April 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 4)

My daughter, three years old and fearless, loves nothing more than wading along the shallow shoreline outside our house. Holding hands, we walk barefoot upstream quietly in the water, stepping delicately over stones. Besides the water sounds, there is just immense silence. We stop and listen to the water. She asked me for a story; I did not have one. Listening, she turned in delight and announced, "Daddy, this water is talking." In listening to the river a kind of silence prevails, broken only by the rush of water over rocks. Such a silence is more like faint echoes, each a series of dim reverberations. They continue in you, distant yet familiar.

~ by Robert Reese
Robert Reese nature
April 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 4)

Silently a flower blooms,
In silence it falls away;
Yet here now, at this moment, at this place,
The world of the flow, the whole of
the world is blooming.
This is the talk of the flower,
the truth of the blossom;
The glory of eternal life is fully shining
here.

~ by Zenkei Shibayama
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)

Prayer fulfills the need humans have for God, for inspiration, for affirmation of our own spirits. In prayer, we communicate with the essence of everything that exists, including our own essence. We have a message to share with life, with God, and we want to share it with authority. The message is coming directly from our hearts, we are talking with our divinity, with Divinity Itself. The power of prayer can lead us into love, truth, and personal freedom.

~ from PRAYERS by Don Miguel Ruiz
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)
As your prayer and meditation become deeper, they will defend you from the perpetual assaults of the outer world. You will hear the busy hum of that world as a distant exterior melody, and know yourself to be in some way withdrawn from it. You have set a ring of silence between you and it; and behold! within the silence you are free.
~ from PRACTICAL MYSTICISM by Evelyn Underhill
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)

PRAYER is a way of sending out love everywhere at once.

~ by Robert Lax
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)

Sacred Friend, be with us this day.
Within us to purify us;
Above us to draw us up;
Beneath us to sustain us;
Before us to lead us;
Behind us to restrain us;
Around us to protect us.

~ by St. Patrick
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)
There are two dimensions to prayer: speech and silence. Of the two, speech is necessary, but silence takes precedence. Silence is the authentic medium of prayer, the rich matrix in which true communion becomes possible. And being a medium, silence has a positive existence. For the one who truly understands prayer, silence also conveys a message; it too speaks... Silence prepares the soul for prayer, to hear the pain of others, the pain of the world.
~ by Geoffrey W. Dennis
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)
I know in my cells that prayer permeates a sick body, makes it shimmer as the new life comes in, making the cells remember how to respond to the harmonic whole. Music is like prayer a mystical bridge between heaven and earth.
~ from BONE by Harion Woodman
Harion Woodman Bone prayer Buy on Amazon
March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)
If you cannot meditate, you can repeat one simple word; this is good for the soul. Do not say anything else, just repeat the word over and over, innumerable times. Finally, it will lose all meaning, yet take on an entirely new significance. God will open the doors and you will find yourself using that simple word to say everything you wanted to say. Thus, routine work can be transformed into prayer.
~ by R. Nachman of Breslov
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)

Every moment in life is a prayer, or could be. I think you can pray yourself into the mystery of the moment, or allow for the blessings of the moment to sustain you. Every moment is an invitation, and whatever you do in that moment, if it's dedicated to God, then it is a prayer.

~ from THE WAY OF THE DREAMCATCHER by S. T. Georgiou
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)

In the quiet of this place
in the dark of the night
I wait and watch.
In the stillness of my soul
and from its fathomless depths
the senses of my heart are awake to You.
For fresh soundings of life
for new showings of light
I search in the silence of my spirit,
O Blessing God.

~ from CELTIC BENEDICTION by J. Philip Newell
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer utters itself. So, a woman will lift her head from the sieve of her hands and stare at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift. Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth enters our hearts, that small familiar pain; then a man will stand stack- still, hearing his youth in the distant Latin chanting of a train. Pray for us now.

~ "Prayer" by Carol Ann Duffy
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)
A small seed sowed in the field. I am back to the part of darkness in my prayer. As the seed opens in the ground, so the soul opens in the ground, in the dark. Over the last decade, with each faltering step I took into this darkness, my prayer — a prayer of no words — found deeper roots. This way of prayer is the dark way of silence. This way takes leave of discourse, of the mind, and turns to the heart, the dwelling place of God.
~ from CIRCLING TO THE CENTER by Susan M. Tiberghien
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)
Praying is not necessarily best described always as looking towards God; sometimes and especially in intercession, it is equally a learning to look at the world as if with God's eyes.
~ from PONDER THESE THINGS by Rowan Williams
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)

In the life of the Indian there was only one inevitable duty — the duty of prayer — the daily recognition of the Unseen and Eternal. Daily devotions were more important than daily food. Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new sweet Earth, and the Great Silence alone.

