{"id":26999,"date":"2026-05-19T09:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26999"},"modified":"2026-05-19T10:38:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:38:34","slug":"26999","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26999","title":{"rendered":"Lift Your Heart to God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Abide | Aaron Williams &amp; Jon Reddick (Lyric)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VGUUfGXMhGs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Tuesday, May 19, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>CAC Dean of Faculty Carmen Acevedo Butcher translated&nbsp;<\/em>T<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">he Cloud of Unknowing<em>, the foundational text for Centering Prayer.<\/em><\/span><em> <strong>Contemplative practice creates space for us to be with God, after which we return to our daily lives and commitment<\/strong>s. The anonymous author of&nbsp;<\/em>The Cloud<em>&nbsp;encourages beginners to enter contemplation with these simple instructions:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lift up your heart to God with a gentle stirring of love. Focus on him alone. Want him, and not anything he\u2019s made. Think on nothing but him. Don\u2019t let anything else run through your mind and will. Here\u2019s how. Forget what you know. Forget everything God made and everybody who exists and everything that\u2019s going on in the world, until your thoughts and emotions aren\u2019t focused on reaching toward anything\u2026. Let them be. For a moment don\u2019t care about anything<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone on earth has been helped by contemplation in wonderful ways. You can\u2019t know how much\u2026. So stop hesitating. Do this work until you feel the delight of it. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The author urges beginner contemplatives to <strong>welcome the temporary experience of \u201cunknowing\u201d <\/strong>that takes place in this type of prayer:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first time you practice contemplation, you\u2019ll only experience a darkness, like a cloud of unknowing. You won\u2019t know what this is.&nbsp; You\u2019ll only know that in your will you feel a simple reaching out to God. <strong>You must also know that this darkness and this cloud will always be between you and your God, whatever you do.<\/strong> They will always keep you from seeing him clearly by the light of understanding in your intellect and will block you from feeling him in the sweetness of love in your emotions. So <strong>be sure you make your home in this darkness. Stay there as long as you can\u2026. It\u2019s the closest you can get to God here on earth, by waiting in this darkness and in this cloud. <\/strong>[2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For Acevedo Butcher, contemplation is an essential practice of our time, enabling us to meet the challenging conditions of our lives with greater wisdom and compassion:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need contemplation because, as our globe gets more crowded by the hour, more and more we act like elbow-to-elbow passengers in cheap coach seats on a commuter flight\u2026. Who doesn\u2019t rush through the day? Who never feels the pressure to produce? How often are you in cyberspace? <strong>Our new frantic pace is like poison to our holding hands with those we love. That is where contemplation comes in. It reconnects us to ourselves, to God, and to others. It helps us learn to forgive and heal our souls\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the first sixteen centuries of the Christian church, contemplative prayer was&nbsp;<em>the&nbsp;<\/em>goal of Christian spirituality, and <strong>now in our own time of transition and upheaval, \u2026 we are returning to our roots. Contemplative prayer is more relevant than ever before<\/strong>. More and more of us are practicing <strong>this ancient form of prayer and finding peace in a world of war, extreme political divide, epidemics, terrorism, technology, overcrowding, noise, inequality, and a Church in need of humility. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>============================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From Diana Butler Bass&#8217; Sunday Musings<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"453\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-27002\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image.png 453w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-300x209.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 453px) 100vw, 453px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMaple Spiral\u201d by Freeman Patterson. Please visit the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/fea092df-3396-47ca-bbd2-e3ff0513eb54?j=eyJ1IjoiMmRrajIifQ.ND0qR5RKsmVnltuWgIlyr3BY7uwq2Kt9ZzX29UJK4cg\">photographer\u2019s website<\/a>&nbsp;to view his prints, workshops, and books. You can also discover more about his work in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/e232d5b4-94fa-4c80-bc98-98000c130ad5?j=eyJ1IjoiMmRrajIifQ.ND0qR5RKsmVnltuWgIlyr3BY7uwq2Kt9ZzX29UJK4cg\">this short film<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a recent trip to New Brunswick, my host arranged for me to meet&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/260c8e97-9481-4856-b159-e1e853657505?j=eyJ1IjoiMmRrajIifQ.ND0qR5RKsmVnltuWgIlyr3BY7uwq2Kt9ZzX29UJK4cg\">Freeman Patterson<\/a>, a world-renown Canadian photographer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I confess that I hadn\u2019t heard of him. But my friend knew how I love art, gardens, and theology \u2014 and that Freeman\u2019s interests combine all three. And so I did what any decent person would do in advance of such a meeting. I looked him up on the internet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Richard was also on this trip. As we pursued Freeman\u2019s website, the photograph above caught his attention. \u201cThis looks like an illustration of your work,\u201d Richard said. \u201cYou could have used it in your powerpoint in last night\u2019s lecture!\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He passed me his phone. On the screen was a breathtaking image of a spiral, whirling oranges, yellows, and greens with a single cobalt blue crescent at its center. \u201cYou\u2019re right,\u201d I said. \u201cIt is stunning. What do you think it is?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We didn\u2019t know. We couldn\u2019t figure it out.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next day, we had the privilege of spending an afternoon at his home and garden in rural New Brunswick. The conversation was delightful and wide-ranging, and, as often happens, we discovered threads that connected our seemingly very distant lives. I finally asked him about the spiral photograph we\u2019d seen online. \u201cWhat it is? Something like a fiddlehead fern?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He laughed. \u201cNo. It is a maple tree!