Nan Merrill

March 2003 (Vol. XVI, No 3)

EVERY BLESSING, dear friends! Breath is out of the Spirit ... breath is lie. May we all pause in the Silence during the day, if awake at night, to breathe in PEACE ... to breahte out PEACE to every nation on earth.

How I pray is breathe

Thomas Merton Day of a Stranger

What I wear is pants.
What I do is live.
How I pray is breathe...
Up here in the woods is seen the Word.
That is to say, the wind comes through
the trees and you breathe it.

Becoming conscious of God's subtle Presence through our own breathing

Wayne Teasdale A Monk in the World

I experience the Divine Presence in many ways, but the form most often available to me is "spiration," or the act of breathing in which the Spirit often manifests itself and communicates itself. This process has given rise to the experience of inspiration, or in-spiration, in which the Spirit breathes into us. To be aware of God through spiration is to become conscious of God's subtle Presence through our own breathing.

We all share in the eternal spiration of the Spirit. When I am sufficiently absorbed in the experience of divine spiration, I realize inwardly my dependence, and that of all beings, on this subtle action of the Source.

The two most important events in our life

Melinda Ribner

By meditating on the breath and the power within and behind the breath, we realize in the deepest levels of our being that our life is sustained by God. We do not breathe by our own will; God is sustaining our life and everything else in creation... We are born into this world and we will die and live this world. Our first breath and our last breath, the two most important events in our life, are not in our conscious control. Because our breathing is automatic and involuntary, it is easy to forget about the gift of breath — gift of God.

A living weather vane responding minute-by-minute to the breath of the Spirit

Philip Zaleski Holy Folly

Those who assent to higher laws enter a new sphere of life marked by utter unpredictability, a way of being in which one becomes, if and when one remains alerts, a living weather vane responding minute-by-minute to the breath of the Spirit. . . As soon as we turn, even for a moment, to a deeper understanding of what life demands, of what is asked of us as beings born of earth and heaven, as long as we move, if only for a moment, from the realms of self-calming, self-feeding, and self-adoring into the realm of sacrifice and work for love of God and neighbor, we immediately enter, in potentia, the field of holy folly. Whether this potential is actualized is a decision not ours to make ("not my will, by Thy will be done"). Our job is to listen to the call: that is enough.

Love is an out-breathing and an in-breathing

White Eagle Wisdom from White Eagle
To love means to give. When you love you seem to go outwards, flow out in order to help, to serve. But as you cannot breathe out without breathing in, so you cannot love without receiving. Love is an out-breathing and an in-breathing. It is a light that burns deep within: as warmth, a certainty, an inner knowing.

Breathing mindfully

Nan Merrill
Breathing mindfully helps you to enter deep, inner silence ...

Breathing out resentment, breathing in joy

Elizabeth Harper Neeld A Sacred Primer

I finished my morning quiet time with an exercise of breathing out resentment, breathing in joy; breathing out anxiety, breathing in peace; breathing out hate, breathing in love, breathing out want, breathing in thanksgiving; breathing out fear, breathing in trust. Then I am ready to start my day.

Breath deeply amidst the beauties of nature

Nan Merrill Lumen Christi . . . Holy Wisdom

Breath deeply amidst the beauties of nature;
absorb vibrations unsullied by
pollution and cosmopolitan ways.
Breathing mindfully brings balance into your life;
strength is gained through the Breath of Life!
Remember: breath is your life's companion!
And, as you limit your breath, you limit life itself.
Befriend silence: a balm to your soul.
As you breathe in silence,
your ear attunes to Spirit.
You will understand the eagle.
Breathe deeply! Breathe life!

Slow, deep, natural breathing

James Findley The Contemplative Heart
Slow, deep, natural breathing is a fundamental aspect of meditation practice. In a childlike awareness of each breath, breathing out we are quietly aware of breathing out. Breathing in we are quietly aware of breathing in. In this way, our awareness becomes one with the primitive rhythms of our breathing, one with the simply given nature of now's ceaseless flow in which our life is rooted.

To pray is to breathe in God's life-giving spirit

Sundar Singh

Dolphins can live in the deepest water without danger because they regularly come to the surface and breathe in air that sustains them. We, too, must rise in prayer into the spiritual realm. To pray is to breathe in God's life-giving spirit that gives life and peace, even in this world.

Follow the breath back to God

R. M. Shapiro Open Secrets

Breath and attention to breath are keys to self-emptying. Attending to the breath will carry you beyond the distractions of the mind and return you to the Greater Unity of God from which you arise and in which you dwell. Just as God breathed life into Creation, so God breathes into each one of us at this and every moment. Follow the breath back to God.

Slipping into cracks of silence

Karyn D. Dedar

I long to slip into cracks of silence
where breath is connected to spirit and
spirit to wind and a sense of oneness
resonates in my core.

