Quotations

A Wild Prayer for the World

Beloved Earth, ancient dreamer, keeper of bones and stories—
We, breath in your body, stardust in your veins,
Come before you with hearts both broken and burning.

In this time of the Great Turning,
When despair and possibility dance in the same holy darkness—
May we offer ourselves as imaginal cells in your metamorphosis...

May we be scattered like spores,
Each carrying a fraction of the future,
Each vital, each necessary, each aflame
With particular purpose...

May our courage rise to match the magnitude of these times.

~ Lynne MacNeil, "A Wild Prayer for the World"

Lynne MacNeil sophia

Nature is preparing for an uprising

Memo to Self: Stay close to nature, and to your own creaturely instincts. It's a cold, hard winter out there, but underneath the ice and snow, nature is preparing for an uprising. There's underground work to be done for and with your family and friends, your community, your country, your soul.

~ Parker Palmer

Parker Palmer sophia

Wisdom is whispering to you

In every moment,
in every event of your life
Wisdom
is whispering to you
exactly what you need to hear and know.

Who can ever explain this miracle?
It simply is.

Listen
and you will discover it
every passing moment.

Listen
and your whole life
will become a conversation
in thought and act between you and
Wisdom,
directly,
wordlessly,
now,
and always.

~ Rumi in LIGHT UPON LIGHT

Rumi LIGHT UPON LIGHT sophia

Transformation in Wisdom

I now find myself asking if possibly this is the time, the age, for Sophia:....a God image capable of moving with humanity into the next evolutionary era when the universe will be experienced...as an intimate, interconnected, and diverse communion of subjects...

Divine Sophia defies the supremacy of linear logic and rational analysis, she rejects the pyramid of hierarchical dualism by resisting our dichotomies....and withstanding the compartmentalized, objective mind-set to which we have been educated. In a word, Wisdom undermines the need to control life.

...when Divine Sophia, the Beloved, the Word "awakens"...then absolutely everyone and everything in the universe is experienced as indissolubly and harmoniously interconnected and part of an emerging Mystery that binds everything together.

~ Constance Fitzgerald, "Transformation in Wisdom" in CARMEL AND CONTEMPLATION

Constance Fitzgerald CARMEL AND CONTEMPLATION sophia

Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29

Let this darkness be a bell tower and you the bell.
As you ring, what batters you
becomes your strength

~ Rainer Maria Rilke from "Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29" translated by Joanna Macy in A YEAR WITH RILKE

Rainer Maria Rilke A Year With Rilke sophia

She is Divine Wisdom

She is Divine Wisdom. She watches over all people and all things in heaven and on earth, being of such radiance and brightness that, for the measureless splendor that shines in Her, you cannot gaze on Her face or on the garments She wears....She is like the Sun, which none can contemplate in its blazing face or in the glorious garment of its rays. For She is with all and in all, and of beauty so great in Her mystery that no one could know how sweetly She bears with people, and with what unfathomable mercy She spares them.

~ Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen sophia

Psalm 101

Making a home in our hearts,
You are our Companion and Friend...

I accompany those who love You,
that I may grow in wisdom;
I enter into the Silence, into the
Eternal Light,
and listen for your gentle Voice.

~ Nan Merrill, from her interpretation of Psalm 101 in PSALMS FOR PRAYING

Nan Merrill Psalms For Praying sophia

To melt the armor of our hearts

At the mystical heart of each of the Abrahamic faiths lie teachings about the transformation power of fire and the identification of the Holy One with light. In Judaism, the Shekinah—the indwelling feminine presence of God—took the form of a pillar of fire at night to lead the Israelites through the desert. ....May we let ourselves down into the arms of fire and allow it to melt the armor of our hearts. The excruciating fire of our loneliness and our fear of intimacy. The sweet fire of our longing for union with the Beloved. The purifying fire of radical unknowingness, which all the great mystics assure us is the beginning of knowing God.

