February 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 1)

Winter: q quieting time to rest in the warmth of our heart's hearth. BLESSINGS TO ALL as we enter another new year, another new beginning to awaken ever more fully to Divine Loe at work in and through us. Each one of us is in need of true inspiration ... to have the indwelling FIRE reignited so that we can live with enthusiasm: a passion for Life, purpose, and jouy. FIRE: the Falme of Love that inspires the aspirations of our hearts!

What sets us on fire?

If we don't know in the depths of our being that God calls us "beloved," we need to. And if we do know it, and it hasn't set us on fire, then we don't know it well enough. Take time daily to be alone and silent before God. And an awareness of your utter belovedness will become a reality for you.

~ by Jan Orel
Jan Orel fire

The world has little by little caught fire

Throughout my life, by means of my life, the world has little by little caught fire in my sight, until a flame all around me, it has become almost luminous from within. Such has been my experience in contact with the Earth. The diaphany of the divine at the heart of the universe on fire ... a fire capable of penetrating everywhere, and gradually spreading everywhere.
~ from HEART OF THE MATTER by Teilhard de Chardin
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How to grow in being

As you develop spiritually, with increased sensitivity, you become more aware of God's creativity and ceaseless bounty. You value order, for you realize that this makes for harmony, and harmony is the keynote of the universe. You value time. Hours spent visiting someone are Love-filled hours. Above all, you value those most precious moments of the day when you withdraw from activity and experience contact with the Divine Fire of Love: source of all. When this is the most important thing in your life then you are indeed growing in being.
~ from GROWTH INTO BEING by Margaret Holmes
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A living flame of love

If we are in any way to solve the problems of our day, we must rely on the power of Another, not on our own power. It manifests itself in the human heart as a blind stirring of love, as a living flame of love. Sometimes, this inner fire drives people into solitude where they intercede for humanity and unleash a power which shakes the universe. But the same inner fire drives others into the midst of action with a passionate love for justice and a willingness to die for their convictions.

~ from THE INNER EYE OF LOVE by William Johnston
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A blessing is the natural expression of the fiery love

A blessing is the natural expression of the fiery love and inclusiveness of our inner spirit. It is the manifestation of a soul-fire, and each of us can be its hearth. Each of us, you and I, can be points of reconnection, points of remembrance, points of love. We can be blessings.
~ from BLESSING: the Art and Practice by David Spangler
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An all-consuming, passionate love affair

The story of the mystics is one of an all-consuming, passionate love affair between human beings and God. It speaks of deep yearning, of burning desire for the contemplation and presence of the divine beloved. Mystics seek participation in divine life, union, and communion with God. Their desire is kindled by the fire of divine love itself, which moves the mystics in their search and leads them, often on arduous journeys, to discover and proclaim the all-encompassing love of God for humankind.

~ by Ursula King
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That sublime Beauty will flame out in your heart

Whether your destiny is glory or disgrace,
Purify yourself of hatre and love of self.
Polish your mirror, and that sublime Beauty
From the regions of mystery
Will flame out in your heart
As it did for the saints and prophets.
Then, with your heart on fire with that Splendor
The secret of the Beloved will no longer be hidden.
 

~ by Jami in PERFUME OF THE DESERT edited by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut
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My body of a sudden blazed

While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed
And twenty minutes more or less
It seemed, so great my happiness
That I was blessed, and could bless.

~ by William Butler Yeats
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Tend the flame

Remain vigilant! Tend the flame, the Divine Spark,
that nurtures and guides your way!
Not for drugery or duty do you awaken;
rather to delight: to dance and play within creation's wonders.
Enlightened sould know the joy and power of humble service
offered freely, lovingly, and in harmony with the universal Song.
When the flame shines brightly,
who remembers the darkness?
Remain vigilant!
Even in lonely moments, remember to be mindful;
you are never alone.
 

~ from LUMEN CHRISTI...HOLY WISDOM by Nan Merrill
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Spiritual hunger is a living, radiant fir

Spiritual hunger is a living, radiant fire put by God into hearts so that the ego can be burned; when it has been burned, this fire becomes the fire of longing, which never dies, either in this world or the next. There is no quicker way to God than spiritual hunger; if it travels through solid rock, water gushes forth. Spiritual hunger is essential for the Sufis; it is the showering of God's mercy on them.
~ by Abu Said Ibn Abi Khayr
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The fire of contemplation

There is a realization taking place within me, as my eyes reach out through the skylight, that the deeper I go in prayer the farther out I go in the cosmos. Inner and outer are one. The mystics understood this as they went deeper into the inner experience of God. They experienced a harmonization of their lives with the greater rhythms of existence. They knew by faith what science knows empirically, that the universe is charged with the presence and reality of the Divine. These mystics allowed the fire of contemplation to transform them into a union of love with all creation. They understood that Divine Radiance floods the universe making all things holy.

~ by Gail Worcelo in "Earthlight," Issue 39. Fall 2000
Gail Worcelo Earthlight #39 fire

Barriers are sundered by the Divine Fire

Barriers are sundered, fetters are melted
By the Divine Fire,
And the eternal dawn of a new life rises
In all, and all in One.

~ by Vladimir Solovyov (19th century)
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No two hearts are on fire with God in the same way

No two hearts are on fire with God in the same way. We are all called to live this vibrant love of God in our own way, according to our own personality and temperament. In life's ups and downs, at times we will wonder if any fire remains in us. Because of our inner battles, we will at times resist the fire or fear its power. Yet, within us all, the fire of God continues to flicker even though we may not see its glow.

How do we keep the love of God aflame in us? We must stay close to the original flame of love, and draw near to the heat of God through daily prayer and through a continual yearning to be one with the divine presence. Each time we intentionally draw near to God, we light a candle in our heart.

~ from MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE? by Joyce Rupp
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Tend the flame

Remain vigilant! Tend the flame, the Divine Spark,
that nurtures and guides your way!
Not for drugery or duty do you awaken;
rather to delight: to dance and play within creation's wonders.
Enlightened sould know the joy and power of humble service
offered freely, lovingly, and in harmony with the universal Song.
When the flame shines brightly,
who remembers the darkness?
Remain vigilant!
Even in lonely moments, remember to be mindful;
you are never alone.
 

