Praying Without Words

In our loud and busy world, praying and contemplation offer a wonderful respite. What is contemplation? Unlike other prayer forms, contemplation does not rely on words or images. They may come, but they are only incidental to the prayer. This prayer is much more intuitive. It is a focused effort to rediscover what we already know in our bones of God. It seeks the experience of God.

Ever since Adam walked with God, belief has been founded on that experience, especially as some individuals have known it. Judeo-Christian faith began with Abraham’s call to leave home for an unknown land where he would become the father of many nations.

It took on a clearer form when Moses stood before a bush that was burning yet not consumed by flames. The voice that spoke from that bush called him to lead a band of Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and across the desert.

We cannot order up such an experience, of course. All we can do is create the circumstances that can enable it to happen. I suspect that the experiences we have had came about because we were focused on the moment. Gone were the concerns about what we had to accomplish that day—all the things that crowd our minds and hearts.

It is that state of receptiveness that contemplation tries to create in us. We work at being fully present to the moment and content to relax in God’s presence with us and within us. READ MORE...

www.franciscanmedia.org

Reαd carefully: how to spot – and avoid – a homoglyph attack

You’ve read the email carefully and it looks legitimate. The link it asks you to click on has none of the usual red flags: there are no weird numbers or extra parts to the URL. You feel safe to proceed. But if you had looked slightly closer you may have noticed something slightly wrong with one of the characters. 

Fraudsters can use letters from different alphabets to create URLs and email addresses that look almost identical to the real thing, but in reality send anyone who clicks on them to a spoof website or inbox. From there they can harvest personal details to use in their scams. READ MORE & STAY SAFE OUT THERE!

www.theguardian.com

Reading for today: The Soul, and God's love

This signature on each soul may be a product of heredity and environment, but that only means that heredity and environment are among the instruments whereby God creates a soul. I am considering not how, but why, He makes each soul unique. If He had no use for all these differences, I do not see why He should have created more souls than one. Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you. 

The mould in which a key is made would be a strange thing, if you had never seen a key: and the key itself a strange thing if you had never seen a lock. Your soul has a curious shape because it is a hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the Divine substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions. 

For it is not humanity in the abstract that is to be saved, but you—you, the individual reader, John Stubbs or Janet Smith. Blessed and fortunate creature, your eyes shall behold Him and not another’s. All that you are, sins apart, is destined, if you will let God have His good way, to utter satisfaction. The Brocken spectre ‘looked to every man like his first love’, because she was a cheat. But God will look to every soul like its first love because He is its first love. Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it—made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand.

By: C.S. Lewis

From: The Problem of Pain

Microsoft closes the book on Publisher and unplugs Project Online

Microsoft will retire Project Online and remove Publisher from Microsoft 365 over the coming weeks, while support for perpetual versions of Publisher and for Office 2021 will end shortly afterward.

Publisher, Microsoft's desktop publishing application, dates back to the Windows 3.x era. Microsoft announced its retirement in 2024 and will remove it from Microsoft 365 subscriptions on October 1, 2026. Support for perpetual versions will end on October 13 alongside Office LTSC 2021 and Consumer Office 2021.

Project Online will retire on September 30. The following day, Project Online Essentials – a licensing SKU that gives users limited access to Project Online and Project Server – will reach end of life. It has not been available to new customers since October 2025.

The retirement could catch out organizations that have not migrated. Essentials provides relatively inexpensive licenses for users who needed to update tasks, submit timesheets, and view project information without the broader capabilities of Microsoft's more expensive plans.

www.theregister.com

A Pilgrimage on Two Wheels

Revd Marcus Collie, vicar of Midhurst and Rector of All Hallows, Woolbeding, has completed an extraordinary five‑day motorbike pilgrimage, praying in 100 churches across Sussex and raising vital funds for Ride + Stride and the Sussex Historic Churches Trust.

Starting on Monday 24 August at the 12th‑century parish church of St Mary’s in Rye, Marcus rode his Suzuki V‑Strom east to west, finishing at Chichester Cathedral after visiting a century of historic churches in just five days. The journey took him through towns and villages across the Diocese of Chichester, pausing at churches that have long been at the heart of local community life and in many cases, beneficiaries of the Trust’s grants for repairs and restoration.

Marcus undertook the pilgrimage under the banner of Ride + Stride, our annual event that encourages people to travel by bike, foot, or other human power to visit churches and raise money for their upkeep. Nationally, Ride + Stride raises more than £1.5 million each year, with funds split 50:50 between participating churches and their county Historic Churches Trust. In Sussex, that money supports everything from urgent roof repairs and bell restoration to conservation work that keeps these buildings open and usable for worship, events, and community activities.

By choosing an ambitious, high‑profile challenge, Marcus has helped draw attention to the importance of these historic buildings and the ongoing need for support. His ride also ties directly into the Trust’s work: many of the 100 churches he visited have previously received grants for vital repairs, making his pilgrimage a rolling celebration of the very projects Ride + Stride helps to fund.

Marcus, who became vicar of Midhurst and Rector of All Hallows, Woolbeding in 2023, is no stranger to creative fundraising. After breaking his foot in 2024, he organised a “Ride and Hobble”, leading a group of parishioners who use mobility aids on a gentle route through Midhurst, finishing with refreshments in church. This year, he swapped walking aids for a motorbike, but kept the same spirit of community, prayer, and practical support for local churches.

Kim & I can totally get behind doing a motorcycle pilgrimage. Back in 2016 (10 years ago!) we did the Camino de Santiago on my last bike - Holly the Honda Crosstourer. A wonderful way to travel the pilgrims path - especially if you really cannot allocate the time. We would one day like to walk the Camino de Santiago - but you really need to allow a minimum of 6 weeks. With Kim's work for Parkinsons' UK & me running Donline - sadly that's just not possible. Perhaps when we retire? God willing...

www.chichester.anglican.org

Motorcycle exhaust modifications face ban

Riders who have fitted an aftermarket exhaust, remapped their bike’s ECU, or removed emissions hardware could be committing a criminal offence for the first time, if a Department for Transport (DfT) proposal makes it into law.

In simple terms, the plan says a bike’s emissions control system has to keep working exactly as well as it did when new, for its entire life. If it doesn’t – whatever the reason – riding it, letting someone else ride it, or making the change yourself could all become prosecutable offences, with fines from £1000 up to unlimited in a magistrates’ court.

Crucially, this isn’t just about new bikes. The rules would apply retrospectively to every motorcycle, moped and scooter registered since January 1, 2001.

Most of the changes being targeted are already technically illegal or restricted to track use, but this would be the first time they would become prosecutable on the road. Type approved end cans would not be affected.

www.motorcyclenews.com

Anthropic researcher quits with warning AI ‘could kill us all’

Safety boss endorses expert’s claims, saying there is a 10pc chance humanity could be wiped out.

A researcher at Anthropic has resigned, warning that AI labs are developing technology that could “kill us all” by the end of the decade.

Jacob Coxon, who specialised in training new AI systems for both Anthropic and its rival OpenAI, said he feared the two companies were locked in a dangerous race to develop bots they could not control.

He said: “They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.

“Do not underestimate the power of this technology. These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionise any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources.”

www.telegraph.co.uk