Nan Merrill

April 2008 (Vol. XXI, No. 4)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Every blessing, dear friends, in this season of new growth.

To spend time in Nature's tapestry of Life is like opening an amazing gift: an instruction book of Love and Life given to us by the Creator, Source of All Being. Here we can see how we participate in the seasons of our lives, the interplay and interconnectedness of all things that sustain our lives, the beauty and wisdom of unity in diversity, and the intricate patterns of every variety of flora and fauna. Celebrating, honoring, and learning from this Divine Gift is in a very real sense to reverence our own lives and the life of the planet, which depend on Nature's abundant bounty. May we share and care for Nature's gifts with equity and gratitude. May we gift ourselves with times in the Silence while basking in some of Nature's sacred settings, even if it be in our own backyard. Here, peace, harmony, and renewal will be sure to nest in your heart.

Nature soothes, heals, and teaches

Kenneth S. Leong

Nature soothes, heals, and teaches with her silence.

These are the eyes of the earth

Joseph Campbell

If we will think of ourselves as coming out of the earth, rather than having been thrown in here from somewhere else, we see that we are the earth, we are the consciousness of the earth. These are the eyes of the earth. And this is the voice of the earth.

There is no frantic separation between the creatures of the forest and the gentleness of our hearts

Tom Brown

When we enter the Stillness and listen, we feel the aliveness that is all around us. We give ourselves the opportunity to be a part of the vibrant, living, natural world. The Stillness brings a deep serenity into our hearts and a vital life force into our bodies. When we practice Entering the Silence in nature, there is no frantic separation between the creatures of the forest and the gentleness of our hearts.

It felt like my chest could explode and be the sun and the clouds

Debbie (age 11)

I was looking at the sky, just watching. I don't know how to say it, but I felt everything was perfect and connected--it's like there was no room even to think. It felt like my chest could explode and be the sun and the clouds.

Arriving daffodils will make no sound

Fanny De Groot Hastings

Arriving daffodils will make no sound,
will blow no trumpets -- only the earthworm
close to its root, burrowing underground,
will hear the upsurge, feel the green stems yearn.

Beauty returns to Earth, devoid of noise,
devoid of clamor. Now it lifts its head
epitome of stillness and of poise
and in unbroken silence all is said.

The earth is at the same time mother, she is mother of all that is natural

Hildegard of Bingen

The earth is at the same time mother,
she is mother of all that is natural,
mother of all that is human.
She is the mother of all,
for contained in her are the seeds of all.
The earth of humankind contains all moisture,
all verdancy, all germinating power.
It is in so many ways fruitful.
All creation comes from it.
Yet it forms not only the basic raw materials
for humankind, but also
the substance of Incarnation.

Unexpected encounters in nature

Linda Douty How Can I Let Go If I Don't Know I'm Holding On

Nothing has the potential to move us off dead center quite as powerfully as unexpected encounters in nature. From the meadows to the mountaintops, from the devoted pet to the flight of the bumblebee--the ways that nature nurtures us bring tears to our eyes and resolve to our hearts. And we are often brought into the place of allowing the spirit to finally get through to us. The possibilities are endless--the motion of the tides, the cleansing of a rainstorm, the dormancy of winter--all remind us that a force greater than ourselves turns the clock of this universe. Nature immerses us in that power.

No sound for Nature

Marie Battiste

The Mikmaq on the Atlantic coast have no sound for Nature. They have "space" or "place of creation" ... they have cultural literacy with the ecosystem ... every aspect of nature to Mikmaqs is Spirit. They live in harmony with this intelligible essence. The Mikmaq can perceive the web.

Nature undresses herself

Christopher M. Bache

As mind slowly empties itself,
nature undresses herself.

Each creature that Love made

Mechtild of Magdeburg

Each creature that Love made must live its own true nature.

Nature is the great teacher

Riegert and Moore The Lost Sutras of Jesus

Nature is the great teacher, the book of life to be read and understood. That's why it is important not just to protect the natural world, but to guide it to the highest level of perfection. Our task as spiritual people is to foster an intimate bond between the world of nature--rivers, mountains, oceans, animals, forests--and our own felt nature. When one is thriving, the other will find needed support.

The stable earth

Saint Patrick's Breastplate

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heavens,
The glorius sun's lifegiving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

His better self always seemed to come out in nature

Douglas Gillies Prophet

Robert could not find the answer; his mind was driving him in circles. There was only one way to make it stop. Robert walked across the fields at dusk into the Forest of Welferding. His better self always seemed to come out in nature, perhaps because he had come from and would eventually die and go into nature. He felt the cool moisture on his skin, smelled the musky moss tucked between the stones along the brook, walking until he almost forgot why he'd come. The sky was filled with stars with no air raid sirens, no distant roaring of planes. In the forest Robert had caught a glimpse of what the world could be like without war, and it was good.

We each were birthed by this glorious universe

Morty Breier Meditations on Our Deep Roots

Made of the stuff of probability waves, starlight, planetary cycling, mighty mountains, continents, and oceans of our silver blue sphere, genetic journeys, language, learning, and loving, we each were birthed by this glorious universe that continues to show us its awesome majesty with each year cycling, each day dawning, each breath repeated, and each moment unfolding. We can only be joyous with the realization that so much of this awesome majesty is reflected in human consciousness. It is precisely this fact that enables us to call ourselves Sparks of God.