January 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 1)

BLESSINGS OF NEW BEGINNINGS asw enter the fifteenth year of Friends of Silence ... prayers and loe sent out to over 5300 individuals in homes around the world ... rippling out from the Silence we eah carry within our heart-home drawing others to unite in the Silence: Home to the Divine Guest who dwells within all whose heart-door is open.

Do not despise your own home and hour

The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is "look under foot." You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think. The lure of the distant and difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. Do not despise your own home and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is of the world.

~ by John Burroughs
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Home as places of preparation

Harry Emerson Fosdick urges the case for peaceful homes as places of nurturance. Nevertheless, he recognizes that our homes can become bastions against the world if they are not connected to work for the sake of the world outside. Fosdick affirms the ultimate purpose of peaceful homes:

O God of life, send from above
Thy succor, swift and strong,
That from such homes stout souls may come
To triumph over wrong.

Understood in this way, our homes are places of nurture but also of preparation. From such places some stalwart souls will envision the world in new ways.

~ from ATHENA'S DISGUISES: Mentors in Everyday Life by Susan Ford Wiltshire
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Workshop for the creation of our identity

HOME is not only a refuge and a sanctuary. It can also be a workshop for the creation of our identity.

~ from SPIRITUAL LITERACY by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
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I make Awareness my home.

I have no home --
I make Awareness my home.

~ 14th Century Samurai
14th Century Samurai home

To hallow home

He stepped back and breathed more slowly, and what he saw, lit by warning washes of honey and gold, was a respite in stillness from the unacknowledged acts of women to hallow home. That stillness today, he thought, might be all he would ever know of the Realm of Heaven.

~ from GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE by Susan Vreeland
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That eternity which is our home

The springs of the truest prayer and the deepest poetry, twin expressions of our outward-going passion for that Eternity which is our home, rise very near together in the heart.

~ by Evelyn Underhill
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Spiritual life is a response to a call

Spiritual life is a response to a call. Of our own accord we would never turn away from the world and begin the long and painful journey HOME. But Someone calls to us, calls to us from within the depths of our heart, awakening our own deepest longing. This call is like a golden thread that we follow, guiding us deeper and deeper within, always pointing to the beyond. It is both intimate and allusive, for it does not belong to the mind, but to the deepest core of our being. We hear it most easily when the conscious mind is still.

~ from THE CALL AND THE ECHO by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
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Earth is our home

Earth is our home ... the largest living creature in our solar system. The land, the water, the air, and all the things that live on and in them form a gigantic community, an enormous cell. Here fungi, eagles, toads, worms, grasses, mosquitoes, ferns, people, dolphins, spiders, oak trees, and lions — up to ten million separately distinguishable forms of life or species — share Earth's environments. Whatever happens to one part, for good or ill, ultimately affects us all, the whole Earth: our home of abundant riches and indescribable beauty.

~ from PORTRAITS OF EARTH by Freeman Patterson
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This is the Earth -- our home

Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon in long slow-motion movements of immense majesty there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more that a moment to fully realize this is the Earth -- our home.

~ Edgar Mitchell walking on the moon
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Home is within you

It has been said many times:
HOME is WITHIN you.
You are the light of the world.
Returning Home means remembering
your own true self: Light!

The path around our home
is also the ground of awakening.

~ by Thich Nhat Hanh
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The thirst for God

The thirst for God, the desire for unitive knowledge, is not something foreign to our nature. This desire is already in the human heart; the only reason we fail to perceive it is because it is usually covered up with petty worries and egotistical ambitions. Once these are removed, the true desire, buried in the deepest recesses of the human mind, will shine forth of itself and, like a flame, will leap toward heaven, which is its true Home.

~ the WAY OF PARADOX by Cyprian Smith
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Migratory birds fly very high

Migratory birds fly very high, for three reasons. First, at a high altitude they can see better where they are going. Secondly, they are above the predatory birds that may prey on them. Thirdly, in that rarefied atmosphere they can fly very swiftly and easily. That is a parable of the way of prayer. Our souls are migratory souls. Our home is not here, but with God, to whom we seek to rise on the wings of prayer. We want to get high to see where we are going ... to rise above the noises, the fuss, and all the complications that distract and rob our lives of their own spiritual quality ... to pass swiftly to our true home, the communion of our souls with God.

~ from CHRIST THE COMPANION by F. Andrew
F. Andrew Christ The Companion home

Coming Home

Through the cycles and seasons of our lives' as we continue to grow in awareness, we begin to feel more at home in the world. We begin to appreciate and accept who we are... We move from periods of joyful expansion into a dark night of the soul. We seem to reap the harvest of the sustained practice of attention and compassion and come to know ourselves in a new and more forgiving light, only to forget and return to what we thought were old, discarded ways. We suffer and we experience great delight. Yet deep within is a place of understanding, and to find this place is to come home.

~ "Coming Home to Simplicity" by Molly Vass-Lehman & Paula W. Jamison in SEEDS OF AWAKENING
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So that love may find a home here

In this life we are to become heaven
So that Love may find a home here.

~ by Meister Eckhart
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Undone again by Your embrace

Why do I forget You, abandon You?
You who are wholeness,
You who are home, always now, always present,
giving what every cell in me yearns for--
to collapse into Your warm breath of Life;
defenses drop, naked I be,
cherished solely for my nakedness,
my void, my forgetfulness.

Silence pregnant with all sounds,
I come back, prodigal that I am--
bruised, tired, wired,
To be undone again by Your embrace.

~ from "Mother Silence" by Vivian Larson
Vivian Larson Mother Silence home

December 2001 (Vol. XIV, No. 11)

BLESSINGS, dear friends, throughout this holy season! May each of us become aware of the angelic presences ever close by to omfort, protect, and guide us at every moment ... and, may we be assured of those angelic beings that lovingly watch over all those who have passed on to new life, uniting them with all who have gone before them. May all who are troubled feel themseles held in the comforting wings of Love.

Their line is never busy

No human being will ever have a better friend and confidant than his or her angel. Even in little things, they are always there to help you in distress, pain, unhappiness, or indecision. There is never a time when your angels are busy at something else and do not hear you; their whole concern is you and are always "on tap." Their line is never busy.