The breathing in and out of the earth's atmosphere by the body

Helen Luke Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On
The breathing in and out of the earth's atmosphere by the body is a symbol of the eternal rhythm of the Self-I and Thou, in and out, up and down, forward and back, systole and diastole in their final unity. The conscious realization and incarnation of this rhythm, balance, unity, in the unique, individual pattern of one's life would lead — so I feel — to the breathing out of one's last breath into death into that air of eternity, which is the breath of life when the body is left behind.

As we breathe out what trees breathe in

Marcia Prager

As we breathe out what trees breathe in,
And the trees breathe out what we breathe in,
So we breathe each other into life, We and You.

Breath deeply amidst the beauties of nature

Breath deeply amidst the beauties of nature;
absorb vibrations unsullied by
pollution and cosmopolitan ways.
Breathing mindfully brings balance into your life;
strength is gained through the Breath of Life!
Remember: breath is your life's companion!
And, as you limit your breath, you limit life itself.
Befriend silence: a balm to your soul.
As you breathe in silence,
your ear attunes to Spirit.
You will understand the eagle.
Breathe deeply! Breathe life!

February 2003 (Vol. XVI, No. 2)

BLESSINGS and WARM WISHES to ech FOS around the world! How deeply we long to love and to be loved by the unknown Mystery! May we each afirm Divine Love in the silence of our own hearts, in the anctuary of our Inner Chapel, and in the freedom of solitude. May we bask in this LOE and raiate LOVE out to the world trusing it will make a difference to someone, somewhere.

Love is the voice under all silences

e. e. cummings
Love is the voice under all silences, The hope which has no opposite in fear.

Instead of looking to other humans for love

Don Miguil Ruiz

Instead of looking to other humans for love, we need to align with our own love, because it's not the love of other humans that will make us happy. What will make us happy is the love we feel for every human, the love we feel for God, for all creation. When the love comes from someone else, we can love it and it's nice; but when we feel our own love, it's the best thing that can happen to us. We live in heave, we live in bliss. Open your heart and love unconditionally — not because you want love in return, and not because you want to control someone. That is false love. When you love with no conditions you transcend the dream of fear and become aligned with divine spirit, the love of God, which is love coming from you. That love is LIFE, and just like the sun, it is shining all the time.

Until love's work is done

Susan Sherard

Heaven will not leave us alone.
Heaven will continue to come to earth
Until heaven and earth are one.
Heaven will not leave us alone until
Love's work is done.

Love is, and may proceed from wherever you are

Jennifer Lash On Pilgrimage
Every night I had a sense to consciously pitch the tent of my being in a definite place of "unknowing." Bang in the pegs saying, I do not know anything. Inside the tent it might be dark, or maybe there were spins of moonlight. But in there, somehow or other, you know there is love. Love is, and may proceed from wherever you are, without you knowing anything very much.

Love all that has been created by God

Fedor Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov

Love all that has been created by God, both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf and every ray of light. Love the beasts and the bids, love the plants, love every separate fragment. If you love each separate fragment, you will understand he mystery of the whole resting in God. When you perceive this, your understanding of this mystery will grow from day to day until you come to love the whole world with a love that includes everything, excluding nothing.

Let yourself be silently drawn

Rumi

Let yourself be silently drawn,
by the strong pull
of what you really love.

The important thing is to allow love into one's life

Oonagh Shanley-Toffolo The Voice of Silence

The important thing is to allow love into one's life, to turn towards it. Then, if one love dies, another will take its place — whether human or Divine in form. As my friend, Annabella, once said, "I have passed my whole life being in love, in love with nature, in love with animals, in love with life, and I celebrate each springtime as a miracle." When we build a relationship, the ACT of turning the heart towards the beloved, with recognition, waters the root of love. Then one an receive its fruits: peace, joy, silence, contentment.

To love is to be vulnerable

Verna J. Dozier The Dream of God

Creation is an act of love ... and, to love is to be vulnerable. The story of creation bears that fact out. The lover seeks the beloved. The lover is not complete without the beloved. Human beings are most fully human when they realize that they are creatures and give joyful response to the Creator. All that we are and all that we have comes from God; we are part of God's dream for a good creation using our freedom to do God's will.

Look with the eyes of love

Evelyn Underhill Practical Mysticism

To "look with the eyes of love" seems a vague and sentimental recommendation; yet the whole art of spiritual communion is summed in it, and exact and important results flow from this exercise. The attitude which it involves is an attitude of complete humility and of receptiveness, without criticism, without clever analysis of the thing seen... The doors of perception are cleansed, and everything appears as it is. The disfigurating results of hate, rivalry, prejudice vanish away. Into that silent place to which recollection has brought you — new music, new color, new light are poured from the outward world.

Love has conquered by fear

Kathleen A. Brehony After the Darkest Hour
I am the one who needs to give thanks for the opportunity that I had to be a part of this miracle. It's enough to know that because of my kidney, my sister has a new lease on life; an opportunity to enjoy her young marriage, to care for her young son. Yes, I give thanks, for Love has conquered by fear.