March 2008 (Vol. XXI, No. 3)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Blessings of spring, awakening anew in our lives, dear companions on the Journey.

May our prayers include pauses of simply be-ing ... of gratitude in the Silence for the present moment of life, nature's gifts, and Love-ever-with-us. Throughout each day may we be mindful of our thoughts, for strong thought--positive or negative--are, in a real sense, our prayers. As has been wisely observed, "as we thinketh, so we become." Thoughts, like prayer, radiate energy that matters, depending on our focus, intensity, intention, and accompanying source of reception. May our prayers be from the heart, breathed into the Silence ... May our thoughts be loving, gentle, and kind ... May both our prayers and thoughts lead us to fulfillment: service and sharing wherever we meet a need ... May our gifts and creativity grow in the Silence.

The highest level of prayer is not a prayer FOR anything

Marianne Williamson Illuminatda

The highest level of prayer is not a prayer FOR anything. It is a deep and profound silence, in which we allow ourselves to be still and know God. In that silence, we are changed. We are calmed. We are illumined. Prayer is meant to dissolve the worldly focus, to dissolve our sense of a separate self, to help us detach from the noisy world order.

Prayer is like pouring hot water on an ice cube, melting the cold and encrusted thought forms that still surround our hearts.

Prayer is eternity breathing in time

Gerard Casey Parabola - Summer 1996

Center yourself to God and PRAY night and day "without ceasing." ALL you do, think, or read can be made into prayer. Great music, art, literature, architecture, friendships are, or can be, forms of prayer. What is gained by prayer can never be lost. PRAYER is eternity breathing in time.

The tree of our centering prayer

M. Basil Pennington The Call to the Center

In centering, we begin to leave aside our own thoughts and images and feelings and to make space for the Spirit to begin to operate in us through the gifts. Outside the time of prayer we begin--and often others begin before us--to perceive the presence of these wonderful gifts in our daily lives. These are the fruits by which we judge the "tree" of our centering prayer. It is only through these fruits and the healing they represent that we can know the spirit is working in our lives through this deep, quiet communion with Love at the center of our being.

In prayer the stilled voice learns to hold its peace

Madeleine L'Engle

In prayer the stilled voice learns to hold its peace,
to listen with the heart to silence that is joy, is
adoration. The self is shattered, all words torn apart
in this strange patterned time of contemplation that,
in time, breaks time, breaks words, breaks me, and then,
in silence, leaves me healed and mended.

Prayer consists of attention

Simone Weil

Prayer consists of attention ... all the attention of which the soul is capable toward God.


True prayer requires no word

Angelus Silesius

True prayer requires no word, no chant
no gesture, no sound.
It is communion, calm and still
with our own godly Ground.

Prayer is an energy that, like oxygen, feeds our whole being

Sharon Connors Adventures in Prayer

Prayer is an energy that, like oxygen, feeds our whole being even when we are not aware of it. When we pray, a positive, life-enhancing energy that affects us physically, emotionally, intellect-ually, and spiritually is activated within us. Prayer ministers to us. It engages the creative energy of the universe, Love. This divine energy unites with our own deepest, truest intention and goes into action. We ingest a higher, more refined kind of thinking, and this higher vibration brings its nutrients to our whole being.

During prayer a new state comes on

Michaela Ozelsel Forty Days

During prayer a new state comes on. A kind of "largesse," an indescribable vastness, so great as to encompass the whole of creation. This immeasurableness simply flows right through me, no resistance from "self-important demands" blocks the flow, a feeling of absolute weightlessness and transparency. The expression "emptied of self" is a living reality.

United heart to heart in prayer

13th Unity World Day of Prayer

United heart to heart in prayer,
we create a world of radiant life,
overflowing abundance,
and lasting peace
as we awaken to the power
of Love within.

Just be prayer

Thomas Merton

If prayer is getting in your way, cut it out!
Stop praying! Just BE prayer!

Prayer is eternity breathing in time

Gerard Casey Parabola - Summer 1996

Center yourself to God and PRAY night and day "without ceasing." ALL you do, think, or read can be made into prayer. Great music, art, literature, architecture, friendships are, or can be, forms of prayer. What is gained by prayer can never be lost. PRAYER is eternity breathing in time.

May my body be a prayer stick

Joan Halifax

May my body
be a prayer stick
for the world

Prayer is a sacrament

Sam Keene

Prayer is a sacrament,
an outer, visible expression
of an inner, invisible grace--
or intention.

Prayer is the process by which one continually surrenders to the mystery in the moment

Paul Ferrini Thne Silence of the Heart

Prayer is the process by which one continually empties out what one thinks one knows and surrenders to the mystery in the moment ... Prayer is an opening on your part to receive the gifts of God, an opening to God's unconditional love for you, an opening to God's unconditional acceptance of you as you are. When you enter the temple of prayer, you are blessed beyond measure. For, in entering, you surrender, and in surrendering, you are washed clean of all judgments you make about yourself or others.