~ from THE GOLDEN PATH by Ruth Ryden
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Now I speak with angels all the time

I am now an emergency physician and the medical director of a busy trauma center in western Colorado. To this day I shake my head in wonder when I look back upon the series of events that has driven me inexorably to this point. I see now that it all began the night when my life was a certain and violent death. And I also see that I have been shepherded to this place in my life for a reason. Now I speak with angels all the time.

~ from THE EVOLUTION ANGEL by Michael Abrams
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An angel's hand is there

Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty: believe me, an angel's hand is there; the gift is here, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Our joys too: be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

~ by Fra Giovanni
Fra Giovanni

The angels tongues are pure praise

The angels tongues are pure praise. Fire is also praise, the flickering flames are praise. Voice is praise, hearing is praise. All these images of praise are images of movement: fire moves, wind moves, tongues move, breath moves, hearing moves. In this praise there is a reverse movement toward God, perhaps mirroring. Energy moves out from God through the angels, and this movement back toward God in the form of praise is vibratory, dynamic, and meaningful.

~ from THE PHYSICS OF ANGELS by M. Fox and R. Sheldrake
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All the angels are amazed at humans

All the angels are amazed at humans, who through their holy works appear clothed with an incredibly beautiful garment. For the angel without the work of the flesh is simply praise; but the humans with their corporeal works are a glorification! Therefore the angels praise humans' work.

~ by Hildegard of Bingen
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Stillness is our most intense mode of action

Stillness is our most intense mode of action. It is in our moments of deep quiet that is born every idea, emotion, and drive which we eventually honor with the name of action ... we reach highest in meditation, and farthest in prayer. In stillness every human being is great; he or she is free from the experience of hostility; she or he is a poet and most like an angel.

~ by Leonard Bernstein in "Religion and Ethics" by D.J. Green with thanks to Dorothea Queen
Leonard Bernstein, D. J. Green Religion And Ethics angels

Angels before me

Angels before me, guide and direct me.
Angels behind me, guard and protect me.
Angels above me, keep watching over me.
Angels beside me, care for and comfort me.

~ by Joyce Rupp
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Living the material half of the angel

The angels can know us more intimately and love us when we sing, and they are not asking that we sound like the Philharmonic. They ask us simply to sing because we are harmonic. We are symphonic and in these ways we can connect with the angelic world. I think and feel that the angels wait for us at every given moment. If we alternate song and silence, consciously, with burning attention, every rounded tone carves out the possibility to bridge heaven and earth, to live the material half of the angel.

~ by Therese Shroeder-Sheker
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Behaving like an angel

It is one of the goals of human beings to develop to the point where life is aligned to God in such a way that we behave like an angel in complete service to heaven.

~ from "The Sacred Face of Angels" by K. Martin-Kurl
K. Martin-Kurl The Sacred Face Of Angels angels

The angels urge us to sing

A legend told by the Venerable Bede says that the poet Caedmon was once completely mute. It was a custom in his village to spend evenings taking turns reciting poetry. On these occasions, Caedmon, unable to speak, would steal away to nearby hills to escape. One evening while walking alone, an angel appeared and urged him to sing. Miraculously, he began to sing and went on the become a famous poet.

~ from THE MANY FACES OF ANGELS by Harvey Humann
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Angels are the creating presences within all things

I see the angels as the creating presences within all things and all things as evidence of their presence. It is not, I believe, that all things are left on the doorstep of the earth by the angels without a trace of their source. Angels are the messengers who are also the message; they are the things of the world in their activity. Seen through spirit, all things are angel activities, and for that reason, the material world makes a spiritual difference. The work of angels takes place in the invisible; however, traces of angels always carry the mark of an authentic symbol, a uniting of what is above with what is below. As nature imitates the heavenly, so must we learn to do so consciously. The first discipline to be learned to achieve this capacity of working in harmony with the angels is meditation.

~ from THE ANGELS by Robert Sardello
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Angels do different things

Angels do different things. Some of them wipe your tears.

~ Dassi, age 5
Dassi angels

The Angel of each friend

Give love to the Angel of each friend and see the Light coming forth.

~ by E. N. Morgan
E. N. Morgan angels

I walk in a cloud of angels

I walk in a cloud of angels
I move encircled by light and glowing faces...
stricken by music too sublime to bear.

~ by Jessica Powers
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When I have gazed into a tidal pool

When I have gazed into a tidal pool
And seen the texture exquisite of stone,
Of life and plant, deep in the lucid cool,
It seems no greater wonder could be known.
Yet there's a cleanness I have known in dreams --
In those rare dreams that are like blessed wine --
A pure transparency wherein it seems
Is traced the form of the Creator's line.
Distinct and clear appears each one and thing,
And every grain of sand, as though I see
Through unseen water; and the angels sing
An unheard tone from heaven's melody.

So wonder grows to crystal-cut lucidity
Defining the great pattern of eternity.

~ by Helen Luke
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November 2001 (Vol. XIV, No. 10)

Peace-filled and hope-filled prayer FROM THE SILENCE, dear friends. Though our hearts are heavy, tried by fire in so many areas of our world and individual lives, may we remember that out of the deep well-springs of Silence come healing waters, the still Voice of Love, inspirations to know how to respond in these difficult times, and the courage and strength to speak out and act with great integrity and compassion. May each of us pause in the Silence for a few moments throughout the day to send peace, love, and healing to our wounded world. How each of us lives and thinks makes a BIG difference!

With silence as the single companion

As they talked together of The Way, the obstacles, the people, the signs ... you felt the great importance of the physicality of the quest. All of them stressed the power of silence: the need to be alone and find oneself in the silence. Moving alone, with silence as the single companion, seems a most profound means to register the natural balance of the world without, and world within.

~ from ON PILGRIMAGE by Jennifer Lash
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Without a word but in perfect communication

There are times when we go on a long tramp with someone for whom we greatly care. There has been talk, but it has now faded, and we can stalk mile after mile together without a word but in perfect communication – each glad for the other's presence, each glad the other is alive, each grateful to be the other's friend, each feeling understood, each cherishing the other.
~ from DIMENSIONS IN PRAYER by Douglas Steere
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The purpose of silence

The purpose of silence is to unite the world of things with the world of spirit and thus give the fairest life in all the world to body, mind, and soul.

