prayer circle

Our prayers are with you

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Dr. Kathy Larsen has been a regular reader, commenter, friend, and selfless supporter of TempleStudy.com and many others, and has sadly been recently told that her cancer is returning.  It sounds like it may have been in remission for a time, but is now coming back.  We would just like to get the word out so that as many as possible may keep her in their prayers.  We will be sure to put her name on the prayer roll of the temple too.

David at HeavenlyAscents.com and I will be fasting for her this coming Sunday, October 19th.  If you would like to join with us in this fast, you are welcome to.  We pray that this difficult time will be a time of peace, comfort, and consolation to Dr. Larsen and her family, and that the Lord may bless them.

“And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up… and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:15-16).

Possible Site of Early Christian Ritual Worship Discovered

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An entrance to the cave underneath St. George\'s Church in Rihab, JordanAn ancient cave discovered under one of the world’s oldest churches in Rihab, Jordan, may be a site of the earliest Christian worship to ever be found.  Archaeologists have dated the cave to between 33 A.D. and 70 A.D.

The Associated Press reports that the Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies says that this cave “shows evidence of early Christian rituals.”  They also reportedly described part of the site as:

a circular worship area with stone seats separated from a living area that had a long tunnel leading to a source of water. He said the early Christians hid there from persecution.

An interesting mosaic in the church of St. George above the cave reads “the 70 beloved by God and the divine,” believing that “cave was used as a church by 70 disciples of Jesus in the first century after Christ’s death, which would make it the oldest Christian site of worship in the world.”

It seems as though there is quite a bit of skepticism about the find among other archaeologists, so it will be interesting to see what the consensus is after further study.

You can read the article at the Associated Press.

Possible Prayer Circle in 3 Nephi 17

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Look to the Children - Minerva Teichert (1888–1976)Mark Greene posted a comment a few days ago on my multi-part paper The Genesis of the Round Dance that I thought was very insightful:

In thinking further about your interesting paper on the genesis of the ring dance, I remembered that there is a marvelous example of a prayer circle and therefore a type of ring dance in the Book of Mormon. While teaching 2500 people at the temple of Bountiful, Christ organized them in concentric rings of righteousness and then He prayed with them. He was the center of these rings. Then came a ring of little children; next a ring of fire and angels; with the outer ring made up of righteous adults (see 3 Nephi 17:12, 15, 23-25). The message in forming these concentric rings of righteousness was in visual representation of the Savior’s imperatives found in 3 Nephi 11:37-38. To come unto Christ and become like Him we as adults must become sanctified little children.

I think that this might very well have allusions to a type of prayer circle when Christ visited the New World. Where else might we find hidden treasures such as this in the Book of Mormon?

Stonehenge: An Ancient Temple

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Stonehenge - by Frédéric Vincent (Wikimedia project)

A group of researchers has just begun a two-week excavation at the well-known Stonehenge site in England in an attempt to discover, once and for all, the meaning behind the mysterious ruins. According to current scientific dating, Stonehenge dates back to about 3000 B.C., but it has perplexed archaeologists for years as to the purpose of its creation. Who created it and why? Why was the structure a venerated destination for thousands of years, being built, taken down, rebuilt and expanded a number of times. [Read more…]