February 2008 (Vol. XXI, No. 2)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Blessings of peace and love, dear friends and companions.Love at the heart of our lives brings all to fulfillment: a peaceful soul ... a life that blesses. So, what could be more practical than awakening to Love? Here we may experience the Oneness we are with All and know, know for sure, that we can never truly be alone. For, Love abides in everyone, everywhere, notwithstanding outward appearances. So, let your love shine. Love ... be loved.

To be able to love one another, we must pray much

Mother Teresa

To be able to love one another, we must pray much, for prayer gives a clean heart and a clean heart can see God in our neighbor. If we now have no peace, it is because we have forgotten how to see God in one another.

Love is meant to shine

Anonymous
Love is not meant to be contained; Love is meant to shine!

To love others as we love ourselves

Edith Scholl In the School of Love

Only when we return to our hearts and look honestly at ourselves can we begin to recognize ourselves, as we were created to be and as we are. Only then can we learn to know and love ourselves, and to love others as we love ourselves.

Love is the voice

e. e. cummings

Love is the voice
under all the silences ...
 

My love is like the grasses

Ono No Yoshiki

My love
is like the grasses
hidden in the deep mountain:
though its abundance increases,
nobody knows.

Someone who seeks, above all, the knowledge and love of God

Ursula King Mystics

A mystic is a person who is deeply aware of the powerful presence of the divine Spirit; someone who seeks, above all, the knowledge and love of God, and who experiences to an extraordinary degree the profoundly personal encounter with the energy of divine life. Mystics often perceive the presence of God throughout the world of nature and in all that is alive, leading to a transfiguration of the ordinary all around them. However, the touch of God is most strongly felt deep within their own hearts.

Heaven is love

Carlo Carretto In Search of the Beyond

Let us keep this truth before us.
You say you have no faith?
Love--and faith will come.
You say you are sad?
Love--and joy will come.
You say you are alone?
Love--and you will break out of your solitude.
You say you are in hell?
Love--and you will find yourself in heaven.

Heaven is love.

The loving opportunities of solitude and solidarity

Frank Bianco

Alone with God, we feel no need to perform, to do. The pressure is off. That good, refreshing feeling is nothing less than an experience of God's accepting love. It is the healing power of an eternal passion that is consummated in the reunion of creature and Creator. God is delighted by our act of will in which we love and place ourselves in the Presence. That divine delight is the lover who draws each of us back and forth between twin poles, the loving opportunities of solitude and solidarity.

You do not make yourself love

James Redfield

You do not make yourself love.
|You allow love to enter.

Love is not arrogant or rude

J. C. Borton Ross Cameron Deep in the Familiar

Fifty years of marriage is the essence of a journey that spans uphills and downhills, goals achieved; unexpected joys, and times of failure, disappointments, and offenses that sought forgiveness. The thirteenth chapter of Corinthians is a discipline and a constant for the days and years. Love is not arrogant or rude, love glories not in one-upman-ship or being right, love suffers and is kind, love hangs in there. And ultimately this delicate, gentle but tough bond supersedes all else and becomes the one imperishable gift we can have if we are humble enough to receive it.

Drink the wine of Love and your life will change

Adyashanti

Drink the wine of Love
and your life will change.
Instead of being a gatherer
of the Divine Light
you will be the shine.
It will be the end of you
and the beginning.

Love will supplant the fear

Wayne Dyer There is a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem

Those who have lost their way, who are ravaged by addictions and feelings of hopelessness, believe they are alone. They have seemingly lost their soul and need to find a spiritual base. That base is love, which is the only permanent power in the universe. It is the central ingredient in healing and in all harmony. Recognize and realize the power of love and its dominion over all things, and you and others will be restored to a fearless place. Love will supplant the fear.
 

There is no "out of love"

Charles

There is no "out of love." It's what we are, deeper and richer than all the spiritual promises and far more ordinary and real. We don't "fall in or out of love" because we are permanently in the flow of love itself. Love is the way we are meant to live; love is the measure of the meaning of life ... When we touch life with love, it grows warm and shines down the corridors of the mind with a light that does not fade but grows brighter and more beautiful with the years.

When love is present nothing is the same. Even the drab gray walls of this prison begin to glow. It's as if we are transported into a different world, love's world. Then things are seen through love's eyes. Then the pain may turn into a poem, and the sorrow may blossom as a ministry.

Love is what shines from our eyes, beats from our heart, speaks with our voice, and meets itself everywhere. Sooner or later, love will reclaim us all. But to let that happen now, to die into love now, before the body dies ... Ah!

It seemed no longer important whether everyone loved me or not

Beverly Sills

I had found a kind of serenity, a new maturity. I didn't feel better or stronger than anyone else but it seemed no longer important whether everyone loved me or not--more important now was for me to love them. Feeling that way turns your whole life around; living becomes the act of giving.

January 2008 (Vol. XXI, No. 1)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Blessings of the new year, dear companions on the journey. Just as the daily renewal of sunlight sustains the earth, so our inner soul-light nourishes and guides our lives.

"You are the light of the world."