~ by Christian D. Larson
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There is nothing in the world that resembles God as much as silence

 Silence is a privileged entry into the realm of God and into eternal life. There is a huge silence inside each of us that beckons us into itself, and the recovery of our own silence an begin to teach us the language of heaven. For, silence is a language that is infinitely deeper, more far-reaching, more understanding, more compassionate, and more eternal than any other language... There is nothing in the world that resembles God as much as silence.

~ by Meister Eckhardt with thanks to Craig Stevenson
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A silent heart is a loving heart

True silence is a key to the immense and flaming heart of God. It is the beginning of a divine courtship that will end only in the immense, creative, fruitful, loving silence of final union with the Beloved... This silence, then, will break forth in a charity that overflows in the service of the neighbor without counting the cost. Availability will become delightsome and easy, for in each person the soul will see the face of love. Hospitality will e deep and real, for a silent heart is a loving heart, and a loving heart is a hospice to the world.

~ from POUSTINIA by Catherine de Heuck Doherty
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Our culture is losing the art of silence

Our culture is losing the art of silence, and with it the intrinsic human understanding and capacity for prayer. Silent dwellers, by creating spacious times of physical silence in their lives, slowly recover the human capacity to be with themselves in a caring gentle way. For, it is in silence and solitude that one learns – or regains – the human quality of being in God's presence always.

~ from SILENT DWELLERS by Barbara Erakko-Taylor
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That which saves society

That which saves society is not that which can be seen upon the surface of things. It is not the power of industry, of war, of genius, of letter or arts. It is what touches its depths in a silence called the silence of good things. -- From a NY Times interview

~ by M. Puglisi thanks to Donna Ellingson
M. Puglisi silence

Great silence

The small truth has words that are clear;
The great truth has great silence

~ by Rabindranath Tagore
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When the Word weds silence

When the word weds silence,
It becomes a prayer

~ Anonymous
Anonymous silence

Being silent means waiting

Being silent means waiting, waiting for the Other to say something to us. Being silent before God means making room for God ... to breathe in the will of God, to listen attentively. The time of silence is a time of responsibility, of blessedness, because it is a time when we live in the peace of God. "For God alone my soul in silence waits."
~ from MEDITATING ON THE WORD by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief or bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing, and face us with the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

~ by Henri J. M. Nouwen with thanks to Catherine Tiedel
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Hungry for silence

Persons hungry for silence and for solitude seek a depth of contemplative experience in which one's usual assumptions about daily life are brought into question. The hunger for retreat carries with it a recognition that there is no other way out of many situations in which we find ourselves in the complexity of our lives. There is no other way than to take our messes into the darkness of silence before the Beloved... that by going into this silence, darkness, and helplessness can life be brought forth to sustain either ourselves or our world.
~ from "Come Apart and Rest Awhile" by Frances Irene Taber
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Silence is our real nature

Silence is our real nature... Holy and healing, there is no fear in silence. Silence is autonomous like love and beauty and untouched by time. Silence is meditation, free from any intention, free from anyone who meditates. Silence is the absence of oneself. And the one established in silence lives in constant offering, in prayer without asking, in thankfulness, in continual love.
~ Author unknown, with thanks to Ann LaVallee
Anonymous silence

The capacity for silence

The capacity for silence — a deep creative awareness of one's inner truth — distinguishes us as human.

~ S. Wendy Beckett
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Silence

Silence is also speech.

~ African proverb
Anonymous African Proverb silence

When silence enters

When silence enters
The whole universe changes
But the birds still sing.

~ by Edith Wallace
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The strength of the interior life

SILENCE is the strength and pace of the interior life.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous silence

The simplicity of willing one thing

Monks call us tothe simplicity of willing one thing: in a culture intent on a high standard of living, they insist on a high standard of life.Achievement versus grace: the exposure of the emptiness of fullness for the fullness of emptiness. The heart of this subversion is in planting within a person the appetite for silence. And once planted, once one tastes silence, and listening, and stopping, and being flooded by a Depth beyond all words ... once you do nothing, say nothing, think nothing, but just let yourself BE ... if you ever let this happen, it's all over for you. From then on, everything else seems insane.
~ from A SEASON IN THE DESERT by W. Paul Jones, thanks to H. A. Hull
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October 2001 (Vol. XIV, No. 9)

BLESSINGS of the Autumn season, dear friends, as we ponder the Great Mystery. All is Mystery. Every individual is a mystery never to be fully known or understood. Enter, then, the Silence with open heart and recognize the wondrous mystery that is uniquely yours to live ... yours to share in loving service.

Everyday life is filled with mystery

I no longer feel that life is ordinary. Everyday life is filled with mystery. The things we know are only a small part of the things we cannot know but can only glimpse. Yet even the smallest of glimpses can sustain us. Mystery seems to have the power to comfort, to offer hope, and to lend meaning in times of loss and pain. In surprising ways it is the mysterious that strengthens us at such times... What I have found in the end was that the life I had defended as a doctor as precious was also Holy.

~ from KITCHEN TABLE WISDOM by Rachel Naomi Remen
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Diving down deep as I can

God – and humankind too – is a mystery, a living paradox of opposites:

"Most deeply hidden and most nearly present, always acting and always at rest, still gathering and never wanting, seeking although in need of nothing!"

I dive down deep as I can and I find no end.

~ Augustine in JOURNEY FROM PARADISE by Ralph Harper
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A surrender to the holiness of the divine mystery

It is not outer reality that silence reveals, but our own innerness. Silence is essentially a surrender to the holiness of the divine mystery – whether we use these words or not. An atheist, calming his or her spirit in the peace of silence, is irradiated by the same mystery, anonymous but transforming. We are to listen. To what? To silence.

~ from MEDITATIONS ON SILENCE by S. Wendy Becket
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On the surface of mystery

Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery.

~ by Annie Dillard
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The mystery names and claims us

Taking on the mystery is yielding to grace, letting go of all analyses, explanations, ideologies, self-images, images of God, agendas, and expectations. Taking on the mystery is undergoing the finitude of years, hallowing diminishments, and living into the solitude of our own integrity. Taking on the mystery is undergoing the pain of learning that there re no empires favored by the Holy One ... the grief of understanding that there are not theologies favored by the Holy One. Taking on the mystery is acknowledging that we cannot name the mystery, though we try, we cannot claim the mystery, though we do. The mystery names and claims us ...

