"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"
BLESSINGS OUT OF THE SILENCE, dear friends! FAITH is in recognizing Love's Will unfolding daily in our lives ... in the Silence ... in mysterious ways. In the depth of silence is hidden the Source of love, the Divine Guest, dwelling within every heart. Faith is the eye that unveils this sweet Treasure and illuminates its eternal love. Where is fear in such faith?Only love remains. Silent be ... and see.
Into my life You came like a storm of monsoon
banging down from the eastern sky.
And You scattered me, like the wind disperses
dry grass and the petals of flowers.
Out of myself You scattered me into Nothingness,
Beyond the Nowhere, beyond the Beyond.
The divine and flaming Word shines in the world in the silence of the soul and "moves" it. This movement is living faith and its light is hope or illumination, while all springs from the Divine Fire which is Love or union with God.
The enlightened one of God is characterized by profound faith. This faith is a created sharing in divine light, an inward gift of knowledge, the "eye of love," which enables one to apprehend, believe in, and respond to the highest of values. Through faith, the enlightened individual finds the universe friendly with a power, a wisdom, a love that broods at the heart of things and overcomes all evil.
My faith was tested. I was my own guinea pig; the years in isolation due to illness were passed in prayer and study of all kinds–like Job on his dunghill. I was to learn that health is also having FAITH in the higher aspects of human nature. Health is having hope, because without hope there is no life. Health is love of our selves and others. In truth, love is the life blood of faith and hope and together they create a healthy body, mind, and spirit: the Trinity of our being.
Whatever-come-along faith is like leaves
blowing in the winds, while
Giving one's power to worldly authority
is faith denied, a soul devoid of freedom.
Awakened faith lives by the Law written on each heart,
that hears and heeds the Voice of Silence.
One's own unique and authentic faith
becomes expressed with utter integrity in action.
Aspire to know the Truth that awakens
in the heart, the Truth that sets you free.
We naturally use our faith to strengthen our relationship with God, to focus our thoughts on what is good, to help us love our neighbor. I ask a lot from my faith. To me, it's not simply a place of comfort; it is a reference point from which I take the indecipherable events of my world and place them in a context that is holy, sacred, and dynamic. It won't make the world go away, but it does have the power to shape one into a person of deep sensitivity and true passion.
No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere;
I see Heaven's glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.
In terms of faith, it's the story (and not the facts) that grips the imagination, impregnates the heart, and animates the spirit
within bringing meaning and integration into one's experience.
A true artist directs readers back to themselves, helps them to discover within their inexhaustible riches. No one can be saved or cured other than through their own efforts. The remedy is Faith.
O faith, untainted and immortal,
Thou art a stream miraculous;
To heaven's home, Thou art the portal,
The dawn of future life for us.
O lamp of faith, within one burning,
Burn brighter, let none smother Thee,
Be Thou my guide as I am learning,
On paths of life, enlighten me.
The way of faith is necessarily obscure.
We drive by night.
Without faith that it is possible to render reality understandable by means of our theoretical constructs, without faith in an inner harmony of the world, there could be no science. This faith is and always will be the basic motivation behind every creative scientific idea. All our endeavors, all the dramatic conflicts between old and new ideas are supported by the eternal desire for knowledge, the unshakeable faith in cosmic harmony which becomes stronger the more difficulties loom before us.
Once there was a great bombing, and I had my baby sister with me. I had Maria on my back and I was running back home, but I could not breathe, I could not swallow. I could not say anything. When I came home, mamika embraced me. She said, "Why are you so frightened?" That was such a balm to me. Her words still live inside me. She said, "All of us will meet anyway, even if they kill you. "There was such a strength for me in those moments. Through my mother's calm, unshakeable faith, God came to comfort me.
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the
power of reason to believe.
We live by faith, and if from time to time the veil is parted briefly, it is to encourage us for a specific task or to sustain us through a period we couldn't otherwise endure. But it is faith that we stand most in need of. Why did I let faith die? Faith is the great teacher and molder of hearts, the temperer of souls, as gold is tested in fire. When our other strengths fail, there at the base of our empty souls is a mysterious silent wealth. There at the bottom of the barrel is the real strength, not power or resources, not worldly wisdom or a solid defense system, but rather the will to continue to love and to live in faith by the truth.