Astonishing! In stillness and silence may you recognize the light you are and the Light you bear. May you more consciously radiate your heart-light out to the world and shine, wherever you may be.

Teach me to seek You in all that has life, that I may see You as the Light of light

J. Philip Newell A Celtic Prayer

You are above me, O God
You are within.
You are in all things
yet contained by no thing.
Teach me to seek You in all that has life,
that I may see You as the Light of light.
Teach me to search for You in my own depths
that I may find You in every living soul.

This light is a light which fills at the same time both intellect and senses

Vladimir Lossky

... the visible quality of the divinity, of the energies of grace in which God is made known ... This light is a light which fills at the same time both intellect and senses, revealing itself to the whole individual, and not only to one faculty. The divine light, being given in mystical experience, surpasses at the same time both sense and intellect

The more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be

Shakti Gawain

Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it,
and enter the Silence, your true home.

The more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be.

Light is present everywhere, yet hidden and unused

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee Spiritual Power

Light is present everywhere, yet hidden and unused. It is covered over by the denseness of our desires and a collective unconscious that has little space for the divine. Working with the light of the soul will open us to a new level of interconnectedness, a knowing of our oneness. This knowing is necessary for the evolution of the planet. It contains the knowledge of the future, a knowledge that is based upon oneness rather than duality.

We must go into our own darkness in order to unleash the light within

James Twyman, Jacqueline Ripstein

I invented what I call the Invisible Art and Light technique. In normal light the painting appears one way, and when you turn on the black lamp, the beams of light emerge. It is also a brilliant metaphor. If we look with our physical eyes we see only the surface of the message. But when we look with our spiritual eyes we see so much more. We see the light that is given as a gift from Heaven. And isn't it interesting that a black light is used to see the whole picture? In the same way we must go into our own darkness, the things we hide because we are ashamed, in order to unleash the light within. It is only when we give our whole selves to God--the positive and the negative--that we are enlightened.
 

May the Light that lighteneth Everyone come into this world

Frederick Franck

May the Light that lighteneth Everyone
come into this world,
pierce the darkness of the age,
so that the tree of life
may survive
and bring forth new shoots!

One day, while walking on the beach, I saw the reflection of the sun on the water

Virginia Swain Mantle of Roses

Crying was my most constant companion. One day, while walking on the beach, I saw the reflection of the sun on the water. Inexplicably, I felt a sense of a Presence larger than life itself after seeing a patch of light differently than ever before. The light image kept me alive ... I was suffused with love. I had sensations of warmth from the light coming into my body and entering each cell, having awareness of my whole body in a startling way. It felt comforting, life-changing and dramatic, yet peaceful. I was able to function again. My most important focus became to deepen my experience of being suffused by the light.

Intuition is a language of light

Walter Russell

Intuition is a language of light through which
humanity and God intercommunicate.

Whwat you see in the inner world is the light that sees

Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

When you turn within you think you see a light. What you think is the light that you see in the inner world is the light that sees, not the light that can be seen. This is a different kind of light, not the kind of light that can be radiated from a source. This is the all-pervading light. Think of yourself as that light, then your aura will burn more brightly.

You are the living light

Hildegard of Bingen

You are the living light in every respect.
From You all light shines.

Two friends anchored to a third, spiritual center form a rock-solid foundation

Kaufman and Zalinski Gifts of the Spirit

True friendship exists when human beings share a love of goodness and truth. Two friends alone, like two legs on a table, offer a wobbly situation at best. But two friends anchored to a third, spiritual center form a rock-solid foundation to support everything that comes: hardship, suffering, exaltation, love. True friendship between two human beings exists only when there is a third Friend present: call this third friend God, or simply the Sacred.

Behold the Divine Light within

Mary Southard

Behold the Divine Light within
a place of giving
a place of gratitude
a place of Love.

May Divine Light fill our hearts
with Love
to be poured out
into the world ...

In the silence we feel the Light penetrating, recharging, purifying

Flower A. Newhouse Silence

In the silence we feel the Light penetrating, recharging, purifying, blessing us. We identify with the Light. Words and thoughts opening from this depth will have life--the Life that will create and endow all things with good.

The darker the shaw, the brighter is the light

Hiroyuki Itsuki Tariki: Embracing Despair, Discovering Peace

We cannot know that we are illuminated by a great light simply by looking up into the sky. But if we lower our heads and look down at our feet, we can clearly see the long, dark shadow that stretches out from us. We know that the darker and blacker that shadow is, the brighter is the light that shines upon us. Thus, we have been told to look at our own dark shadows [within].

December 2007 (Vol. XX, No. 11)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

In this season of celebration, may angelic blessings be yours, dear friends. Living with an awareness of their companioning presence, even if only with trust to begin with, we come to realize angelic joy is working with us, surprising us, and reminding us that we are loved beyond measure. Limit not the myriad ways your angelic companions may knock on the door of your heart. Spending time in the Silence draws them nigh. And you might ask, "When was the last time I thanked my angels?"

Walking and talking with an angel

David Spangler

... walking and talking with an angel is really fundamentally no different from walking and talking with an ordinary human being. Both the angel and the person are expressions of the ultimate mystery; both are emanations of the Beloved ... There is only one sacredness and we all have it.