Love is the lodestone of life

Ernest Holmes

Love is the lodestone of life, the great and supreme reality... the highest gift of heaven, the greatest good on earth, the treasure of all our search. While hate kills, love renews and invigorates. As love is the greatest healing power, no one feels whole without it. Love need not be confined to only a few, but can be extended to many without losing the love of a few. In fact, when love becomes more complete it will take in a large and larger territory and in doing so experience a greater degree of livingness.

For silence is not God, nor speaking

Anonymous The Cloud of Unknowing
For silence is not God, nor speaking; fasting is not God, nor eating; solitude is not God, nor company; nor any other pair of opposites. God is hidden between them and cannot be found by anything your soul does, but only by the love of your heart. God cannot be known by reason, nor by thought, caught, or sought by understanding. But God can be love and chosen by the true, loving will of your heart.

Love includes the world and time as a pregnant woman includes her child

Wendell Berry Jaber Crow
Love, sooner or later, forces us out of time. It does not accept limit. Of all that we feel and do, all the virtues and all the sins, love alone crowds us at last over the edge of the world. For love is not explainable or even justifiable. Love itself is the justifier. We do not make it. If it did not happen to us, we could not imagine it. Love includes the world and time as a pregnant woman includes her child whose wrongs she will suffer and forgive. Love is in the world but is not altogether of it. It is of eternity. It takes us there when it most holds us here.

There is no limit to our capacity love

Eknath Easwaran A More Ardent Fire

There is no limit to our capacity love. We can never be satisfied by loving just one person here and another there. Our need is to love completely, universally, without reservations — in other words, to become love itself. It can take our breath away to glimpse the vastness of such love.

Love is a verb

Anonymous

Love is a verb ... not a noun.

January 2003 (Vol. XVI, Vol. 1)

A BLESSED NEW YEAR, dear friends, as we enter our sixteenth year of radiating SILENCE out to the world. In these troubling times, may the depth of our silence be a PRAYER FOR PEACE over all the Earth. Each prayer is a seed planted with hope.

Prayer is anything you think, say, do, or feel that opens you up and out to love

Jeffery Burton Russell

Prayer is action you take in order to realize yourself fully with your neighbor and with God. It is the fulfillment of the great commandment to love God and neighbor. It opens the gate to heaven; heaven is the complete recognition of your potential to be who you really are, uniting you in pain and joy with God and with the whole world. Embracing your own alienation and brokenness with honesty and openness is the foundation of prayer; prayer can be choked off by self-will. Prayer is anything you think, say, do, or feel that opens you up and out to love.

What appears to be indigestible can become real nourishment for prayer

A. I. Okumura Awakening to Prayer

At times God seems to give us stones impossible to digest. In these moments think of the pearl oyster: it retains the accidental grain of sand within itself for a long time, constantly bathing in it with its secretions. In due time a magnificent pearl is created. In like manner the animosities and antipathies that make their way into our hearts are seemingly indigestible pebbles. However, if we keep them wrapped in prayer, they will become pearls of love. Prayer provokes this miracle of love. Indeed, what appears to be indigestible can become real nourishment for prayer.

Rend your mind deaf and dumb

Evagrius of Pontus
Strive to render your mind deaf and dumb at the time of prayer, and then, you will be able to pray.

Prayer is the process through which our soul connects with the Divine

Karyn D. Kedar The Dance of theDolphin
Prayer is the process through which our soul connects with the Divine, with all that transcends our being. It enables us to converse with things invisible, forming connections that at times defy the rational but often calm the spirit. It can be the language that tickles and soothes, itches and scratches, touches ever so gently the soft spots deep within. Prayer, like words or even complicated mathematical formula, is a language to be mastered. And in doing so, we open gates that are usually closed and often locked.

How does a heart touched by God pray?

M. Weiderkehr A Tree Full of Angels
Prayer is a response to God and to live coming from a heart that has been touched. How does a heart touched by God pray? Sometimes in pure gratitude it simply stands in awe rejoicing. And that is prayer! Sometimes it weeps. Sometimes it sings. At times it talks tenderly to God. At other times it might scream out in anger and pain. Sometimes it looks on the world with love, or rushes out to do good deeds. Sometimes it kneels without-stretched arms. Sometimes it merely yearns for God in deep, holy silence. All this is prayer.

Prayer becomes a connection to those we do not know

Prayer becomes a connection to those we do not know. As we intervene for people all over the world, we become mysteriously linked with them. So, when we enter the sacred space of prayer, a crowded, jostling, colorful procession accompanies us.

Prayer is to the human heart

Tessa Bielecki

Prayer is the human heart
what breath is to the body.