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA maple tree \u2014 one maple tree?\u201d I asked incredulously. \u201cYes. A maple tree in the autumn, <strong>taken in a series of exposures, moving the camera slightly in each frame. <\/strong>The blue is the sky above.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He shared with us a little bit about how he creates his photographs, with <strong>double and multiple exposures, slight camera movements, and widened apertures.<\/strong> We looked at the prints he had displayed in his home, thumbed through his books, and walked in his woodland garden. Inwardly, I marveled. <strong>This wasn\u2019t about just making photographs or creating a garden. This was his vision of both everything and himself. It wasn\u2019t just about a camera. It was about&nbsp;<em>his<\/em>&nbsp;open aperture. He could see deeper and further and differently. The spiral was far more than a cleverly exposed maple tree \u2014 it was his journey, wisdom and wonder, and an image of the oneness of all things.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That maple tree was a living spiral, an entirely different vision of the Tree of Life. There, in the garden.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We didn\u2019t really want to leave.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>*****<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Does the Gospel of John ever drive you crazy?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It probably should because today is one of those days. <strong>This is not the work of a linear thinker.<\/strong> The text whirls about with words, pulling ideas from here and there, weaving them together to create an effect, an experience, an uncommunicable vision. The Jesus in John\u2019s story doesn\u2019t tell parables. <strong>He doesn\u2019t offer sermons or moral lessons. Instead, he roams about in mystical experiences and waxes poetic<\/strong>. Some scholars refer to John\u2019s style as&nbsp;<em>paroimia<\/em>&nbsp;(\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03bf\u03b9\u03bc\u03af\u03b1), a <strong>Greek term for \u201csideways\u201d truths usually expressed in allegory, riddles, or metaphors.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is this? All these words about glory and the world and oneness?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I mean honestly:&nbsp;<em>What is this?&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAll mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You could try to explain that in a thousand ways and probably never come close to what it is.&nbsp;<em>Who is this Jesus? Who is going where? What, truly, is his relationship with \u201cHoly Father\u201d? And who is one with whom?&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve heard <strong>genuinely tortured sermons on this text<\/strong> over the years. Some poor pastor trying to make sense of this as narrative, a story with a beginning, middle, and end, with an arc and plot lines, and clearly drawn characters. But it is not that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is, instead, a sideways truth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More like a spiral.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That recent visit, surrounded by photographs and woodlands, books and water vistas, opened my soul-aperture a bit wider. I wasn\u2019t just meeting a well-known photographer; I was encountering a gifted teacher, a seer the world. As we talked about all manner of things and walked in the garden, he was showing me how to <strong>appreciate small movements, to see differently, to layer multiple views, and to let more light in. It wasn\u2019t narrative; it wasn\u2019t didactic; it wasn\u2019t polemic. It was sideways.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A spiral.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think that is the Gospel of John. Like \u201cMaple Spiral,\u201d the <strong>whole thing is a series of multiple exposures by modest repositioning to create a single image<\/strong>. From John\u2019s magisterial opening:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To the moment when a grief-stricken Mary tries to embrace her dearest friend:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus said to her, \u2018Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?\u2019 Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, \u2018Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.\u2019 Jesus said to her, \u2018Mary!\u2019 She turned and said to him in Hebrew,<sup>*<\/sup>\u2018Rabbouni!\u2019 (which means Teacher).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A<strong>nd the blue clearing in the sky? The central po<\/strong>int of the image:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Love<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father\u2019s commandments and abide in his love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Love is the oneness, the still center of the spiral. The blue dot. Love, love, love. Love is the origin point of creation; love is Mary reaching to hold the body of Jesus.&nbsp;<em>For God so loved the cosmos that he gave his only Son\u2026.&nbsp;<\/em>Love is the Alpha and Omega. The \u201cI am\u201d and the \u201cYou are.\u201d&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you see it? Tilt your gaze sideways, open your eyes just a little wider. One maple tree, spiraling through time and space. One whirl of love sweeping every frame toward the same focal point, the heart of it all.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>One. Love is the center. Love winds to the One.&nbsp;<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>=============<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Individual Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where are you being invited to abide rather than to understand?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Group Discussion \u2014 choose one:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Where do you notice love as the still center in your life \u2014 or where do you long for it to be?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What does it stir in you to be told to &#8220;make your home in this darkness&#8221;?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What would change if you tilted your gaze sideways at your own life today?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday, May 19, 2026 CAC Dean of Faculty Carmen Acevedo Butcher translated&nbsp;The Cloud of Unknowing, the foundational text for Centering Prayer. Contemplative practice creates space for us to be with God, after which we return to our daily lives and commitments. The anonymous author of&nbsp;The Cloud&nbsp;encourages beginners to enter contemplation with these simple instructions: Lift [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26999"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26999"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27007,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26999\/revisions\/27007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}