The angels inspire

Terry L. Taylor The Angel Experience

As humans we respond to symbols. We express divine Beauty and insight in our art. If there is a preponderance of art depicting angels with wings, obviously this symbolizes something real within the collective consciousness. Angels appear to humans according to human capacity to accept and understand the appearance. The angels inspire, and that is what is left in our heart after an angel experience.

To study angels is to shed light on ourselves

Matthew Fox The Physics of Angels

To study angels is to shed light on ourselves, especially those aspects of ourselves that have been put down in our secularized civilizations, our secularized educational systems, and even our secularized worship system. By secularization, I mean anything that sucks the awe out of things.

Angels song, still singing

Priscilla White

Echoes
resounding from
a starry night so long
ago, carry angels song, still
singing.

We are part and parcel of the great angels of light and love

Robert J. Grant

The divine angelic hierarchy is more than a collection of celestial beings; they are both inner and outer states of consciousness, constantly presenting an opportunity to us for our divine awakening. Now, more than ever, is the awareness dawning within the hearts and minds of people everywhere that the Divine is a part of our spiritual ancestry. The souls of the earth are awakening from a long spirited sleep to a great mystery – that we are part and parcel of the great angels of light and love. This is the reality which is unfolding before us like a flower, right now in our world and in our lives.

Every blade of grass has its Angel

The Talmud

Every blade of grass has its Angel
that bends over it and whispers,
"Grow, grow."

Make yourself familiar with the angels

Francis de Sales

Make yourself familiar with the angels
and behold them frequently in spirit,
for without being seen, they are present
with you.

The Angel of Earth embraces the seed

Thanksgiving Psalms, Dead Sea Scrolls

Life always begins again.
The Angel of Earth embraces the seed
And gives unto it Life.
The kiss of the Angel of Water
Awakens the seed.
The warmth of the Angel of Sun
Makes the seed grow.
The little plant bends in the breeze–
The Angel of Air makes it grow strong.
The little plant is holy.
It bathes in the Lifestream
Of Eternal Order.

Angels in our midst

Anonymous

Angels in our midst
seen now
through diaphanous veil.

Angels accompany us in all we do

Anonymous

Angels accompany us in all we do throughout our life . . Be mindful of their gifts.

I was with them big angels

Jan Karon A Light in the Window

Amy tightened an arm around his neck and announced in a loud voice, "I was with them big angels, and they runned in front of me and left me and I gotted lost!"

"So it occurs to me," the preacher said, "that many of us may be leaving small angels behind. Are we neglecting to help those who would benefit from our love? ... Just a thought," he said, smiling.

Loving angels everywhere

Anonymous

Loving angels everywhere
in smiles we give ... in words we share
in gentle hearts of those who care.

Oh, blessed angels, I love my God with all my being.

C. Haenni and V. Vick Anna: Woman of Miracles

Anna was too filled with joy and wonder to sleep. This was the night for which her soul had prepared her these many years. She heard the celestial music of the saints and the rustle of angel wings. Love had chosen her for this wondrous experience, so she was unafraid. The time was close now, for she smelled the fragrance of roses around her. "Oh, blessed angels, I love my God with all my being."

No sooner had I fallen asleep than I saw standing a maiden dressed in a long white gown

Very Verbovsky Elder Zosima

No sooner had I fallen asleep than I saw standing a maiden dressed in a long white gown and modestly girded. On her head, in hooded fashion, was a white scarf which was so thin and transparent that through it I could see her face, which shone with heavenly beauty. She stood before me, tender, affectionate and loving, and although with downcast eyes, she would at times humbly and kindly look at me. With such a vision, I awoke.

My attraction to her was not sensuous, but somehow pure, devoted and unutterably comforting, since my soul sensed that this was not an earthly maiden, but some heavenly being, the very embodiment of purity and charity.

I feel your gentle Presence, like angel wings lifting my spirit

Nan Merrill Meditations and Mandalas

Blessed are You, Who understood my tears,
You comfort me with love's embrace.
Though my eyes cannot see You,
I feel your gentle Presence,
like angel wings lifting my spirit.

You turn my mourning into joy,
I dance to a new song.
Blessed are You, O loving companion
of my heart.
 

an Angel so sumptuous, so fresh, so like a flower and at the same time so firm

Gustav Fechner

I was walking in the open air on a beautiful spring morning. The wheat was growing green, the birds were singing, the dew was sparkling, the smoke rising; a transfiguring light lay over everything; this was only a tiny fragment of Earth – and yet the idea seemed to me not only beautiful, but also so true and obvious that she was an Angel – an Angel so sumptuous, so fresh, so like a flower and at the same time so firm and so composed, who was moving through the sky.

I feel your gentle Presence, like angel wings lifting my spirit

Blessed are You, Who understood my tears,
You comfort me with love's embrace.
Though my eyes cannot see You,
I feel your gentle Presence,
like angel wings lifting my spirit.

You turn my mourning into joy,
I dance to a new song.
Blessed are You, O loving companion
of my heart.
 