~ Mirabai Starr in LIGHTING THE DARKNESS in the Interfaith Observer

Mirabai Starr sophia

A sign and mystery of our times

Over the past centuries, the being of Sophia, or feminine Divine Wisdom, has been emerging from the mists of ancient history...to become a sign and mystery of our times.... wherever we turn, we see traces of her coming—as if tracking the fringes of her mantle as it brushed aside the tangled, sclerotic cobwebs of centuries of cerebration. As she draws near, much that was forgotten is reentering consciousness, not only as memory but also from the future, as possibility. It demands that we rethink who we are, whence we have come, and whither we are going.

~ Christopher Bamford in the introduction to ISIS MARY SOPHIA

Christopher Bamford ISIS MARY SOPHIA sophia

An even deeper wisdom

Mystical wisdom derives from an ardent desire to abandon normal intellectual functions so that divine insight may enlighten this ardor and add to it another fire, much stronger, which lifts the burning soul towards an even deeper wisdom.

~ Hugh of Balma in LISTENING TO SILENCE

Hugh of Balma Listening To Silence sophia

A sacred reserve of energy

Love is the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mystical of cosmic forces. Love is the primal and universal psychic energy. Love is a sacred reserve of energy; it is like the blood of spiritual evolution.

~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin The Spirit Of The Earth sophia

Blessing in the Chaos

To all that is chaotic in you,
let there come silence.
Let there be a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim on you,
that have made their home in you,
that go with you
even to the holy places
but will not
let you rest....

Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath the chaos,
where you find the peace
you did not think possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.

~ Jan Richardson, "Blessing in the Chaos" in THE CURE FOR SORROW

Jan Richardson The Cure For Sorrow sophia

Not alone anymore

We know [God] in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore.

~ Dorothy Day in THE LONG LONELINESS

Dorothy Day THE LONG LONELINESS hospitality

We are one

...we need to find ways of sharing our intimate experiences of the Mystery, for we are one. It is through one another that we will know more of the Life that flows within us all. It is through sharing our fragments of insight that we will come to a fuller picture of the One who is at the heart of each life.

~ John Philip Newell

John Philip Newell hospitality

Travelers welcome

It is unusual a mailbox chokes you up, and because there are too many probable causes—not for the mailbox: for my being choked up—let me simply tell you it was the phrase affixed in those janky silver sticker letters, usually used for a name or address, a little crooked, the V and W peeling slightly, the phrase itself leaning back, lounging, or maybe almost indiscernibly ascending:
TRAVELERS WELCOME

~ Ross Gay in THE BOOK OF (MORE) DELIGHTS

Ross Gay THE BOOK OF (MORE) DELIGHTS hospitality

Stay with me

Stay with me,
Remain here with me
Watch and pray,
Watch and pray

~ Lyrics from the Taizé chant, "Stay with Me"

hospitality

Hallowed ground

The older I get, the more convinced I am that the space between people who are trying their best to understand each other is hallowed ground.

~ Fred Rogers

Fred Rogers hospitality

We must love them both

We must love them both—those whose opinions we share, those whose opinions we don't share. They've both labored in the search for truth and have helped us in finding it.

~ St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas hospitality

I trust

In surrender I clear a space in which something new can grow. I place my faith in something larger than me. I trust.

~ Katrina Kenison in MITTEN STRINGS FOR GOD

Katrina Kenison Mitten Strings For God hospitality

A good host

Someone who is filled with ideas, concepts, opinions and convictions cannot be a good host. There is no inner space to listen, no openness to discover the gift of the other. It is not difficult to see how those "who know it all" can kill a conversation and prevent an interchange of ideas. The more mature we become the more we will be able to give up our inclination to grasp, catch, and comprehend the fullness of life and the more we will be ready to let life enter into us.

~ Henri Nouwen in REACHING OUT

Henri Nouwen REACHING OUT hospitality

Beauty appears

The answer was overwhelmingly consistent: beauty appears when something is completely and absolutely and openly itself.

~ Deena Metzger in WRITING FOR YOUR LIFE

Deena Metzger WRITING FOR YOUR LIFE hospitality

One's courage

Life shrinks or expands according to one's courage.

~ Anais Nin in THE DIARY OF ANAIS NIN

Anais Nin The Diary Of Anais Nin hospitality

A prayer for reconciliation

Where there is separation,
there is pain.
And where there is pain,
there is story.