~ from A TIME TO LIVE by Robert Raines
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A mystery of consciousness

The sacred is plainly a mystery of consciousness – using the word MYSTERY to signify not a problem that can be intellectually solved, but a process of awakening and transformation that must be acted out in order to be experienced, and experienced if one is to make it one's own.

~ from THE SACRED by Francis Huxley
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The deeper mystery

It is the Beloved who is seeking us, calling to us, longing for us. We always think that we are the seeker, but the deeper mystery is that we are the called.
~ from THE CALL AND THE ECHO by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
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Connected by Mystery

We are a unity in our diversity
Jewels in a very large web
connected by "Mystery"

But "Mystery" the same for all
but called by different names

The name may be the limit
that tears the strands apart
of the web
connecting us in it.

~ from "Unity in Diversity" by Eleanore Milardo
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What a mystery!

Simply put, God wants everything ... What a mystery! To want to loose all, willingly, and with each release to realize you have been increased and made into what you could nevr make of yourself regardless of all you may possess.What a mystery!
~ by Guy Finley with thanks to Chris Roberts
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The ultimate mystery of things

Spiritual disciplines are being renewed throughout the world. For some, the ultimate mystery of things is experienced in the depth of the inner self, for others in the human community, for still others in the earth process itself. Yet in each instance, the full sense of communion seems to be present.

~ by Thomas Berry
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Knowing the sacred mystery

O Great Mystery
We give thanks for the natural world we see:
All the Creatures, Stones and Plants
Who show us how to be.
We learn their lessos seek their truths,
Return our loving praise,
We honor the peace they show us,
Which guides our human ways.
We ask that we may become like them,
Living in harmony,
And deep within our heart of hearts,
Know the Sacred Mystery. 

~ from PEACE PRAYERS by Jamie Sams
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This luminous mystery

Dance was my way of praying, of listening, of celebrating, it wasmy way of being as beautiful as the life around me. Now I feel hideous, unloved, abandoned. I lie down and sob and I feel a screeching hunger for mil, for some essence to flow from the sky and reach down through my shattered mind and reconnect me to warmth and calm. And very gradually it happens. The life in the trees and grass and the warm rocks enters my body and joins me to them. One morning, I sit up and see the incandescent trees in silent communion with each other, immersed in love. This is the world, I think, the real world. Whatever happens to me, the world is still this luminous mystery.

~ from THE SUBTLE SELF by Judith Blackstone
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Penetrating further into the Mystery of creation

If only we refuse to take our world for granted, we can detect something artful lurking at the heart of life, inviting us deeper into the world, allowing us to penetrate further and further into the Mystery of its creation, perhaps even promising us a new relation to everything we know.
 

~ from VLADIMER NABOKOV by Brian Boyd
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Taking upon us the mystery of things

And take upon 's the mystery of things,
As if we were God's spies.

~ Shakespeare
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The revealed mystery of God

The revealed mystery of God is fathomless.

~ by Hans Ur von Balthasar
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The mystery of the inner world

Anyone who has probed the inner life, who has sat in silence long enough to experience the stillness of the mind behind its apparent noise is faced with a mystery. Apart from all the outer attractions of life in the world, there exists at the center of human consciousness something quite satisfying and beautiful in itself, a beauty without features. The mystery is not so much that these two dimensions exist – an outer world and the mystery of the inner world – but that we are suspended between them, as a space in which both worlds meet ... as if the human being is the meeting point, the threshold between two worlds.

~ from THE KNOWING HEART by Kabir Helminski
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September 2001 (Vol. XIV, No. 8)

GREETINGS, dear friends, as we move into a new season, a new focus for many ... a time to pause remembering that deep silence awakens the power of your inner being, your clarity of mind, and your intuitive wisdom. Your silence will enhance whaeer you do, whatever the task. May the Work you are called to offer in service to others, to the world, bear the "trademark" of the light you are.

Important work that anybody can do

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was important Work to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did. Somebody was angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

~ from a Friend of Silence in Philippines
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To do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value

Do not forget that the value and interest of life is no so much to do conspicuous things as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value.
~ Teilhard de Chardin
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What good work is about

Good work is really all about love's way

~ Fran Peavey
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Barter my labor instead of my soul

Sandy and Ginny knew what they wanted to create for their neighborhood. They started with three goals: to make a safe place for everyone; to offer nourishing meals affordable to all people; to offer job training and work experience.

"We talked to a lot of people, but I was struck that one of our future customers said: 'Create a place where I can barter my labor instead of my soul.'"

 

~ from ORDINARY GRACE by Kathleen A. Brehony
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Work flows out of your fullness

Villagers in AFrica are interested not in accumulation but in a sense of fullness. Abundance means a sense of fullness, which cannot be measured by the yardstick of the material goods we possess or the amount of money in a bank account. Abundance, in that sense of fullness, has a power that takes us way from worry. It is the kind of feeling you get when you are in communion with the natural, in communion with the source. There is some sense in which the work,, or the love of work, is the love of this kind of abundance. It is the kind of fullness you get by being with other people. Most work done in the village is done collectively. The purpose is not so much the desire to get the job done but to raise enough energy for people to feel nourished by what they do. The nourishment does not come AFTER the job, it comes BEFORE the job and DURING the job. The nation that you should do something so that you get paid so that then you can nourish yourself disappears You are nourished first, and then the work flows out of your fullness.
~ from THE HEALING WISDOM OF AFRICA by Malidoma Some with thanks to Fredi Brown
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Rules for an icon painter

Rules for an icon painter: During work, pray in order to strengthen yourself physically and spiritually; avoid, above all, useless words, and keep silence.

~ from PRAYING WITH ICONS by Jim Forest
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May the work you do make your heart sing

May the work you do make your heart sing,
and my the vocation you choose be LOVE.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous work

God is absorbed in work

God is absorbed in work, and hears
the spacious hum of bees, not the din,
and hears far-off
our screams. Perhaps
God listens for prayers in that wild solitude.
And hurries on with weaving:
till it's done, the garment woven,
our voices, clear under the familiar
blocked-out clamor of the task,
can't stop their
terrible beseeching. God
imagines it sifting through, at last, to music
in the astounded quietness, the loom idle,
the weaver at rest.