The seed of prayer

J. Yagi

The seed of prayer is sown in heaven.
It pushes its stem toward the earth
and comes to grow there.
It produces an abundance of fruit.
Then, as it becomes seed once more,
it thruts its way back to heaven.

Prayer is necessary for the life of the spirit

S. Molly Monahan Seeds of Grace

Prayer and meditation are as necessary for the life of the spirit as fresh air, food, and sunlight are for the body. If we think of prayer as talking to God, with or without words, our own or those of others, then we can think of meditation as listening to God — an attitude of open, silent receptiveness.

Prayer is participation

Danny Martin Sacred Journey
I think that prayer is participation; it is the spirit of life praying in you, and when you connect with that, your deepest longing connects with the longings of the universe unfolding. You know, prayer can come out in a form of deep longing or concern for a person or for a situation in the world, or for someone who has died, or for my own health. Yet, it is a deeper longing than anything the ego wants.

Prayer is always true to itself

Margaret Stortz

Even when we bring the most difficult situations into prayer, the pain and resistance are in the situations, not in the prayer itself, as prayer is always true to itself. It discloses its own nature — that of a door a passageway to the Great Life of God. Prayer does not hold dismay, even though whatever we pray about may, for prayer move us off the place where we find ourselves and ushers us along — closer, at least — to the place we long to be.

Beloved you love us and call us by name

Anonymous

Beloved, You love us and call us by name.
Awaken in us the desire to know
your presence in our hearts.
Fill us with you Spirit of Truth
opening us to your Love
enabling us to trust in your Word.
Strengthen our faith so that each day
our lives may radiate the Love
and the Light of your Life in us.

Amen.

The wish to pray

G. Bernanos

The wish to pray is prayer.

Prayer is our instinctive response

John Yungblut
PRAYER is our instinctive response to the immediate experience of the OTHER within, a phenomenon arising from our compelling need to relate to this being who seeks us out, forgives, accepts, and offers love.

As we grow in the way of prayer

Martin Israel Dark Victory

As we grow in the way of prayer, we begin to know that true prayer is an aware openness to the working of Love, that we may play our part in transmitting the divine love to all whom we meet in the daily round. Prayer is universal in scope, for God has no favorites. The way of communicative silence is the most effective way of knowing God and serving our brothers and sisters... I have little doubt that we will appreciate the silence when the body is dead and the soul passes forth into new surroundings for fresh adventures.

I speak of prayer, not words

S. John Chrysostom

Prayer gives joy to the spirit, peace to the heart. I speak of prayer, not words. It is the longing for God, too deep for words.

Prayer is the most potent instrument of action

Mohandas Gandhi

Properly understood and applied, prayer is the most potent instrument of action. 

November 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 10)

DEEP BLESSINGS, dear friends! Let us dare to believe that each time we offer the gift of ourselves in silnce and prayer, we interconnet with untold others around the world: individual hearts untied as One with Divine Universal Love -- saving Grace for the Earth. In the Silence, may we bless one another each day with gentle joy and abiding peace ... silent loving service in action.

Silence is a primal language

Joel Giallanza

Silence brings us far beyond soundlessness, it quiets our senses and spirit and tunes our heart for a deep and delicate listening. For, silence is a primal language which speaks and listens from the heart. It is not the only language through which we communicate with God, but it is a necessary second language since the knowledge of God is received in divine silence. Like all other languages, silence is easily forgotten without practice and discipline.

SILENCE was the first prayer I learned to trust

Patricia Hampl Virgin Time

SILENCE was the first prayer I learned to trust when I began my visits to San Damiano. Only later did I begin to let the words in. The silence of the chapel at prayer was broken only by a habit of praise that I came to see was so primal it was not only human. It was — or it mimicked exactly — the essential utterance of existence. It rose from the raw passion which rules life, an urge which has no voice but craves articulation. This communal prayer voiced a harmony otherwise elusive in all of creation, yet thrumming in the monastic silence.

Silence is the cornerstone of character

T. C. McLuhan Touch of Earth

The first Americans believe profoundly in silence — the sign of perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. Those who preserve their selfhood are ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence — not a leaf, as it were, astir on the tree. If you ask, "What is silence?" They will answer, "It is the Great Mystery! The holy silence is Great spirit's voice!" If you ask, "What are the fruits of silence?"" you would be told, "They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity, and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character."

Too great for our hearts to speak

Paramahansa Yogananda

There are billows far out on the ocean
that never break on the beach.
There are thoughts in the temple of silence
too great for our hearts to speak. 

God is a friend of silence

Mother Teresa

We need silence to be able to touch souls. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life. God is a friend of silence. The essential thing is not what we say, but what God will say through us.

Silence blossoms

Raimon Panikkar

May your silence be in
holy communion with the
Indwelling Guest
of your heart...
Silence blossoms in prayer.

