Fashion Plantation
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

A nearby landmark.

Car

Car tire bad. Am at Tire Kingdom in Boutte, La. Watching I Love Lucy on
TV Land. Hoping they fix it soon.

Holiday Inn Decatur Al

Holiday Inn Decatur Al
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Janet and I spent the first night we were married here.

Saturn 1b rocket

Saturn 1b rocket
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

I worked on this from 1967 to 69.

Saturn 1B

Saturn 1B
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Alabama Rest Area

Alabama Rest Area
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

I am at the Alabama rest area. I can not believe how cold it is and I

only brought short sleeve shirts. Thr rocket in the background is a

Saturn 1B. It was used in the beginning of the space program. I worked

as an engineer on it between 1967 and 1999.

MY BLOG : http://danphillips.blogspot.com

Alabama Rest Area

Alabama Rest Area
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

I am at the Alabama rest area. I can not believe how cold it is and I

only brought short sleeve shirts. Thr rocket in the background is a

Saturn 1B. It was used in the beginning of the space program. I worked

as an engineer on it between 1967 and 1999.

Leaving

Leaving late. 7:17 am. How come so many things pop up that need doing
when we are ready to leave?

New Orleans A Journey

I am eating breakfast. Cinnamon toast. Grape nut flakes, milk. Coffee,
orange juice. I am excited! I am taking a 3 day vacation from work and
visiting my Aunt Jenny in New Orleans. I have not seen her in over 6
years, far too long. You are welcome to folow the journey with me.

Tennessee Evening

Tennessee Evening
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Sitting alone. Reading. Enjoying the sunset.

Tennessee Evening

Tennessee Evening
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Confronting the Whiteness

The blank page. SILENCE !! The whiteness stirring. Spring has arrived. Birth of new leaves beckons. Words grow more slowly. They awake by degrees. Silence, then a sputtering of syllables, then time, and a beginning.

This weekend I saw two movies. Reign on Us was Friday Night. A delicious movie. I wish I knew what model of earphones Adam Sandler wore. He is on my early list for an academy award nomination. Excellence. Sunday afternoon the "Saturday Night Group" went and saw Amazing Grace. What a spectacular story. Change comes slowly, often by ways unseen -- the unseen hand.

CHOSEN

From 1 Chronicles 17:7. "I took you (David) from tending sheep in the pasture and selected you to be the leader of my people Israel." From the backside of the desert came the leader for a great nation. So you think God can't find you to use you? Think Again ! He is always searching for the ONE for the task before Him.

TODAY

Today we find out whether our first grandchild will be a girl or a boy. Excitement !!

Thomas Merton Retreat Milford OHIO - April 27-29

It is a little over a month until the Thomas Merton Retreat I will be leading in Ohio. I am excited about the opportunity. I hope you will consider going and coming and joining with us.

A note about my approach to a Merton Retreat. So many of the conferences related to Merton deal with all sorts of issues, like war, peace, integration, other religions, sidelines along the way. It is as if Merton was the answer to everything. How people dream up some of the things about Merton I will never know. But this retreat will focus on Meditation, Contemplation, and Meditation. I once heard Abbot John Eudes say, "I believe the earlier writings of Merton were the most important." He said this after someone had just spoken on Merton and his reactions to the peace movement.

So, there you have it. My pet Merton peeve. I believe he gained things in silence and meditation that set the stage for his writings and made him aware of God's dealing with his life. That is the Merton I enjoy reading and studying.

In this retreat you will come away with a closer reading of God's work in your own life not a guidebook for declaring war. So there you have it.

For more details check out Mertonretreats.

Or Milford Retreat Center.

Please be praying about your plans and if God wants you to come and Bless Us.

Bro. Dan

A Day - Reflecting

Details: Sunny. 49 degrees.

The warmth of a morning fire is a praying experience. An airplane flies north. I am outside in the shade reading Pennington's Lectio Divina and drinking McDonald's coffee.

I find myself in a mood to go somewhere -- like a vacation. The bell rings 8 times in the distance. I hear planes, a distant interstate, the train whistle's howl and dream of reliving Big Sur.

I am reminded of Tres Dias. I struggled out of bed, got my Bible, found some coffee and sat at a table in the cafeteria alone. First, though, I always went by the fire for warmth and perhaps a quietly spoken hello.

When the smokers return I go to my cell and read Merton's poem, "The Trappist Abbey: Matins," and wake in the cloisters of the lonely night.

On my knees I pray realizing this day is a gift. A night of refreshing sleep, a day of opportunity. "Come to me and I will refresh you," says the lectio.

"Sitting with the word of God, listening, is a time of communion even if the Lord seems absent." (Pennington). I have given you "authority" says the master. To heal the sick, to be thankful for the day. Welcome!

I walk the halls of sickness beside the offices where the orders are given. I pray. Waiting for the elevator a lady asked me (because my hands were folded), "were you praying." "Yes, I pray someone times for those who come down these halls," I say.

I have left my glasses in the cell. I will return to find them.Remember Dan, "The singing bells wake the sun."