~ "The Task" by Denise Levertov
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What is my work?

I have one longing only: to grasp what is hidden behind appearances... What is my work? ... to let the mind fall silent that I may hear the Invisible calling.
~ Nikos Kazantzakis
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True vocation joins self and service

True vocation joins self and service, as F. Buechner asserts when defining vocation as "the place where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need."Buechner's definition starts with the self and moves toward the needs of the world: it begins, wisely, where vocation begins – not in what the world needs (which is everything), but in the nature of the human self, in what brings the self joy, the deep joy of knowing that we are here on earth to be the gifts that God created.
~ from LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK by Parker Palmer
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Moved quite naturally and joyfully to serve others

Once God has become a living reality for us, we simply have to love others. We cannot do otherwise. And once we live in love, we are moved quite naturally and joyfully to serve others. God is love and if we live in union with God, we have the strength and longing to love others. Service is a spiritual activity, the natural fruit of love.
~ from WISDOM OF SUNDAR SINGH
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To do the smallest thing so supremely well

A pair of long, black woolen stockings hung there, and in one of them a huge darn. A perfected circle of calmly woven thread, no bobble or tug, no tension, no rough knot. Only someone very special, stable, and peaceful could make that kind of darn. To me it was a work of art. To do the smallest thing so supremely well, it had to be done with Love.
~ from ON PILGRIMAGE by Jennifer Lash
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Seed sowed in weakness and in the dust of daily life

Many a humble soul will be amazed to find that the seed it sowed in weakness, in the dust of daily life, has blossomed into immortal flowers under the eye of love.
~ Harriet Beecher Stowe
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Work made holy

Over many a Sabbath the lads showed me where the rabbit warrens were, and the places in the rocks along the coast where the plovers hid their eggs, to be looked at but never disturbed. For hardy lads they had a gentle touch with flowers, and the discovery of a tiny bloom hidden beneath the leaves of a larger plant would draw from them both a sudden intake of breath.In the same manner that we played, so too we worked, and we made of work a thing of joy, for even hard work shared is work made worthwhile, and when shared with those we love, it is work made holy. So, I believe, not because someone taught me with some words, but because, clear and simple, that was the way of it.
~ from DARK THE NIGHT, WILD THE SEA by Robert McAfee Brown
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July-August 2001 (Vol. XIV, No. 7)

BLESSED BE, dear friends! May you pause these summer days to bask in solitude and silence. They will refresh your soul! for, Love's sacred Spark is lit in the secret space of the soul, the innermost depths of silence, where the Divine Fire makes its hearth.

soul is the substance of the universe

To nourish the soul means to become kinder, more compassionate, wiser, and more loving, often through the making of difficult choices that foster growth rather than safety. The nourishment and growth of the soul is very reason for human life. When we nourish the soul we nourish God, increasing the abundance of the life that we can see – our children, or society – and the levels of life we don't see at all. In a larger sense, soul is the substance of the universe, knowing itself and growing itself.
~ from HANDBOOK OF THE SOUL by Joan Borysenko
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How the soul finds the path

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life long and arduous quest after Truth and soul requires inward restfulness to attain its full height.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
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In the center of Love's embrace is the circle of the soul

In the center of Love's embrace is the circle of the soul and the body. For just as the Word of God penetrates all creation, so does the soul penetrate the whole body like wind flowing through a house or like a sower seeding fertile ground or like a mother soothing her crying babe. Yet all these wonder are held in the arms of Love an are linked in a delicate balance in a universe creted to be of service to humanity so men and women can work with it.
~ from SCARLET MUSIC: A Life of Hildegard of Bingen by Joan Ohanneson
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The voice of God speaks but of the soul

It had never been my intention to discover something new. I wa simply forced to follow the call of a voice. Now I know; it was the voice of God I wanted to hear, the voice I divined as a child, of which I dreamt when I read in the Old Testament that it sounded not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but that it was a gentle whisper. The voice of God speaks but of the soul, the soul speaks but of life, and as he soul means life, God means life itself, the beginning and end of a gigantic current which flows in eternal movement, in time and space, beyond time and space, and beyond any judgment.

~ from ORPHEUS by Alfred Wolfsohn
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The oftimes disowned inner guardian of our lives

I have come to understand soul as the unseen, oftimes disowned inner guardian of our lives, a force weaving together the threads of heart, mind, and spirit that fashions us into an integrated piece of work.
~ Susan C. McElroy
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Your soul suffers if you live superficially.

You know of the disease called sleeping sickness. There also exists a sleeping sickness of the soul. Itsmost dangerous aspect is that one is unaware of its coming. That is why you have to be careful. As soon as you notice the slightest sign of indifference, the moment you become aware of the loss of a certain seriousness, of longing, of enthusiasm and zest, take it as a warning: your soul suffers if you live superficially.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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Faith lengthens the soul

Faith lengthens the soul, charity widens it, hope gives it height.

~ Isaac of Stella
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The rainbow soul

The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.

~ Minquass tribe proverb
Anonymous soul

The soul of the universe

The soul of the universe is never seen;
its voice alone is heard ...
It has a gentle voice like a woman,
a voice so fine and gentle that
even children cannot become afraid.
What it says is,
"Be not afraid of the universe."

~ an Alaskan adage or teaching
Anonymous soul

In the school of adoration

In the school of adoration the soul learns why the approach to every other goal had left it restless.
~ Douglas Steere
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How to stay connected to my soul

To help my stay connected to my soul, I begin each day by spending an hour in nature. Every day I give gratitude; every day I meditate. One day a month I devote to silence and reflection. Usually I fast on this day; it's a whole day of being, and of listening to my inner guidance. There is no doing. I literally either walk in silence or sit insilence listening. These practices help open my creative fires to the mysteries of the soul.
~ from "Gateway to the Soul" by Angeles Arrien
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Soul of the community

Since early times, the Holy Soul was known to the people of Israel as the Shekinah. She brought peace and harmony into the community, working into the "soul of the community." Shekinah also means "Divine Presence," and he most direct and immediate experience of the Holy Soul or the Shekinah is the presence of a sense of peace and harmony prevailing on the soul level – a kind of "overlighting" from the community of souls gathered together.
~ from THE MOST HOLY TRINOSOPHIA by Robert A. Powell
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You have found your soul friend

According to Celtic spiritual tradition, the soul shines all around the boy like a luminous cloud. When you are very open – appreciative and trusting – with another person, your two souls flow together. This deeply felt bond with another person means you have found an ANAM CARA or "soul friend." Your ANAM CARA always beholds your light and beauty, and accepts you for who you truly are.