 

The fruit of silence

R. B. Lockhart Listening to Silence

The fruit of silence is known only to those with experience. There is gradually born within us in and of our silence itself, something that will draw us on to still greater silence. God leads us into solitude to speak to our heart. Let our hearts be a living altar from which there constantly ascends before God pure prayer, with which all our acts should be imbued.

To be able to enter daily into the silence

Claire Blatchford Friend of My Heart

To be able to enter daily into the silence
without worries, fears, doubts,
without plans of any sort,
to say no more than, "I AM HERE"
and to feel it so,
simply and truly — is an act of faith,
an exercise in openness, attentiveness, devotion.
It will shape your soul to meet
the Friend of your heart.

Silence is the soul's break for freedom

David Whyte Crossing the Unknown Sea

We are each surrounded by an enormous silence that can be a blessing and a help to us, a silence in which the skein of reality is knitted and unraveled to be knit again, in which the perspective of work can be enlarged and enriched. Silence is like a cradle holding our endeavors and our will; a silent spaciousness sustains us in our work and at the same time connects us to larger worlds that, in the busyness of our daily struggle to achieve, we have not yet investigated. Silence is the soul's break for freedom.

In the quietness of the soul the individual sinks into the central fire of communion

Eberhard Arnold

Silence before God has deep significance: in the quietness of the soul the individual sinks into the central fire of communion... In the silent act of breathing and in the unspoken dialogue of the soul with God, solitary as these are, deep communion can be given.

The essence of silence is self-emptiness

Peter John Cameron

The essence of silence is self-emptiness, docility, receptivity, detachment, desire, listening, communion. Every act of silence is a little Advent. A Luigi Giussaní sums it up, "Silence is not merely keeping quiet, but it is the attitude of one who lives standing before a 'You' who is presenting, entreating a 'you' who is present." Teresa of Avila refers to contemplative prayer as the "prayer of quiet." Such prayerful silence enhances our ability and eagerness to listen to our Beloved. In this silence, the one in love remains perfectly content just to behold the Beloved, gazing in a state of holy and tranquil abiding. Silence speaks to silence.

In all the world is only what one heart says to another in silent greeting

Vladimir Soloviev

Dear friend, do you not see
That whatever we look upon here
Is but reflection, merely a shadow,
Of what is invisible to our earthly eyes?

Dear friend, do you not know
That the jarring noises of the world
Are but an echo distorted
Of triumphant harmonies?

Dear friend, do you not sense
That in all the world is only
What one heart says to another
In silent greeting?

Drinking the silence

Dom Helder Camera

Were You not to grant me the grace
during the night-watchers
of drinking the silence,
of diving into it,
of being soaked in it,
How should I know
that inner silence,
without which
one can hear
neither others
nor You?

The pure objective awareness of being

Marsha Sinetar A Way Without Words

SILENCE, the pure objective awareness of being, is our "way without words." It opens us up to our deepest spiritual awareness. Silence is fertile soil. What we receive from this rich ground depends on what we put into it... seeds that we ourselves plant in our inmost silence. People who remain unconscious about their own spiritual life seem like irresponsible farmers: they devalue the land entrusted to their care.

October 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 9)

PEACE BE WITH YOU, dear friends! Peace is the fruit of forgiveness, integrity, and compassion ... Peace opens the door to wisdom, mystery, life ... In the Silence, may each of us create a peaceful heart: a peace-energy to be refleted in the world for our healing ... a peace crucial for the survival of Earth and all her creatures. all upon the Angel of Peace in your thoughts, words and activities. You will be guided and blessed.

The holy ground from which a peaceful world grows

Joseph Nassal

Patient prayer is the holy ground from which our dreams for a just and peaceful world begin to grow.

Peacemakekers recognize their faults

Ken Carey Terra Christa

Peacemakers are called the children of God, because that is precisely what they are: the conscious offspring of the creator. Peacemakers are men and women who have adventured down the avenues of healing and caught the current of their divine identity. Peacemakers have internalized the seven steps to wholeness outlined in the Beatitudes:

They recognize their faults and long for what they need to change; they are gentle, unpretentious and nonviolent; they pursue right livelihood and have compassion for others; their motivation is pure as they offer unconditional love to all.

When we see the face of God in everyone

Ron Vernan God's Image

We see the face of God daily, easily recognizable in a spectacular sunset or in a child's smile. And it also exists in less attractive presentations. Can we accept seeing God in the person of our "enemy"? If we can't, we are doomed to propagating lives of hatred and revenge. Only when we see the face of God in everyone and in all things will we be at peace within ourselves and, more importantly, enable peace to exist throughout the world.

Let Peace fill our heart, our world, our universe

Fellowship of Reconciliation World Peace Prayer

Lead me from death to Life, from falsehood to Truth.
Lead me from despair to Hope, from fear to Trust.
Lead me from hate to Love, from war to Peace ...
Let Peace fill our heart, our world, our universe ...