And where there is story,
there is understanding,
and misunderstanding,
listening
and not listening.

May we — separated peoples, estranged strangers,
unfriended families, divided communities —
turn toward each other,
and turn toward our stories,
with understanding
and listening,
with argument and acceptance,
with challenge, change
and consolation.

Because if God is to be found,
God will be found
in the space
between.

~ Padraig O'Tuama, "A prayer for reconciliation," in DAILY PRAYER WITH THE CORRYMEELA COMMUNITY

Padraig O'Tuama Daily Prayer With The Corrymeela Community hospitality

Forgiveness means accepting the core of every human being

Forgiveness means accepting the core of every human being as the same as yourself and giving them the gift of not judging them... Forgiveness starts with ourselves and extends to others. Accepting that the core of your own being is as precious and wonderful as that of any other person is the greatest gift you can ever give yourself.

~ Joan Borysenko in MINDING THE BODY, MENDING THE MIND

Joan Borysenko Minding The Body, Mending The Mind hospitality

Perhaps the World Ends Here

At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.

Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.

~ Joy Harjo from "Perhaps the World Ends Here" in THE WOMAN WHO FELL FROM THE SKY

Joy Harjo THE WOMAN WHO FELL FROM THE SKY hospitality

Psalm 78

Listen long in the Silence that the Word
may be heard,
that decisions arise from the depths
of your Inner Being where
Wisdom dwells.
For the Spirit of Truth is written upon
gentle and open hearts...

With steadfast love will the Counselor
guide you...

~ Nan Merrill from "Psalm 78" in PSALMS FOR PRAYING

Nan Merrill Psalms For Praying soul fire

The gift of utter clarity

But...winter has an even greater gift to give. It comes when the sky is clear, the sun brilliant, the trees bare, and the first snow yet to come. It is the gift of utter clarity...Winter clears the landscape, however brutally, giving us a chance to see ourselves and each other more clearly, to see the very ground of our being.

~ Parker Palmer in SEASONS

Parker Palmer Seasons soul fire

The light of the soul throws sparks

My friends, do not lose heart... For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement...One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires...causes proper matters to catch fire.

~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes in DO NOT LOSE HEART

Clarissa Pinkola Estes Do Not Lose Heart soul fire

Cracks of silence

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

~ Karyn Dedar

Karyn Dedar soul fire

Properties of Light

A field of light, and my need to say
that it exists. Each morning I walk here
almost blinded by water the sun shines on...

Limestone and granite give back radiance, and we
Walkers in this field lift our feet and set out,
moving through our once and only mornings,
afternoons... What if light
did not find itself renewable? As my necessity
for these words, mirrors I carry into the sun
of this blazing day, this dance, this carnival
where I am given access to another world,
to the spirits who walk with me
pointing out the properties of light.

~ Jeanne Lohmann from "Properties of Light" in THE LIGHT OF INVISIBLE BODIES

Jeanne Lohmann THE LIGHT OF INVISIBLE BODIES soul fire

A season of remembering

Solitude is a state of hospitality, a welcoming of all that needs attention. Solitude offers a ground that is embracing and inclusive. Everything can be made welcome in the broad arms of solitude, even fear. For as long as humans have sought counsel with the sacred, much of it has happened in a space set apart from others. Here, in silence and nourishing aloneness, we can become receptive to the influence of soul...

This is a season of remembering the ancient rhythms of soul. It is a time to become immense....to recall how embedded we are in an animate world—a world that dreams and enchants, a world that excites our imaginations and conjures our affections through its stunning beauty. Everything we need is here...

~ Francis Weller in IN THE ABSENCE OF THE ORDINARY

Francis Weller IN THE ABSENCE OF THE ORDINARY soul fire

Unraveling

There is something deeper than hope. Between the hours of darkness and dawn, the voices of our ancestors are amplified in the dreamtime—warning us of our awakening wisdom—a blessing to behold and a burden to enact.

~ Terry Tempest Williams in "Unraveling" EMERGENCE MAGAZINE

Terry Tempest Williams soul fire

Let us find meaning in mystery

We don't know what's around the uncharted bend in this wild river of change... Let us learn from our fellow Earth inhabitants, like mycelium networks who know about sharing resources, recycling toxins into nourishment, communicating underground. Let us find meaning in mystery rather than consumption. Let us turn our ears to the music rising out of the ground.