We have found, we have found,
the places where the rain is deep and silent.
We have found the fountains of the spring,
where the Lord emerges refreshed every morning!
He has laid His hand upon our shoulders,
and our heart, like a bird, has spoken! (Merton)

INTERCESSIONS

Presence

His unfailing Presence is the surest anchor for our minds and hands in the storm of distraction and temptation by which we must be purified.(Thanks Don Brennan Warren Mi)

The Dying Irish Nun

The Dying Irish Nun

The wise old Mother Superior from county Tipperary was dying. The nuns gathered around her bed trying to make her comfortable. They gave hersome warm milk to drink, but she refused it. Then one nun took the glass back to the kitchen.

Remembering a bottle of Irish whiskey they had received as a gift the previous Christmas, she opened and poured a generous amount into the warm milk.When she walked back at Mother Superior's bed, she held the glass to her lips. Mother drank a little, then a little more. Before they knew it, she had drunk the whole glass down to the last drop.

Mother, the nuns asked with earnest, "please give us some wisdom before you die."

She raised herself up in bed with a pious look on her face and said, "Don't sell that cow !"

Poustinia

POUSTINIA

Poustinia stands for prayer, penance, mortification, solitude, silence, offered in the spirit of love, atonement, and reparation to God. Poustinia is a Russian word meaning “Desert.” In many places it is a small out of the way place where a hermit prays, or people can stop by and meditate, like a prayer and meditation chapel at a church or hospital.


A poustinia is a place where you go to meet Christ in joyful solitude.

There is nothing to fear, for Christ is perfect love and perfect love casts out fear.

The poustinia is a prayer house which you enter to be alone with God, for the length of time approved.

The only book you should read is the Bible.

The poustinia is a place not only of a rendezvous with Christ, not only a time for solitude and silence, but also a time of penance, for when you lift your heart to the Lord in prayer you should, in a manner of speaking, lift both spiritual arms of penance and prayer, like Moses on the mountain.

Don’t get excited about it. Above all, be at peace, because you enter into a visit with Christ, into his solitude, peacefully. Set your soul in patience, waiting for the person who is taking you to the poustinia.

"Truly the desert will strip you. The Lord of the Desert will do that too. Truly you will be tempted even as he had been tempted. You will suffer as he has suffered, but you will also be filled with tranquillity –the tranquillity of God’s order."It is to be remembered that you are going to the desert for the following reasons:

TO FAST

TO LIVE IN SILENCE

TO PRAY SO THAT YOU MIGHT DIE TO YOURSELF QUICKER, SO THAT CHRIST MIGHT GROW IN YOU FASTER. SO THAT YOU MIGHT GIVE HIM TO THE WORLD FASTER TOO—THIS WORLD THAT IS SO HUNGRY FOR HIM

TO ATONE FOR YOUR SINS AND THOSE OF OTHERS

TO PRAY FOR MANKIND

TO PRAY FOR PEACE

TO PRAY FOR THE MISSIONS AND UNITY AMONG CHRISTIANS IN THE CHURCH.

TO BECOME SAINTS FASTER, THAT IS LOVERS OF CHRIST IN TRUTH AND IN DEED

TO IMITATE CHRIST

TO SAVE YOUR SOUL AND THAT OF OTHER’S

TO LEARN TOTAL SURRENDER TO GOD QUICKER.


PLEASE REMEMBER TO PRAY FOR US WHILE YOU ARE HERE.

Richard Jeni

I deal with death as much as anyone but a death today really really upset me. the death of Richard Jeni. He was a comic and movie star.

Several years ago, shortly after my daughter had graduated from High School, we took her and a friend to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands for a week. One day we went to one of the fine beaches on the northwest side of St. Thomas. As I was swimming I began talking to one of the swimmers. It was Richard Jeni. He told me about his career, the places in New York City where he did his comic routines. We just had a friendly, nice conversation. Ever since I have kept up with his career.

It is sorta funny but a couple of weeks ago I had an odd thought, "Dan, you have never met a movie star." Odd-- Now I realize I did!

Week in Review

Most of week I have had a cold and cough. Started Thursday and by
Saturday all I could do was cough. After staying in bed Sat and Sunday
am better. Lots of sickness this time of year. I have always felt that
the change of seasons is one reason, especially in my case.

I have been re-reading Lectio Divina by M. Basil Pennington. I learn
something new every time I read it. March madness is on the horizon. Its
time to work on taxes, cut grass, put furniture outside.

Quote from Coming to the quiet:

The word transforms our listening--

"Reading concerns the surface, meditation concerns the depth, prayer
concerns request for what is desired, contemplation concerns delight in
discovered sweetness." (Guigo II)

Godly Men

"Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him." (Act 8:1) Stephen was a leader, a teacher, and one who lived by what he believed.

It is Thursday and I have a cold with a minor cough. It seems like I get one of these at every change of season. Have hit a lull time. Need to fix my radio antenna because in a week or so the leaves will return and make it more difficult. I need to get antenna about 10 feet higher. Need a new vacuum cleaner. Mine not working very well.

Weather has been nicer. A little cool. But sun is shining. Am sure any snow is gone. Maybe a half an inch this year. How I miss it.

Ending Time

ABSOLUTELY EXAUSTED. Preached wonderful friend Bonnie Austin's funeral today. What a saintly Christian lady. Prayers for her husband Jack.

Tres Dias weekend meaningful. Finally unpacked bags. It is so intense. "Like a walk in the park" someone said. Someone then said "it is more like swimming the english channel." With out a doubt more lives are changed in Tres Dias than anything I
know.Oh for a peaceful rest. Thanks for prayers.