Peace depends on slowness

Rod McIver Heron Dance

I crave peace. Peace depends on a slowness. Peace depends on acceptance of other people's processes and perception of truth. Peace depends on reverence and awe for this incredible blue/green planet we have somehow lucked into. Peace depends on a faith that there really is Something Larger going on here, and that rushing and anger are irrelevant to that larger process, what ever it, or It, may be. I am slowly beginning to live this peace, but in so many ways, I am a slow learner.

Peace dwells in the heart of silence

Anonymous

PEACE dwells in the heart of silence.
Listen. Heed the Voice of Peace ...
Radiate the Peace engendered by Love!

The first peace

Black Elk

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great spirit, and that this center is really everywhere; it is within each of us.

Every word that has been spoken about peace and love will be recognized like a bright light

Marcel Messing A Call To Silence Foundation

Then Silence
will gather all the words
within itself,
the graves will return
in the ocean of eternity.

And every word
that has been spoken
about peace and love
will be recognized
like a bright light
by that spirit
that has come to rest.

The most profound danger to the world

Unknown Nobel Peace Prize Centennial Symposium

The most profound danger to world peace in the coming years will stem not from the irrational acts of states or individuals, but from the legitimate demands and needs of the world's dispossessed.

If we have no peace

Mother Teresa

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten: we belong to one another.

Peace is a longing that connects the human family in a common depth of soul

Bennett J. Sims Servanthood

PEACE is very meaning of the word Islam. When its three operative consonants, S, L, and M, are combined with a variety of vowels, they spell "peace" across the whole spectrum of human speech. SALEM is the word for peace in English. SHALOM means peace in Hebrew, while SALAAH is peace in Arabic. (In the native language of Gandhi, the word for peace is SHANTI). Peace is a longing that connects the human family in a common depth of soul. The hope for peace surges in the collective unconscious. It is for the generations now living to bring this hope to consciousness and build the structures that will give it operative vitality.

Peace is not made through theory.

Hozumi Hymn of Life

Peace is not made through theory.
Too many people die in war.
This grief, this pain
can still be felt.
No matter how loud one cries,
this way no peace can be achieved.
The flowers of the meadow,
the small insects have life.
Each life has to be respected;
Where else should peace come from?

Only when I am reconciled with myself

Anselm Gruen Angels of Grace

Only when I am reconciled with myself can I think about reconciling other people around me, who are at odds with me or with others. Reconciliation means peacemaking, clearing the way for the different parties, building a bridge between quarreling groups. But it does not mean smoothing everything over, making everything harmonious. Different points of view must remain. Reconciliation means taking the other person or group seriously, and also taking myself and my needs seriously.

The Peace of God resides deep within each individual

Ruth Ryden The Golden Path

The Peace of God resides deep within each individual, given to each spiritual being at its creation, to remain in their inner consciousness structure forever. No one can give it to you, no one can take it away. If you have not done so already, please give yourself the priceless gift of inner silence, That silence is the way that the very atoms of energy and love that surround you and are part of God can enter and give you the inner peace that you hunger for with all of your heart and mind.

Become that very peace

Gregg Braden The Isaiah Effect

While we may forsee the OUTWARD APPEARANCE of peace upon a people or nation, it is the UNDERLYING THINKING that must change to create a true and lasting peace. To change the conditions of our outer world, we are invited to ACTUALLY BECOME the conditions of our desire from within. When we do so, the new conditions of health or peace are mirrored in the world around us. To bring Peace to those whom we love in this world, we must first BECOME that very peace in our thoughts, feelings, and bodies.

September 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 8)

EVERY GOOD WISH, dear friends! Our world cries out for our Work to beome prayer and love made visible. May we listen attentively in the silence for clear, creative guidance of how we can most life-givingly offer our selves in Service. And, as you work, may your grain of sand become a beautiful pearl.

Thus do we know what we are to do

Nan Merrill

Our eyes are
the eyes of the universe
reflecting upon itself...

We look at the stars,
they look back at themselves
through us...

Lisen to the universe,
stir the deep memory ...
thus do we know
what we are to do.

The strain of tasks beyond our strength

Johann Christopher Arnold Seeking Peace

In the face of the strain of tasks beyond our strength, we must turn inward to the Source of strength. If we measure our human strength against the work we see immediately ahead, we shall feel hopeless, and if we tackle it in that strength, we shall be frustrated... There is no healthier lesson we can learn than our own limitations, provided this is accompanied by the resignation of our own strength and reliance on the strength of God. The wheel of life will fly apart unless it is spoked to the Center ... wherever we go rushing onward without taking time to turn inward.

When you are gifted at something, you have to do it

Barbara Sher Live the Life You Love

When you love to do something, that means you have a gift for it. And when you are gifted at something, you have to do it. You don't have to quit your job and mortgage your house, but you do have to give your gift a careful look. If you don't pay attention to what you love, you could overlook your greatest gifts!

