January 1988 (Vol. I, No. 1)

Three years ago this week, the St. Agnes Contemplative Community was initiated with an afternoon of prayer, adoration and contemplation. Since then, over sixty different individuals from various faiths have participated on the fourth Sunday of each month just to be together with Jesus in prayer over our parish and city. And as we are gathered together in prayer, we are in the company of all those who live contemplatively around the world -- from the Community of Transfiguration in Scotland to Focus Hope in Ireland ... from the Jerusalem community in France to the Little Brothers and Sisters of the Eucharist in Cleveland. We are in company with all those Friends of Silence in every country -- from Africa to Australia ... from Central and South America to Russia ... from Maine to Santa Fe ...

During this time, various individuals have suggested having a newsletter in which we could share with one another what Jesus is dreaming in us, our deepest experiences in the Silence, what community means to us -- or perhaps, a short review or quotation from our spiritual reading that has inspired us. This newsletter is in response to your requests. How it evolves depends on any of you who feel called to respond.

Our little community

Nan Merrill

Our little community of the FRIENDS OF SILENCE is an expression of the desire to have all our relations, all of our activity in the world, pass THROUGH Eternity. If we are to participate in bringing the Blessed Community to its completion, we must be still and know God in our inner beings. We invite anyone who shares this dream, this hope, to COME and SEE ... to COME and BE with us each month.

This is our beginning. We welcome your sharings and responses. Please send them by the 15th of each month to Nan at St. Agnes Church.

Behold I stand at the door and knock

Thomas R. Kelly A Testament of Devotion

Our Quaker friends have much to teach us in the way of silence. The following quotations are taken from the little classic, A TESTAMENT OF DEVOTION, by Thomas R. Kelly:

"... the Living Christ within us is the initiator and we are the responders. God the Lover, the accuser, the revealer of light and darkness presses within us. 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.' And all our apparent initiative is already a response, a testimonial to His secret presence and working within us.

"The basic response of the soul to the Light is internal adoration and joy, thanksgiving and worship, self-surrender and listening. The secret places of the heart cease to be our noisy workshop. They become a holy sanctuary of adoration and of self-oblation, where we are kept in perfect peace, if our minds be stayed on Him who had found us in the inward springs of our life ... In the Center of Creation all things are ours, and we are Christ's and Christ is God's."