~ Geneen Marie Haugen in "Soulcraft Musings, November 8, 2024"

Geneen Marie Haugen soul fire

Primary Wonder

Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; caps and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng's clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed one, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.

~ Denise Levertov, "Primary Wonder" from SANDS OF THE WELL

Denise Levertov SANDS OF THE WELL soul fire

Blessing for the Longest Night

All throughout these months
as the shadows
have lengthened,
this blessing has been
gathering itself,
making ready,
preparing for
this night.

It has practiced
walking in the dark,
traveling with
its eyes closed,
feeling its way
by memory
by touch
by the pull of the moon
even as it wanes.

So believe me
when I tell you
this blessing will
reach you
even if you
have not light enough
to read it;
it will find you
even though you cannot
see it coming....

This blessing
does not mean
to take the night away
but it knows
its hidden roads,
knows the resting spots
along the path,
knows what it means
to travel
in the company
of a friend.

So when
this blessing comes,
take its hand.
Get up.
Set out on the road
you cannot see.

This is the night
when you can trust
that any direction
you go,
you will be walking
toward the dawn.

~ Jan Richardson, "Blessing for the Longest Night" from THE CURE FOR SORROW

Jan Richardson The Cure For Sorrow soul fire

Golden Repair of the Cracks in the World

I keep imagining how the time of collapse and chaos can also be a radical period of re-imagination and potential renewal... precisely in the midst of chaos each of us may be closer to finding a particular thread that gives our life genuine meaning and also gives us something to contribute to the re-imagining and reweaving of the world.

~ Michael Meade, "Golden Repair of the Cracks in the World" from MOSAIC VOICES

Michael Meade MOSAIC VOICES soul fire

This life is after all a miracle

You do your absolute best to find and hone and wield your divine gifts against the dark. You do your best to reach out tenderly to touch and elevate as many people as you can reach. You bring your naked love and defiant courage and salty grace to bear as much as you can, with all the attentiveness and humor you can muster. This life is after all a miracle and we ought to pay fierce attention every moment, as much as possible.

~ Brian Doyle in ONE LONG RIVER OF SONG

Brian Doyle ONE LONG RIVER OF SONG soul fire

Do Not Be Afraid

Do not be afraid, little flock. It is my Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. ~ Luke 12:32

The game is not over yet. We are still under the loving hand of our Common Father, and the marching orders have not changed: to live and establish ourselves in alignment with the highest benchmarks of what we know human beings are capable of: courage, commitment, compassion, forgiveness, conscience, integrity. To simply keep walking toward these, arm and arm if at all possible, for there the force of individual integrity is vastly magnified. Until then, as we all navigate through this season of winnowing, it will be more important than ever for those of you who can stay with it, to hold fast to sobriety, integrity, impartiality, and métis (skillful action at exactly the right time). To be able to look sphinx-like into the eyes of this necessary winnowing and not wince or flail. Not to indulge in nostalgia, self-pity, blame, or rumination. To keep walking forward in forgiveness and quiet hope into the future. Our Father is still trying to give us the Kingdom; the timing depends on our readiness to bear it. Let us continue, quietly, with the readying.

~ Cynthia Bourgeault, from the blog post "Do Not Be Afraid," on Wisdom Waypoints

Cynthia Bourgeault hope

Hope is a state of mind, not of the world

Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. It is an orientation of the spirit and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.

~ Vaclav Havel in DISTURBING THE PEACE

Vaclav Havel DISTURBING THE PEACE hope

Hope and history rhyme

History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

~ Seamus Heaney in THE CURE AT TROY: A VERSION OF SOPHOCLES' PHILOCTETES

Seamus Heaney THE CURE AT TROY: A VERSION OF SOPHOCLES' PHILOCTETES hope

To be hopeful in bad times

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

~ Howard Zinn in A POWER GOVERNMENTS CANNOT SUPPRESS

Howard Zinn A POWER GOVERNMENTS CANNOT SUPPRESS hope

Hope is holding a creative tension

Hope is holding a creative tension between what is, and what could and should be, and each day doing something to narrow the distance between the two.