Hands that moved in magical ways

Billie Letts Where the Heart Is

Moses' motions were like a dancer's ... sliding, circling, turning — his movements finding balance and his eyes finding voice ... a bark of delight when he saw a true shot, a rasp of laughter as he found the right angle, the click of his tongue when he snapped the perfect picture.

And the camera which Novalee had thought old-fashioned and unwieldly, looked small and delicate in Moses' hands, hands that moved in magical ways, fingers that found their own rhythm and knew, without knowing, when is was right.

The changing of work into play

Anonymous

The changing of work into play is effected as a consequence of the presence of a "zone of perpetual silence," where one draws from a sort of secret and intimate respiration, whose sweetness and freshness accomplishes the anointing of work and transforms it into play. For the "zone of silence" not only dignifies the soul at rest; there is contact with the heavenly or spiritual world, which works together with the soul. Those who find silence in the solitude of meditation without effort are never alone.

What is my work?

Nikos Kazantzakis

What is my work?

To let the mind fall silent
that I may hear the Invisible calling.

Find joy in your work

Anonymous

Find joy in your work ...
Discover fulfillment and peace ...
Silence will guide you on the way.

How terribly the rice suffers under the pestle!

Lady Borton After Sorrow

How terribly the rice suffers under the pestle!
But it emerges polished, as white as cotton.
The same process tempers the human spirit:
Hard trials shape us into polished diamonds.

Knowing that our work is a blessing

Thomas Hora Right Usefulness

Spiritual self-esteem is gained from knowing that our work is a contribution and a blessing. Then we perform for the love of God with no thought of personal recognition... When our motivatlon for work is valid, the work will be spontaneous and creative.

To bless the marketplace with a contemplative presence

Theresa Mancuso A New Monastic life

It is not an easy task, but a most rewarding one, to bless the marketplace with a contemplative presence. It seems to me that the life of work and prayer is not only possible, but greatly enhanced by standing firm in the real world with one's being anchored solidly in the Ultimate Reality. It is the harmony of the universe that echoes in the heart of the "new monk" who works and prays, lives and loves, re-creates and recreates in the center of the present world. The mystical monastery is the whole of society; the marketplace is one of its cloisters. The Holy Rule of the New Monk is the solid perspective of the spiritual practice embraced.

Our daily work

Thomas Arnold
Give Thy blessing, we pray Thee, to our daily work, that we may do it in faith, and heartily.

Hands to work

Ann Lee

Hands to work ...
Heart to God.

Work is not your enemy

Og Mandino The Greatest Success in the world

Work is not your enemy but your friend. How you work, not what you do, determines the course of your life. You may work grudgingly or you may work gratefully; you may work as a human or you may work as a robot. There is no work so rude that you may not exalt in it; no work so demeaning that you cannot breathe soul into it; no work so dull that you may not enliven it. Never be tempted to diminish your efforts; always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.

Work is one of the great human gateways to the eternal

David Whyte Crossing the Unknown Sea

To have a firm persuasion in our work -- to feel that what we do is right for ourselves and good for the world at exactly the same time — is one of the great triumphs of human existence... To have a firm persuasion, to set out boldly in our work, is to make a pilgrimage of our labors, to understand that the consummation of work lies not only in what we have done, but who we have become while accomplishing the task... Work, at its best, is one of the great human gateways to the eternal and the timeless.

Yes there is more

David Spangler The Call

The earth needs people who can say, "Yes there is more." Not just more in the way of knowledge or inventions or wisdom or revelations, but more compassion, more gentleness and sweetness, more caring, more love, more valuing of one another. That is your mission, and it is of the highest, for it is nothing other that the mission of manifesting the spirit of the Beloved in your life.

The time of busyness

Brother Lawrence The Practice of the Presence of God

The time of busyness does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while serving persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees in prayer.

We work to give value to time

Eugene Delacroix

We work not only to produce ...
we work to give value to time.

Thus do we know what we are to do

Our eyes are
the eyes of the universe
reflecting upon itself...

We look at the stars,
they look back at themselves
through us...

Lisen to the universe,
stir the deep memory ...
thus do we know
what we are to do.

July-August 2002

SUMMER BLESSINGS, dear friends! May your vacations, family gatherings, and rereation traveling be balanced with inward diving into the depths of silence and solitude. Re-creation and renewal, peace and harmony become summer fruits of this inner-outer balance. Thus are you true to yourself.

Being alone

Sara Lawrence Lightfoot Balm in Giliad

Being alone — physically alone atop a mountain — reminds me of how seldom one is alone in the sort of urbanized life we live nowadays. As I sat, there was a certain peace which I was able to capture for a moment. This physical aloneness is by no means the same as loneliness — not even close kin to it; for I was not alone. On occasions when I am able to get to a mountain top, the realization of the nature of the "mountain-top experience" returns anew.

Without silence there is no solitude

Anonymous

Without silence there is no solitude.
In solitude, you are open to loving service,
to abiding inner peace and joy.