~ Ohiyesa -- Santee Tribe
Ohiyesa, Santee Tribe prayer
March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)
Praying our experiences is a way into the depth of self-knowledge and acceptance. As we unfold our experiences and become aware of our blessedness and our brokenness, we begin to become more aware of the God who alone can fill all our life with graciousness.
~ from PRAYING OUR EXPERIENCES by Joseph F. Schmidt
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March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)
Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges.
~ by John Vianney
John Vianney prayer Buy on Amazon
March 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 3)
Courage is fear that has said its prayer...
~ by Dorothy Bernard
Dorothy Bernard prayer
February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)

Love giving itself, losing itself and finding itself in love, and Love returning to itself, giving itself back in love — this is the eternal pattern of the universe. The nucleus throws out its protons and electrons and they circle round it, held by the attraction of Love. Beyond the molecules and atoms, beyond the protons and electrons, there is an energy, a force of life, continually welling up from the abyss of being in god, continually springing up into the light of the Word, continually flowing back to it source in the bliss of love.

~ from RETURN TO THE CENTER by Bede Griffiths
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February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)

Love begets love. Like a wave, the love of an individual can evoke compassion in another. The active display of concern warms the many hearts who witness it. The love spreads for many to see. Compassion hen generates community. Others are brought into the swirling dynamic of God's revelation of care. The witness to love can inspire others to carry the tide of concern further.

~ from MEDITATIONS WITH MERTON by Nicki V. Vandergrift
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February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)

Seek refuge in inner silence,
free your thoughts from
the external world and you will feel
the rays of God's goodness and love
pouring over you and the universe.

~ Persian Wisdom
Anonymous Persian Wisdom love
February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)

If you would but practice loving, you would make yourself into a fountain of healing energy where others could drink the balm that heals the pain of the soul. For it is love, only love, that can heal all levels of the human being. Remember also that the earth being needs your love. Not only is the earth a living, thinking, feeling entity like yourself, but she needs the love and the thoughts of the human race in these dark years as she has never before needed anything. You can be among the growing number who realize the mother planet is suffering. In your prayers, and in your meditation, send her your love and your thoughts. The darkness of her days can be lifted by the love of the race she has nurtured since its inception.

~ from THRESHOLD -- a letter to a 13 year old child by Hilarion
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February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)

Love matters. It matters more than anything else in the world. Yet is is very easy. All you have to do is be who you really are; for you are made of love and made to love because of what you are: an interconnected part of a whole whose life and fiber is love.

~ by Robert S. Ellwood
Robert S. Ellwood love Buy on Amazon
February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)

Love is our shared truth.
Peace is our eternal hope.

~ The Museum of World Religions -- Taiwan
Anonymous The Museum Of World Religions In Taiwan love
February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)

How many people can you love
before it's too much, she said.

and I said I didn't think
there was any real limit

as long as you didn't care
if they loved you back.

~ from TRAVELING LIGHT by Brian Andreas
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February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)
Love is the opposite of fear. Love is that fire that does not destroy, whereas fear is the fire that burns everything it touches.
~ by Don Miguel Ruiz
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February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)
To feel something as real in the measure of its full reality is to love. It is love which awakens us to the reality of ourselves, to the reality of others, to the reality of the world, and o the reality of God.
~ Unknown
Unknown love
February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)
In the presence of the Ancient Ones, we deliver new vows in whispers by the authority of our own remembered hearts. Standing before these Elders of Time, we entrust ourselves to each other. Our vows are simple, spontaneous. "Yes, we are here to love. Yes, we are here to experience both shadow and light, forgiveness and joy. We return to each other, rejoined. Together we will love this beautiful, broken world of which we are a part."
~ from LEAP by Terry Tempest Williams
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February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)

Encircle me
Enfold me
Entrance me
With Thy peace
That I may pray
and love Thee well.

Encircle me
Embolden me
Enhance me
With Thy power
That I may ever
do Thy will.

~ Celtic Prayer
Anonymous Celtic Prayer love
February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)
The important thing is not to think much but to love much. So do that which bestirs you to love.
~ by St. Theresa of Avila
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February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)
Spiritual longing is a sort of loneliness for an unknown yet deeply perceived presence. Some call the presence God; some call it peace; some call it consciousness; some call it Love. It's source rests in the well of our own hearts. When we slow down, quiet the mind, and allow ourselves to feel hungry for something that we do not understand, we are dipping into the abundant well of spiritual longing. If we want to open to doors to life's love and God's peace, we have to learn how to fearlessly explore the full terrain of our human longing.
~ from THE SEEKERS GUIDE by Elizabeth Lesser
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February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)
Take heart! Humanity is wise and, in its rich diversity, possessed of vast reservoirs of creativity, inspiration, and spiritual energy. Be of good cheer. For this is an intentional, life enhancing universe with LOVE as its vital force.
~ from OTHER WAYS OF KNOWING by John Broomfield
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February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)

Love has given humans very real gifts. The chief one is the divine indwelling, God's own presence within us, sustaining us by this creative action and embracing us, or trying to heal or transform us through the redeeming love that is distinctively motherly. As the spiritual journey progresses, one comes face to face with the divine presence.

