May the blessings of inner peace and quiet joy be with each of you as we move toward the autumn season!
Newsletters
GREETINGS AND BLESSINGS be with you all! Summer: may each one of us find plenty of time and space for leisure and recreation.
BLESSINGS, friends! May the bird song of Spring awaken melodies of soul song within your hearts.
May BLESSINGS and NEW LIFE come to you as the light begins to penetrate the dark days of winter ... hints of spring can be seen, heard and felt throughout the land ... promise of renewal and rebirth are with us.
BLESSINGS BE WITH YOU in the words of Mechtild of Magdeburg:
GREETINGS and BLESSINGS to you in this new year ... a good time to reflect on where we have been in our hearts and the road we would aim to travel in these coming months ... and, perhaps, the time for a new prayer of the heart.
BLESSINGS of joy and peace! May the Promise of this season find a home in your heart!
GREETINGS, dear friends, and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Yes, next month will celebrate five years of this little newsletter being sent out to an ever-growing number of Friends of Silence: from one small contemplative community in the inner city of Detroit to many around the world ... from a few issues being distributed to almost 2700 sent out each month, including a number of Braille copies now available thanks to a friend of silence in prison with a ministry to the blind. Continued gratitude to each one of you who take time in the silence to become a radiation of peace, joy and love for the world!
AUTUMN GREETINGS! Now is the time of the harvest. As the trees burst forth in glory, as the earth yields the fruits of spring promise and summer growth, we are reminded to reflect on the changes that occur in our lives in due season. Wise are those who, like Meister Eckhart, acknowledge and reverence the need for silence and solitude. For,
May the BLESSINGS of inner peace and quiet joy be with you! And may times of silence and solitude invite you to smell the roses ... to listen to the breeze-sound ... to really see the changing seasons. And, as you slow down long enough to quiet the inner voices, you may begin to sense the great beauty of all that has been given for you to share.
BLESSINGS TO ALL! Gentle days of summer lend themselves to basking in the Presence, to taking quiet moments of just being and listening. For,
BLESSINGS and PEACE be with you all! And an invitation to pause in your day and listen to the melodies your heart sings. For,
GREETINGS and BLESSINGS be with you, friends! Is your soul awakening to new life as you listen and attend the greening, budding and birthing of a new season? O, that we might slow down for moments each day to attune ourselves and listen! For,
Ah, friends, Spring has come once again! BLESSINGS and PEACE be with you! As our thoughts begin to turn toward gardening and enjoying the new life coming to birth around us, we are invited to spend time in our own cloister garden of the heart. For,
BLESSINGS be with you, friends, in this season that calls us to look within as we take time in silence and solitude.
BLESSINGS, dear friends, as we begin the fifth year of this monthly offering. Friends of Silence started as an inner-city contemplative community of individuals committed to pray in the Silence. Linked to a growing number of groups and individuals around the globe, we open our hearts to radiate love as one response to the violence, injustice and confusion in the world today. The outward, visible results of our silence are often difficult to discern or define. Yet, by faith, we continue to meet together in the solitude of our homes to pray in the Silence -- and, to experience the inward fruits of the Spirit at work in us ... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, gratitude ... May your own Silence of the inner being offer blessing, harmony and balance to Love's Creation in this new year!
BLESSINGS to all Friends of Silence this holyday season! ... a time for re-connecting to the Child within that leads us to our gifts ... our creativity ... our inner being where innocence, compassion and spontaneity dwell.
BLESSINGS of peace, joy and gratitude be with you! How do we return to the Giver of Life the abundance of blessing we receive? Only in the Silence, where the Beloved abides, will the deep response be given. And so, we give thanks as we befriend the Silence, that out of the Silence the words we speak will reveal the Word.
AUTUMN GREETINGS! How quickly the seasons pass ... seasons of nature, seasons of life. 'Tis good to remember that in eternal time there is only Love, Peace, and Unity.
GREETINGS! The summertimes of our lives are times to rest and appreciate who we are, to relax and enjoy, to celebrate the extravagance and exuberance of creation, to remember to pause, to let the joy and wonder of becoming like a child again well up within us. Summer re-creation offers times to be free to be nothing, to be present in grateful receptivity, wordless awe, silent simplicity ... times to dip into the well of contemplation.
Warmest GREETINGS as we move into a new season. May each one of us take time to walk down the path that leads to the sacred Silence. And as we learn to treasure our inner awareness, may we come to know the immense love, the intense light, within the vastness of our own soul.
GREETINGS! The long winter is over ... signs of nature's yearly renewal are seen all over the land ... earth giving birth to new life, new hope. May each one of us participate with awe and reverence, taking time to recognize a springtime renewal of our souls.
Blessings to Friends of Silence with prayers for peace to all peoples on Earth. Ironically, to pray is to go into the desert spaces of our hearts where, in solitude and silence, we can find peace as we commune with the Beloved. Today, when the desert is not silent, Carlo Carretto in LETTERS FROM THE DESERT reminds us
that:
ALL GOOD WISHES to friends of Silence around the world! ... with the hope of a peace-filled, joy-filled and grace-filled new year.
After the busyness of the holiday season, 'til good to take time for inner reflection. Wordsworth describes it well in "The Prelude":