Your arched aisles wooed me near, a place of peaceful rest amidst my struggles.

Even as a child I knew the sacredness of personal space. I remember going behind my grandmother's house to a place where I could hide behind tall weeds. I would sit for hours in my circle of stones. That space was so special I never revealed it to even my closest playmates... Sacred spaces can be created anywhere. When I felt a need for a sacred simplicity within my city home, on a sudden inspiration, I emptied a closet and painted it white. Within this purified space, I placed a stone, a leaf, a bowl of water and a sitting cloth from the Amazon -- things special to me at that moment. I had created my own sacred space.

A sacred space is a place where you feel comfortable and protected. You are free from outside influences to meditate, pray, or just sit quietly and be.

Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.

I looked at the gentle blue-eyed Englishman and asked him how he managed to meditate and concentrate in such a noisy, busy place.

"It's not difficult," he replied. "I simply incorporate the sounds into my meditation. It becomes a kind of rhythm. It doesn't disturb my peace and quiet at all."

I recognized that the quiet place, the sacred place, has to be within the person first of all.

This room was a sacred space, a place that he had chosen to make especially his own, a place redeemed from mere "use" in which he would make a conscious attempt to be at rest and to put a part of his life in order. In short, this was the evidence that the man was able to pray.

Let us enter into silence, that the Holy Mystery might take possession of us.

One day I stood quietly gazing through our sliding glass doors... It was a windless day and without thinking, I found myself slipping into a silent world. Then, something overcame me. Whereas silence had been a visitor, a friend with whom I communed when I chose, now silence slipped into the core of my being. Without my knowing, without even my conscious consent, silence entered me.

Wherever you live is your Sacred Chapel if you treat is as the abode of the Beloved.

Deep within your soul
there is a KNOWING PLACE
a sanctuary where gifts are nurtured.

Enter that sacred space.

Spend time there tending your gifts.

There in the chapel of your heart
you will become a gift to be given.