The difference between loneliness and solitude

Robert A. Johnson Balancing Heaven and Earth

It was from my experience in alternating work at the Red Cross and forest service that I began to learn the difference between loneliness and solitude. I now believe that loneliness occurs when our lives are somehow missing one-half of a pair of opposites — being and doing. We can be very busy and surrounded by people yet still feel intense loneliness because our lives are dominated by "doing;" there is insufficient time for attentive solitude with our thoughts and feeling. When your life is filled with too much doing, the only cure for loneliness is a strong dose of solitude, a form of solitude that is meditative and open to your inner self.

If silence and solitude were vacancy

Percy B. Shelley Mont Blanc

The secret strength of things,
Which governs thought, and to the infinite dome
Of heaven is a law, inhabits thee!
And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea,
If to the human mind's imaginings
Silence and solitude were vacancy?

Nowhere to go, nothing to do

Joan Halifax

There is great value to be realized in periods of solitude and silence for those whose lives are in and of the world. Although I had gone into solitude for four days every year over the past twenty years, I needed a more sustained period of aloneness to recover the freshness of my spirit and to see that which was not true. "Nowhere to go, nothing to do" — these were the words that informed my days.

A silent, invisible spiritual concourse

Laurence Freeman Web of Silence

Our image of solitude is often negative: withdrawal, isolation, distance from others. But this misrepresents the hermitage which is like a silent, invisible spiritual concourse; a place where many can converge without sinking into a crowd, and become a community of love. Every human heart is a hermitage, if we care to enter and find ourselves there in union with all. In solitude friend, foe, and stranger are equally known in love.

Discover your true self

Anonymous

 Discover your true self in creative solitude.

Solitude is the empty space that we deliberately choose

Joyce Rupp The Cup of Our Life

Solitude is the empty space that we deliberately choose in order to be with the Beloved. In solitude we can savor this goodness and give ourselves space to really listen. It is when we are alone, uninterrupted, single-minded, and single-hearted, that some of the wonderful inner fruits come to the surface. If we want to learn how to grow spiritually, we will choose the discipline of solitude.

Our solitude helps us to "be" with God and gives meaning to our lives. It re-awakens us to the presence of God in every aspect of our lives.

The necessary thing

Rainer Maria Rilke

The necessary thing is great, inner solitude.
What goes on inwardly is worthy of your love.

Solitude is an attitude

Francine Schiff Food for Solitude

Solitude is an attitude, an attitude of gratitude. It is a state of mind, a state of heart, a whole universe unto itself.

Your solitude will bear immense fruit

Thomas Merton The Seven Story Mountain

Your solitude will bear immense fruit in the souls of men and women you will never see on earth.

In solitude, the soul develops organs

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Love Letters From Cell 92

Our homes will be very quiet at this time. But I have often found that the quieter my surroundings, the more vividly I sense my connection with you all. It's as if, in solitude, the soul develops organs of which we're hardly aware in everyday life.

Until I have been lured into the desert

Douglas Steere

Until I have been lured into the desert, until I have been brought in solitude to the very ground of my being, where I am beyond the grip of my surface self with all its plans and distractions, I am not able to hear the divine whisper. It is then I discover at the heart of things that my solitariness is transcended and that I am not alone.

In prayer we assume responsibility for injustice in our self and the world

Don Postema Space for God

We find the world at the heart of God. The deeper our prayer is, the deeper we enter into solidarity with a suffering world. In solitude this compassionate solidarity grows. In solitude we realize that the roots of all conflict, war, injustice, cruelty, hatred, jealousy, and envy are deeply anchored in our own hearts. Nothing human is alien to us either. In prayer we assume responsibility for injustice in our self and the world.

We are made for solitude

Parker Palmer The Courage to Teach

We are made for solitude. Our lives may be rich in relationships, but the human self remains a mystery of enfolded inwardness that no other person can possibly enter and know. If we fail to embrace our ultimate aloneness and seek meaning only in communion with others, we wither and die. The farther we travel toward the great mystery, the more at home we must be with our essential aloneness in order to stay healthy and whole. Our equal and opposite needs for solitude and community constitute a great paradox.

Solitude is necessary for your emotional health

Paul Ferrini The Silence of the Heart

Solitude is necessary for your emotional health, whether you are living alone or with another. Solitude gives you the time and space to integrate your experience. And all growth depends on integration. Without solitude, spiritual nourishment will be lacking. If you want a single cause for the amount of distress in the world, it is the fact that people do not take time to commune with self, nature and the divine. A spiritual life — a life free of needless tension and self-created suffering — requires such communion.

The point of passing time in solitude

Phyllis Rose The Music of Silence

The point of passing time in solitude is to strip yourself bare, to discover what is essential and true. When you are stripped down to this point, you see how little you amount to. But that little is what God is interested in.

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