~ Thomas Keating
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February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)
How happy you are when you practice silent contemplation filled with wisdom and love! How happy you are when you sit, just being in love!
~ Anonymous
Anonymous love
February 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 2)

Both of our families had ben crippled to some degree by prejudice, personal trauma, and tragedy, but in the most important ways both ranches had endured. So it wasn't what we did for a living that counted, nor what kind of china we dined on, nor what our houses looked like. Nor, in this one sense, did our skin color even matter very much. What counted most through the generations far more than any other factor, was how we treated those we loved and how well we loved That seemed the transcendent lesson or moral my search had revealed

~ from PEARL'S SECRET by Neil Henry
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

At the center of our being is a point of nothingness, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God. It is in everybody and if we could see it we would see those billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun.

~ from CONJECTURES OF A GUILTY BYSTANDER by Thomas Merton
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

The oak tree in full foliage praises the Creator, but in order to become the oak tree, the acorn has to open in the dark. Its roots have to reach deep into the earth as its branches stretch toward the light. There in the dark the shell has to crack. Only when I let go of my protective shell, when I find the crack makes me vulnerable, that opens me to the Other, only then will the night be radiant, only then will the dark be light... The spark is in everyone's soul: the spark of our Creator shining in the dark. This spark is ours to tend, to take care of until it flares into a brilliant flame, lit by God.

~ from CIRCLING TO THE CENTER by Susan M. Tiberghien
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

I said to the one who stood at the Gate of the Year,
Give me a light that I might go safely out into the darkness.
The gatekeeper replied,
Go out into the darkness and put your hand
into the hand of God.
That shall be more to you than a light and safer than a known way.

~ by King George V
King George V light
January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

The light of splendor shines in the middle of the night. Who can see it? A heart which has eyes and watches.

~ by Angelus Silesius
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

Fountain of Light: from that light flows the light that is essential for the very existence of life, and the light of understanding in which the point of life, its meaning, its purpose and direction, can, within our limited capacity, be grasped. Divine light, not artificial, not intermittent, seasonal, or subject to power cuts. But issuing from God as from a fountain ceaselessly playing, springing up endlessly and joyously, irradiating the uttermost parts of the universe, suffusing the darkest corners of the human heart.

~ from THE EMPIRE OF THE HEART by John F.X. Harriott
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

There is a place in everyone that can carry the light. God has made it this way. God has not only given us the chance to carry the light, but has made it possible for us to kindle and strengthen the light in one another, passing the light along. This way God's light will shine forever in this world.

~ from MY GRANDFATHER'S BLESSINGS by Rachel Naomi Remen
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

The Light that flows through your system is Universal Energy. It is the Light of the Universe. You give Light form. What you feel, what you think, how you behave, what you value and how you live your life reflect the way you are shaping the Light that is flowing through you. They are thought forms, the feeling forms and the outer forms that you have given to Light. They reflect the configuration of your personality, your space-time being.

~ from SEAT OF THE SOUL by Gary Zukav
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

Throughout my whole life, during every minute of it, the world has been gradually lighting up and blazing before my eyes until it has come to surround me, entirely lit up from within.

~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

O Light Invisible, we praise Thee!
Too bright for mortal vision.
O Greater Light, we praise Thee for the less;
The eastern light our spires touch at morning,
The light that slants upon our western doors at evening,
The twilight over stagnant pools at batfly,
Moon light and star light, owl and moth light,
Glow-worm glowlight on a grassblade.
O Light Invisible, we worship Thee!

~ from "The Rock" by T.S. Eliot
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

The light that shines in the eye
is really the light of the heart.
The light that fills the heart
is the light of God, which is pure
and separate from the light of
intellect and senses.

~ Rumi
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

I wish I could show you
when you are lonely or in darkness
the astonishing
light of your own being.

~ by Hafiz
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

The ancient hieroglyph for adoration is a gesture of opening that signified both the receipt of divine grace and the offering of the self. When a man or woman stands before God with arms opened wide, the heart is vulnerable to penetration. We allow God to slay us, to kill that which is "other" in us, then to enter and inhabit our form in order for God to know the Divine through us, to resurrect and reconstruct us as changed creatures, as bodies more fully filled with the Light of God.

~ by Normandi Ellis
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

Before the restoration, it was the colors I watched, blue, red, yellow, green, pink; the architecture, the meadow, the hedges, the water. Now, what I see is light. White light. Color has been absorbed into form, Form is in the service of surprise. It is the light, the throbbing illumination, glowing on the horizon, rippling in the waters, blowing through the grasses, that touches my lips. Something has been set in MOTION.

~ from LEAP by Terry Tempest Williams
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

I found light and joy at the same moment, and I can say without hesitation that from that time on light and joy have never been separated in my experience. I have had them or lost them together. I was not light myself, I knew that, but I bathed in it as an element which blindness had suddenly brought much closer. I could feel the light rising, spreading, giving form. Since it was not I who was making the light, since it came to me from the outside, it would never leave me. I was only a passageway, a vestibule for this brightness . The seeing eye was in me.

~ from AND THERE WAS LIGHT by Jacque Lusseyran
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January 2004 (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

Silence is like the sun;
It is always shining.

~ Myrtle Fillmore
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