~ from ANAM CARA by John O'Donohue
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Attending to our souls

We allow loss of soul awareness at our own peril and that of humanity and planet Earth! We can only become authentic individuals by attending to our souls throughout our lives.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous soul

The glorious sound of a soul waking up

What is this precious love and laughter
Budding in our hearts?
It is the glorious sound
Of a soul waking up!

~ Hafiz
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If we are willing to sit quietly and wait for a while

If we want to support each other's inner lies, we must remember a simple truth. The human soul does not want to be fixed, it wants simply to be seen and heard. If we want to see and hear a person's soul, there is another truth we must remember.The soul is like a wild animal – tough, resilient, and yet shy. When we go crashing through the woods shouting for it to come out so we can help it, the soul will stay in hiding. But if we are willing to sit quietly and wait for a while, the soul may show itself.

~ from THE COURAGE TO TEACH by Parker Palmer
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June 2001 (Vol. XIV, No. 6)

WELCOME to the myriad songs of summer, dear friends! May you awaken to the place of peace where you begin to hear Love's song -- the still, sacred space of Silence within your own welcomin gheart. Listen to your soul-song uniting in harmony with creation's song: the Universal Symphony!

Birds inspire and uplift us with their carols

Birds inspire and uplift us with their carols... In the muslc of both birds and humans, beauty is "the wine which overflows." When the last lark has fallen silent, something holy will have vanished from the world. The chorus of life will be muted. The cathedral of the earth will have lost its choir.

~ from THE SOULS OF ANIMALS by Gary Kowalski
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Music is a disciplined feeling

Music is a DISCIPLINED feeling, sound given form and pattern through number and rhythm – the single sound of the universe bringing consciousness through incarnation in music to the inner ear of the soul . As a woman, it is the masculine creative spirit within, who brings me the sound of the music of God – unlike man, who hears it through the numinous feminine within. God's music unites all.

~ from SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MADE ON by Helen Luke
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The song nobody else can sing

Listen for the special music,
the song nobody else can sing
but you.

~ Denise Shekerjian
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While the song I came to sing remains unsung

I have spent my days
stringing and unstringing
my instrument
While the song I came to sing
remains unsung.
~ by Rabindranath Tagore
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The loveliness of the music depended upon my saying "yes" to the silence

Once a visiting musician said to me in an empty auditorium, "Play, and listen to the silence between the notes. The silence between the notes is as important as the music itself." Enhanced by the emptiness, the sound of my flute soared over the space and sang back from the far wall. But the sílences where I paused to breathe were even more lovely and articulate, creating a wholeness I had not perceived before. The silence shaped itself to the voice of the flute. The loveliness of the music depended upon my saying "yes" to the silence between my notes.

~ from GRACE'S WINDOW bv Suzanne Guthrie
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To listen to music has not practical purpose

To listen to music or to sing a chant is to do something that has no practical purpose; it is just celebration and praise; it is just tasting the joy and beauty of life, the glory of God. Listening to it, even in the midst of a very purposeful day, reminds us to add the other dimension to our experience, the dimension of meaning, that makes it all worthwhile.

~ from THE MUSIC OF SILENCE by David Steindl-Rast
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What is the formless?

The formless, what is that? As a pianist, I can best begin to understand through the study of piano music: notes on a page, each one to be taken hold of by the fingers and made to sing. One learns to listen, to seek the composer's intention, to try to recapture the tempo; to give attention to every note, however small, and to love each silence... Music is a transmission from one person to another, a deepening of understanding, and an awakening to the sense of beauty and order which lives deep inside us.

~ Claire Sykes in "Parabola" - Summer 1996
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Let it come through you like something that doesn't belong to you

When I used to compose music, I'd sit for ages squeezing it out of myself; I made a huge effort, drove myself. But there was nothing like that this time. It was like music pouring out by itself. It was like the desire to sing – and I sang, the desire to pray – and I prayed. Do you remember?

The abbot said: "Let it come through you like something that doesn't belong to you."

~ from PILGRIMAGE TO DZHVARI by Valeria Alfeyeva
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There is a divine music

There is a divine music called the silence of the Spirit.

~ Kirsten Daiensai
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Erase the din of noise and hear the music

The rock vibrates, the air is riven
Like ripe fruit splayed on a summer's day
The bird's song is used to call a mate,
Warn of danger, find a nest...
If you listen you will hear our
Universal music on the street, in the air.
It is not the splitting of reeds,
The thrumming of strings,
The thrusting of air, or tambour of skins.
It is the passion and yearning to fully
become that which we already are.
To reach out and express...
to become connected and more whole.
Erase the din of noise and hear the music.
It is all around.

~ by James P. Behony
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Silence is my music now

One of the things he liked most about the hermitage was the silence. "Silence is my music now." He could pick up the small sounds of insects and animals. Sometimes when the wind was strong, it blew the sound of the traffic to him. He liked to think of all the people going on with their lives and to think of himself as in a sense staying where he was for their sakes, "like a lighthouse keeper."

~ from "The Music of Silence" by Phyllis Rose in Atlantic Monthly" - Oct. 1997
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Hearing him play, he knew there was a God

Nadia Boulanger once described a Menuhin recital: He gave a number of encores, and the last was the slow movement of Brahm's Sonata in D minor. What happened then was part of an indescribable completeness. The whole house found itself in the grip of the same mute emotion, which created silence of an extraordinary quality. Everyone understood, felt, participated in what he himself must have been feeling." Menuhin has always possessed this quality. Even as a child, his playing had an innate innocence (which is still intact) that made Einstein declare that, hearing him play, he knew there was a God.