November 2007 (Vol. XX, No. 10)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Warmest greetings to one and all in this season of homecomings, thanks-giving, and gratitude. In the midst of our noisy pain-filled world, may we come home to the Silence. May we bless ourselves and the world as we stop talking and thinking for a while and allow the Silence to still us and, perhaps, to speak a word to our soul. Listening to the silence is an art form where the infinite harmony of the universe calms and nourishes body, mind, and soul. Be still. Listen. Love's silent heart-song will bring you Home to your Divine origin.

Only when we are silent can we begin to hear the voice that is truly our own

Rick Field

Only when we are silent can we begin to hear the voice that is truly our own, the still, small voice within. The source of this voice, which may be without sound, and yet is heard, is called by many different names: the inner guide, guardian angel, spirit guide, the collective unconscious, or just plain intuition. Actually, all of us hear the whisperings of this voice every single day of our lives, but many ignore it.

The most beautiful words are often born in a silence filled with suffering

Ladislaus Boros

The most beautiful words, those that give the most genuine help, are often born in a silence filled with suffering. Silence is the glowing furnace of the word, the forge of true speech and sensitivity.

Everything was opening its secrets to me in silence

Alice O. Howell The Beejum Book

"Everything was opening its secrets to me in silence, without a word. Everything shone in my heart now instead of my head. The more I appreciated, the more I could see. It was a whole new way of learning, by listening to silence."

In a breath of silence, in a whisper

Br. Roger of Taize

In a breath of silence
in a whisper,
God speaks to you humbly.

Silence, a stilling of the roof brain chatter

Kimberly Snow In Buddha's Kitchen

Silence, a stilling of not only the voices outside but the inner voices, the roof brain chatter. Now, without the babble or words – inner and outer – I watch my mind, notice when a thought arises. I turn my attention inward, asking, "Who is thinking this thought?" As the mind turns to look, the thinker seems to disappear. But a focus comes from asking, a clearing a deepening. No "me," but a presence. Awareness.


We must do the works of Martha, but in the spirit of Mary

Peter Kreeft Ecumenism and the Culture Wars

"We must do the works of Martha, but in the spirit of Mary. Both of us would agree to that. "

"What is the spirit of Mary?" I asked.

"Silence. Interior silence – and exterior silence, too. Your culture cannot hear the voice of God because its ears are too full of noise. For lack of silence you are going mad. God made you with two ears and only one tongue, so that you could listen twice as much as you speak. Then, when words come out of the silence, they will have power. "

At first her refusal to speak very often upset me

Tracy Chevalier Falling Angels

At first her refusal to speak very often upset me, but over time I've grown used to it and now love her the better for it. Ivy May's silence can be a great comfort. There is nothing the matter with her head – she reads and writes well enough for a girl of seven, and her numbers are good. I asked her once why she said so little, and the dear replied, "When I do speak, you listen." It is surprising that someone so young should have worked that out for herself. I could have done with the lesson – I do go on and on from nerves to fill the silence.

Ancient spirits dance to it

Anonymous

Listen to the silence as it echoes around you.
Ancient spirits dance to it.

Silence is spacious uncrowded

Sam Baker

Silence is spacious
uncrowded like the
Cosmos.

He drew us each into our own silence

Elizabeth Gilbert Eat, Pray, Love

Thich Nhat Hanh came on stage. In the space of ten minutes, this small Vietnamese man had drawn every single one of us into his silence. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that he drew us each into our own silence, into that peace which we each inherently possessed, but had not yet discovered or claimed. His ability to bring forth this state in all of us, merely by his presence in the room – this is divine power.

I require the silence

Alice Koller

In the silence I listen, I watch, I sense, I attend, I observe.
I require the silence. I search it out.

I weave a silence on to my lips

David Adam The Edge of Glory

I weave a silence on to my lips
I weave a silence into my mind
I weave a silence within my heart
I close my ears to distractions
I close my eyes to attractions
I close my heart to temptations

Calm me as You stilled the storm
Still me, keep me from harm
Let all the tumult within me cease
Enfold me, Beloved, in your peace.

Silence removes chaos and confusion

George Graham Price

"Know ye not that the Realm of Love is within you?" With this assurance, God is not far off. Silent prayer is the manner in which you talk to God, and in silence you hear the answer. Silence removes chaos and confusion. You hold the key which turns the lock in the door to the storehouse of God's infinite riches. May we use it.

In the depths of silence, we are all one

Wellesley Tudor Pole

In the depths of silence, we are all one, and it is through interior stillness that knowledge of our oneness with the Creator reaches us. It has been truly said that the voice of silence carries infinitely farther than the loudest cry. Such a union as this can never be ours except in silence, and through stillness and deep prayer and meditation we can begin to comprehend the meaning of Infinity and of that one Mind in which we all live and move and have our being.

When the Word is heard

Dr. Majmudar

When the Word is heard, you know that you were silent.

What word does silence have

Anonymous

Listen. What word does silence have for you today?

