Are special prayer techniques really necessary?

Sad news from the SNCF Society.

It's longtime Secretary and Journal Editor, Andy Hart, died last week.

People such as Andy Hart are priceless.

It is a pity but young people these days are simply not interested in joining committees and by the sounds of things, there is nobody available to fill Andy Hart's boots.

The March quarterly issue of the Society's magazine is now on hold, perhaps indefinitely.


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Last night's dinner on a shoestring:

White pudding and artichokes.

The white pudding is boiled for 20 minutes.

Verdict: that's the first time I've ever eaten White pudding (basically oatmeal, beef fat, and some spices). Found it OK - nowhere as sumptuous as Black pudding.

NB. For some reason, I had always presumed that Black pudding was pre-cooked and that all one had to do was re-heat it. Seems it is basically raw meat and that one MUST cook it properly. Well I haven't been  for the last year or so!

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My favourite fish monger is Fantoosh in Glasgow:

Here is a photo of their fish counter this morning.

Spent £13.79 (including discount on presentation of my Bus Pass) and bought enough for 2 meals - today's and possibly tomorrow's.)

Tonight: skate wing for me, haddock for wife.

Tomorrow: a huge fillet of Plaice (with skin on) cut into two pieces, currently in freezer.

That works out at approx £3.50 per person. Is that extravagant?

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Currently listening to:

Teenage Fanclub

Musical tastes:

Was chatting  about music to a young student after squash yesterday. He liked to listen either to classical music or techno/electro/house music. I said that that more or less summed up my own habits. That's obviously not entirely true since I've spent the last hour listening to Teenage Fanclub.

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 Are special prayer techniques really necessary?

It's all very well my spending hours reading about different kinds of prayers but is it necessary?

After all, Christ told us to come to Him like little children and that the only prayer we needed to say was the Lord's Prayer.

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,

The power, and the glory,

For ever and ever.

Amen.

As for contemplative prayer and meditation, is there any Biblical basis for pursuing these.

Certainly, we know that Christ went into the wilderness and fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, but we don't know the details of what he actually did.

By coincidence, in this morning's Gospel reading at Mass, (Mark chapter 6 verses 30 to 34) Jesus said to his apostles, "You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while."

In his commentary on this passage the priest interpreted this as the recommendation that we should all follow suit and find time to get away from the concerns of the temporal world and find a quiet place to be with God.

Nevertheless, there is quite a gap between the simple recommendation to find a quiet place and embarking upon a 6 month period of studying prayer and meditational techniques which is what I have in mind.