~ from CONVERSATIONS WITH MENUHIN by David Dubal
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The reason we are singing to one another

I think, to a poet, the human community is like the community of birds to a bird, singing to each other. Love is one of the reasons we are singing to one another, love of language itself, love of sound, love of singing itself, and love of the other birds.
~ by Sharon Olds
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Become the music you long to sing

Become the music you long to sing: the beautiful song of your soul.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous music

What is silence?

Silence for me is music.

~ by Marcel Marceaux
Mrcel Marceaux music

The mystery of the voice its its potent transformative sounds

My spiritual heritage included the weekly hymn by P. P. Bliss which continues to come to mind:

Sing them over again to me,
Wonderful words of Life.
Let me more of their beauty see,
Wonderful words of Life.
Words of Life and Beauty
Teach me faith and duty:
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of Life.

The mystery of the voice and its potent transformative sounds may be experienced int he wonderful words of life, the tuning and vibration of the sacred breath, and the roaring silence of internal thought. 

~ by Don G. Campbell
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May 2001 (Vol. XIV, No. 5)

SPRING BLESSINGS! dear friends. A brief meditation, if you wish:

In the silence, repeat your name to yourself a few times ... reall the different feelings of being alled by name over the years: by family members ... teachers ... friends ... nicknames ... titles ... changes of name. Listen. Imagine God, the Beloved of your heart (whateer name you all the Unnameable Mystery) calling you by name ... Silently bask in this naming as a way of honoring your name and the Name.

We are uniquely loved more than we can imagine; each one of us is known and called by name. How we respond is up to us. 

Do not debase the name

Know who you are.
Do not debase the name.
Carry it in your heart,
a root flame of love.
Walk through the world in silence.
The moment will come.
The sign will be a soft, stirring of wings,
a gold shimmer of air.

~ from MARROW OF FLAME by Dorothy Walters
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A name is an important word with meaning and energy

A name ís an important word with meaning and energy that identifies someone or something. Our names bring certain patterns to our lives and have the capacity to forge our destinies. A name is also used as a way of entering into a person's world, wisdom, or life ... a code ingrained is us that allows us, when it is called, to remember, recognize and respond to our purpose.

~ from WELCOMING SPIRIT HOME by Sobonfu E. Some
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There are many truths that do not have a name

There are many truths that do not have a name. Truths do not need names. But we do. We notice truths with names much more easily than truths we have not yet named, and naming is a way of realizing a truth that we had not noticed before

~ from WINDFOREST by Ellen Fremedon
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A name is a holy place

A name is a holy place. The name is a womb that nourishes the one who bears it with all the love and hope mingled in the giving of the name. If not dictated by some angel, names are chosen carefully for for saints or statesmen, prophets or poets, family doctors or relatives or places with wonderful sounds. Names are chosen with love in gratitude or by faith in potential or for hope of intercession. Names carry meaning within them, every year of life drawing out the meaning of the life named.

~ from GRACE'S WINDOW by Suzanne Guthrie
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One who knows the true names of thlngs

The human being is God's representative on this earth, one who knows the true names of things. This knowing of the names is the knowing of the distinguishing characteristics of things, their innate qualities.

~ Kabir Helminski
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We might have given it any other name

We have seen the highest circle of spiraling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Silence. But we have named it God because only this name, for primordial reasons, can stir our hearts profoundly. And this deeply felt emotion is indispensable if we are to touch the dread essence beyond logic.

~ Nikos Kazantzakis
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The name of the living God

All things change when you measure them.
You might as well sing, the sound of your voice
joining the others, like water overflowing,
the name of the living God.

~ Kathleen Norris
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Please call me by my true names

Please call me by my true names
so I can hear all my cries and
my laughs at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion.

~ Thich Nhat Hahn
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What is my name?

What is my name? What is your name?
What is God's Name?
Our name is: that we must be born.
And the Creator's name is: to bear.
The soul alone among all creatures
is generative like God is.

~ Meister Eckhart
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Name of names

Name of names, our small identity unravels in You. You give it back as a lesson.

~ from PRAYERS OF THE COSMOS trans. by Neil Douglas-Klotz
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God's Name sounded like breath

"YHWH."It is the Name that by tradition we are forbidden to pronounce. Free yourself, I thought. Pronounce it. With no vowels, it came out: "Yyyyhhhhwwwwhhh." It sounded like breath. God's Name: the breath of life! No words, just the whispering, murmuring sound of a deep-drawn breath. For years I took delight in this discovery It hanged the way I prayed.Yet the hart of what had moved me I still had not discovered. I did not know it was my mother's breath I yearned for. For my mother to breathe easy once again, to draw once more a deep and even breath – that would be God for me. For each of us I realized, the deepest Name of God arises from the depths of our own life.

~ from GODWRESTLING: ROUND 2 by Arthur Waskow
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Ceaselessly weaving your name on the loom of my mind

I weave your name on the loom of my mind
To clean and soften ten thousand threads
And to comb the twists and knots of my thoughts.
No more shall I weave a garment of pain.
For you have come to me, drawn by my weaving,
Ceaselessly weaving your name on the loom of my mind.

~ Kabir
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The symbolic meaning of names

In ancient times the symbolic meaning of names was an assumed part of their overall significance: a name was far more than simply an identifier, it was a way of truly and essentially knowing the person or thing named. Choosing a name for a child was not taken lightly, as that name would necessarily prove to be a source of strength or weakness for that individual throughout his or her life... More recently, the belief in a deep existential connection among all things allows for the possibility that our name is fundamentally correct for us.

~ from THE HIDDEN TRUTH OF YOUR NAME
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To name something

To name something is to imbue it with soul.

~ Phil Cousineau
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The Name unites us all in a wondrous dance of being

The Name unites us all in a wondrous dance of being. One way of knowing God's Name is by linking our own life-breath with the life-breath of creation. Consider how it will affect even our casual conversation when we realize that each time we breathe, we call God's Name. Whenever we breathe we invoke the sacred. How this awareness will change the way we use our breath and our speech. The Name calling us most fully to embrace the divinity breathing throughout Creation, is the one Name we cannot appropriate, the one Name we cannot own.

~ from THE PATH OF BLESSING by Marcia Prager
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The mirrors of silence

Diving Love and Light are the mirrors of silence in which all of creation is reflected. Be still and know.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous nature

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