~ Parker Palmer, from a podcast with Carrie Newcomer, Episode 29, December 31, 2020

Parker Palmer hope

Try this simple test

Sometimes, in this troubled world of ours, we forget that love is all around us. We imagine the worst of other people and withdraw into our own shells. But try this simple test: Stand still in any crowded place and watch the people around you. Within a very short time, you will begin to see love, and you will see it over and over and over. A young mother talking to her child, a couple laughing together as they walk by, an older man holding the door for a stranger — small signs of love are everywhere. The more you look, the more you will see. Love is literally everywhere. We are surrounded by love.

~ Steven Charleston in LADDER TO THE LIGHT: AN INDIGENOUS ELDER'S MEDITATIONS ON HOPE AND COURAGE

Steven Charleston LADDER TO THE LIGHT: AN INDIGENOUS ELDER'S MEDITATIONS ON HOPE AND COURAGE hope

It's in that place that the alchemy emerges

When we truly open our hearts to each other, there is no burden too heavy for us to carry together, there is no pain too deep for us to hold in each other's arms. And it's in that place that the alchemy emerges. It's in the cauldron of sharing our grief with our community, of gazing at it together and not looking away, that the heartbreak turns to hope.

~ Jeremy Lent in THE ALCHEMY OF HEARTBREAK AND HOPE: A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE FOR OUR TIMES

Jeremy Lent THE ALCHEMY OF HEARTBREAK AND HOPE: A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE FOR OUR TIMES hope

The Gates of Hope

Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope—
Not the prudent gates of Optimism,
Which are somewhat narrower.

Not the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense;
Nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness,
Which creak on shrill and angry hinges
(People cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through)
Nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of
"Everything is gonna' be all right."

But a different, sometimes lonely place,
The place of truth-telling,
About your own soul first of all and its condition.
The place of resistance and defiance,
The piece of ground from which you see the world
Both as it is and as it could be
As it will be;

The place from which you glimpse not only struggle,
But the joy of the struggle.
And we stand there, beckoning and calling,
Telling people what we are seeing
Asking people what they see.

~ Victoria Stafford, "The Gates of Hope" in THE IMPOSSIBLE WILL TAKE A LITTLE WHILE: PERSERVERANCE AND HOPE IN TROUBLED TIMES

Victoria Stafford THE IMPOSSIBLE WILL TAKE A LITTLE WHILE: PERSERVERANCE AND HOPE IN TROUBLED TIMES hope

Active hope is a practice

Active hope is a practice. Like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than have. It is a process we can apply to any situation, and it involves three key steps. First, we take a clear view of reality; second, we identify what we hope for in terms of the direction we'd like things to move in or the values we'd like to see expressed; and third, we take steps to move ourselves or our situation in that direction.

~ Joanna Macy in ACTIVE HOPE

Joanna Macy Active Hope hope

Hope is a muscle

Hope is a muscle, a practice, a choice that actually propels new realities into being. And it's a muscle we can strengthen. It is not the same as idealism or optimism. This kind of hope has nothing to do with wishful thinking. Hope as I've seen it lived is at once fierce and persistently joyful. I've come to understand this quality of hope as an essential foundation and power for the generative story, the generative landscape, that is emerging out of all of the rupture this moment in the life of the world has laid bare.

~ Krista Tippett, from her "Practicing Hope" course

Krista Tippett hope

Psalm 90

Gratitude softens us.

~ Nan Merrill from her interpretation of "Psalm 90" in PSALMS FOR PRAYING

Nan Merrill Psalms For Praying gratitude

Constantly awakening to the new wonder

Gratitude, therefore, takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to the new wonder to praise the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good not by hearsay, but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.

~ Thomas Merton in THOUGHTS IN SOLITUDE

Thomas Merton Thoughts In Solitude gratitude

Each of us owes the deepest thanks

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.

~ Albert Schweitzer in MEMOIRS OF CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, translated by Erica Anderson

Albert Schweitzer MEMOIRS OF CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH gratitude

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