Let silence Tell you the secrets of the world

Anonymous

Secretly we spoke,
that wise one and me.
I said, "Tell me the secrets of the world. "
He said, "Shh ... Let silence
Tell you the secrets of the world. "

October 2007 (Vol. XX, No. 9)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

May Blessings of the Mystery greet you in the Silence, dear friends! Sacred Mystery abides within us all. As we develop a deeper connection to the Infinite Source of Life, we learn to love the Mystery and trust the Process of its life in us. We become aware that wherever the journey leads, Divine Presence travels in us, through us, and with us amidst the joys, challenges, and diminishments in our lives. We are never alone! So in the Silence, may we make room in our hearts, minds, and souls for the Divine Mystery of all life to more consciously unfold in our lives ...

O Dark Mystery So bright I cannot see

Betty Serafin The Rose of Five Petals

O Dark Mystery
So bright I cannot see
Sometimes hushed
Sometimes clanging in my soul

I enter as You reveal
Darting from tree to tree
Hide and seek
The Mystery

We have not been raised to cultivate a sense of Mystery

Rachel Naomi Remen My Grandfather's Blessings

We have not been raised to cultivate a sense of Mystery. We may even see the unknown as an insult to our competence, a personal failing. Seen this way, the unknown becomes a challenge to action. But Mystery does not require action; Mystery requires our attention. Mystery requires that we listen and become open. When we meet with the unknown in this way, we can be touched by a wisdom that can transform our lives.


The empty pathway by which we venture most surely into the Divine Mystery

Wendy M. Wright The Vigil

To begin to enter into the profound silence that resides in the depths of our beings is to begin to enter the realm of the Godhead beyond God. Beyond speech, beyond apprehension, is a realm of generative actuality, the realm of essential being out of which the Word is eternally begotten. Our silence is both  and the clear road by which the Word proceeds most directly into our hearts.


Incommunicable mysteries that transcend the capacity of language

Anne Dalke Teaching to Learn/Learning to Teach

... when we do not speak, we may listen, hear, understand, even communicate in other ways. If language distorts, silence may open us to revelation. There are mysteries of life known and apprehended only when one refrains from speech, incommunicable mysteries that transcend the capacity of language.

We are surrounded by a profound mystery

Cecil Collins

There is one thing that we are certain about and that is that we are surrounded by a profound mystery. And in some strange way we are asked to participate in this mystery and to collaborate with it.

Sister of Lady Wisdom

Anonymous

Mystery is the sister of Lady Wisdom.

The unfolding of Great Mystery

Jamie Sans Earth Medicine

The quiet mind
Brings calmness,
Infinite, eternal grace.
Born inside silence
Is the will to be.
Chaos becoming order,
The holiness of life,
The unfolding of Great Mystery.

This mystery is not far away, but is hidden within each one of us

Rowan Williams Ponder These Things

The icon bears witness to the nearness yet otherness of the Eternal. It introduces us to a world of mystery, yet at the same time, we discover that this mystery is not far away, but is hidden within each one of us, closer to us than our own heart.

He would rest in this pool of unknowing for as long a time as he was granted

Sonny Brewer The Poet of Tolstoy Park

Henry dropped to his knees, his bare toes finding the damp soil underneath the pine needles and leaves. He remained in that position for a quarter hour, unmoving, breathing slowly and deeply, watching the sky. Listening. The silent edge of dusk spread across the hillside. A luminous dark blue and purple void appeared to welcome the first star. And Henry, with loving respect for things he did not know, for what Cicero had called the unseen force that guides the body and guides the world, yielded to that unknown and unknowable force. He would rest in this pool of unknowing for as long a time as he was granted.

Mystery: it is all around us, and we do not know it

Mary C. Morrison Let Evening Come

Mystery: it is all around us, and we do not know it. But sometimes when we give it time and space, whether in deep peace or great anguish, it will come up behind us, or meet us face to face, or move within us, changing the way we see everything, and filling our hearts with joy and an upspringing of love that needs no direct object because everything is its object.


Show itself and at the same time withdraws

Martin Heidegger

Mystery is that which shows itself and
at the same time withdraws.

Empty of desire

Anonymous

Empty of desire,
the Mystery can be revealed.

When you begin to actively explore the mystery of your own mystery

Guy Finley

When you begin to actively explore the mystery of your own mystery,
God will solve the case.

Never lose a holy curiosity

Albert Einstein

One cannot but be in awe when contemplating the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity.


Remembering that every Mystery points to a high reality

Lawrence Kushner Honey from the Rock

Religion is a more or less organized way of remembering that every Mystery points to a high reality. A reality overarching and infusing this world with splendor. One pulsing through its veins. Unnoticed and unnamed. Of the Nameless One. A holiness so holy that it fills even our everyday illusions with spiritual meaning.

I have no doubt this unnameable Mystery within will finally crowd out the thorns

Macrina Wiederkehr The Song of the Seed

There is something in me that is not content to hang about directionless along the edge of the path ... A thirst in me so deep it will move aside the rocks, seeking moisture. There is a yearning that is intense in its desire to put God first.

It may take a lifetime, but I have no doubt this unnameable Mystery within, the seed that fell at the beginning of creation, will finally crowd out the thorns.

Yes, there is One who believes in me enough to continue singing up the country of my heart.

September 2007 (Vol. XX, No. 8)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be Heard?

Blessings, dear friends, in this time of seasonal change. As we return to autumn, may we be mindful of the cycle of work: you, the worker... the work itself... the tools used... the energy you offer... your intention... the result. Let all thoughts of competition go; seek to create calling on the company of the Heavenly Realm. Let the divine energy of Love work in and through you. You never work alone. And Silence helps every process to flow.

As the day brings us the petty round of irritating duties

Martin and Micah Marty

As the day brings us the petty round of irritating duties, help us perform them with laughter and a kind face; give us to go blithely on our business.

Service, gladly rendered, obligations squarely met, troubles well accepted

S. Molly Monahan Seeds of Grace

Service, gladly rendered, obligations squarely met, troubles well accepted or solved with God's help, the knowledge that at home or in the world we are partners in a common effort, the well understood fact that in God's light all human beings are important, the proof that love freely given surely brings a full return ... These are permanent and legitimate satisfactions of right living for which no amount of pomp and circumstance, no heap of material possessions, could possibly be substitutes.

True ambition is the deep desire to live usefully and to walk humbly under the grace of God.

The interturning of thought, intuition, and work to the highest possible good

Karyn D. Kedar The Dance of the Dolphin

That there is no separation between you and all that is good and true. Grace. A moment in thought where you are not alone, for you realize that you are part of a living, breathing creation. A moment where you understand that the unfolding of your life has meaning. Grace. The interturning of thought, intuition, and work to the highest possible good.

Never again will your work be a burden

Joel Goldsmith The Art of Spiritual Healing

When yonever again will your work be a burdenu can find something in your work that is in the nature of a service to be performed, . When you have found something into which you can put your heart and soul and you can pour out some measure of service, even if in the beginning it is the most menial of labors, it will lead you to the joy of expressing yourself. If your consciousness is filled with service and cooperation, then your activity regardless of its nature will express the service and cooperation in your consciousness, and it will be a steadily expanding and unfolding activity.

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers

Phillips Brooks

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.

Work for the sake of accomplishing the task at hand and understanding

Stephen F. Kaufman The Living Tao

Work for the sake of accomplishing the task at hand and understanding; in the beginning, the work is more important than the worker. When you finish your task, look at what you have achieved. If you have worked with your heart, you will be pleased with the results. These results will make you want to achieve even more in your next endeavor. The results are the true rewards of our labors.

Even the simplest tasks can be invested and imbued with sacred energy

Frank MacEowen The Mist-Filled Path

The greening spirit that is the shape of our sacred world is ever present, ever near to us. Our daily life can start to feel like a daily grind, causing us to forget this precious greening spirit of life. The Celtic Way banishes the heavy energies of a banal existence by sanctifying every moment with soul energy and purpose. Even the simplest tasks can be invested and imbued with sacred energy.

There is no separation between work and prayer

S. Mary Margaret Funk Humility Matters

Work is work and there's harmony in it when the dignity it deserves is allowed to thrive naturally. The greatest teaching manual labor provides a contemplative practice is that there is no separation between work and prayer: work is prayer and prayer is work.

Blessed are you who work with goodness

Nan Merrill Meditations and Mandalas

Blessed are you
who work with goodness
who stand for the right
who live in truth.
For you come to know the Friend
who dwells in the secret room
of your heart.

You are like an acorn planted
in fertile soil
that grows into a mighty oak.
Your work blesses others,
you radiate love;
joy delights your heart.

Works of love are the way to peace

Mother Teresa

Works of love are the way to peace. And where does this love begin? Right in our hearts. We must know that we have been created for greater things, not just to be a number in the world, not just to go for diplomas and degrees, this work and that work. We have been created in order to love and to be loved.

A work of art

Louis Calaferte

A work of art is revelation.

To view work as a pilgrimage is to put our heart's desires to hazard

David Whyte Crossing the Unknown Sea

To view work as a pilgrimage is to put our heart's desires to hazard, because merely by setting out, we have told ourselves that there is something bigger and better, or even smaller and better – above all something more life giving – that awaits us in our work, and we are going to seek it. We look around to see what we have for the journey and find at bottom that we possess only intuitions and imagination.
 

My work now is to give water to the trees

G. Mortenson, David Oliver Relin Three Cups of Tea

"My upside days are over, Greg Sahib," he said. "I'd like to work with you for many more years, but Allah, in his wisdom, has taken much of my strength. "

Mortenson hugged this may who'd helped him so often to find his way. Despite Mouzafer's talk of weakness, his arms were still strong enough to squeeze the breath out of a large American. "What will you do?" Mortenson asked.

"My work now," Mouzafer said simply, "is to give water to the trees."

All work that is worth anything is done in faith

Albert Schweitzer

No ray of sunshine is ever lost,
but the green which it awakens
into existence
needs time to sprout,
and it is not always granted
for the sower to see the harvest.
.
All work that is worth anything is done
in faith.

Blessed are you who work with goodness

Blessed are you
who work with goodness
who stand for the right
who live in truth.
For you come to know the Friend
who dwells in the secret room
of your heart.

You are like an acorn planted
in fertile soil
that grows into a mighty oak.
Your work blesses others,
you radiate love;
joy delights your heart.

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