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
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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
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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

April 2001 (Vol. XIV, No. 4)

BLESSINGS of the Spring season be with you all, dear friends!

Ponder this: if seeds in the dark earth can turn into lovely blossoms and fruit, what might our heartseed become on our journey to the stars?

What is our dream for the Earth?

What is our dream for the Earth? What is our dream for our children?

My hope is that all children will become earth literate. That they will experience no separation of spirit and matter! That they will come to know the Story of the Universe as theor story! That they will have a deep sense of being a unique expression of the universe and that they are the universe celebrating itself in their songs, dances, and rituals! Finally, I hope that they realize they have a purpose to fulfill and that they are a gift for the whole web of life!

~ Thomas Berry with thanks to Carl Ritz
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May you walk in balance

Each of us has the responsibility to protect sacred land and life in every country of the world, in whatever way he or she can. We must remember that lightning and wind are not controlled by human boundaries. A sacred breath unifies the divine web of life. Any part that is broken affects us all. May you walk in balance.

~ from a video "The Earth Is Alive" by Joan Price
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Everything is of interdependent nature

In our world, we need a clear awareness of the inter-dependent nature of nations, of humans, animals, and the world. Everything is of interdependent nature. I feel that many problems, especially man-made problems, are due to lack of knowledge about this interdependent nature.

~ from THE PATH TO TRANQUILITY by Dalai Lama
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Without the darkness nothing comes to birth

Help us to be always helpful gardeners of the spirit who know that without the darkness nothing comes to birth, as without light nothing flowers.

~ May Sarton
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Being one with the rhythm of all life and all time

Colin Fletcher, in THE MAN WHO WALKED THROUGH TIME, describes how from moments of peak awareness, there came at last after long solitude and silence, and for the time being, a continuous sense of being one with the rhythm of all life and all time, of being inside as well as outside the life of everything he saw – animals, insects, the living rocks, the wind, the river; and finally, most difficult of all, he could feel even the craziness of modern humanity as part of the unbroken pattern of eternity.

~ from SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MADE 0N by Helen Luke
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To live close to the earth

I just love silence. I love lying quietly in the afternoon with the sun streaming in through the windows of my cabin. Just being very quiet. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, when I climb the hill up to the cabin, I stop and either throw myself down on the ground or look up to the stars and say, "This is fabulous. I am so happy, happy, happy that I am doing this. It's so nice to live close to the earth." I just love silence.

~ from "A Voice For the River" by Myczack in "Heron Dance"
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Our task before us is to build the earth

When one views the planet Earth from outer space and sees no national boundaries, the prophecy of Teilhard de Chardin is compelling:

The age of nations is past. That task before us, if we would not perish, is to build the earth ... to help hear her wounds.

 

~ Teilhard de Chardin
Teilhard de Chardin nature

Silently a flower blooms

Silently a flower blooms,
In silence it falls away;
Yet here now, at this moment, at this place,
The world of the flower,
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.

~ Zenkei Shibayama
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Sacred hart in the blackening wilderness

Sacred hart in the blackening wilderness
stately deer, gracefully bounding,
holy vision of the Eternal Heart;
countless, unending blood memories,
surge like gold through your rhythmic veins,
ancient paths stir the soul's journey.
Sleeping titans stand on the edge,
disregarding the dark, grasping webs of life,
or silver antlers shining with white wisdom,
of pulsating pearls of poetry flowing
from open eyes of song,
as the saintly sculpture disappears
from its vanishing home into
a dying paradise.

~ from Sacred Poems by Richard W. Bachtold
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Forests and fields all speak the same language

Forests and fields, sun and wind and sky, earth and water, all speak the same language: peace, solitude, silence.

~ Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton nature Buy on Amazon

This was happiness: sitting in a tree

A week of silence had tipped the balance from the desire for external rewards to the intrinsic value of being. I passed the oak I'd sat on the day before. This was happiness: witting in a tree. Lying in the grass. Feeling the fog or the sunshine touching my skin. Watching a hawk circle. All anbition and seeking had fallen away. Even my desire to cling to the sensations of the moment had dissolved. I only wanted to live my life while it was happening, not enmeshed in the past of all that lives.

~ from SITTING STILL by Patricia Hart Clifford
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How wonderful and precious are all God's creatures

The unique saga of the whooping crane's struggle to survive as a species reminds us of how wonderful and precious are all God's creatures. In its fragility and its numinosity the whooper provides a needed symbol for a spirituality of creation that rekindles human reverence for the mysterious presence of God dwelling deep down within the beauty and splendor of all that lives.

~ from ONE HUNDRED CRANES by William J. Fitzgerald
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May the harmony of sky and water

May the harmony of sky and water,
leaf and rock,
Nourish the creation and growth
of your inner being.

~ The Wayfarer's Chapel
Anonymous nature

Your heart is a seed

Your heart is a seed.
Go. Plant it in the world.

~ Sue Monk Kidd
Sue Monk Kidd nature Buy on Amazon

We can restore the earth

The separate parts of humanity are coming together to form a whole that is greater than and unpredictable from the sum of its parts. Synergy feels like love, loving one another as ourselves. We are, in fact, one body! Our capacities as a whole are infinitely greater than we we are separate tribes and nations. Once our consciousness shifts from feeling separated to knowing that we are all members of one body, our vast technological genius begins to serve the growth of ourselves as one planet. And that consciousness shift an happen in the twinkling of an eye. Once our consciousness shifts collectively, we can restore the Earth, we can feed all peoples, we can emancipate unique potential We can!

~ from THE REVELATION by Barbara M. Hubbard
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March 2001 (Vol. XIV, No. 3)

BLESSINGS, dear friends! As Spring approaches, may our house-cleaning include times of silence, where we air out our inner rooms of any old anger or resentments that continue to bind us to the past. May we experience the liberation and deep gladness that forgiveness of hurt from situations, others, or ourselves will bring -- especially of our own betrayals to living our own deepest truth! The Dalai Lama reminds us that our enemies are our greatest teachers because they provide us with the opportunity to practice compassion and forgiveness.

Taking the key of forgiveness of out of our own pocket

Despite repeated breaches of trust, Papa found the courage and humility to forgive those who betrayed or hurt him again and again: "I would rather trust and be betrayed, than to live in mistrust." He never tired of preaching forgiveness or pointing out that when people spend their lives harboring grudges, they become crippled by unwittingly binding themselves to the person they cannot forgive. They are imprisoned, yet they refuse to take the key of forgiveness out of their own pocket and unlock the door.

~ from I TELL YOU A MYSTERY by Johann Christoph Arnold
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What the the most authentic sign of forgiveness?

The most authentic sign we can give ourselves that we have actually begun the process of forgiveness is our prayer. This is true even if the only prayer we can say is to ask to want to forgive. In the beginning ít may be too much for us even to pray for the person who hurt us. Perhaps all r¡re can do is to pray for ourselves — to pray that for our own sake we may begin the process of forgiveness. Prayer is a way of recognizing and acknowledging God's movement towards us and God's gift of grace

~ from THE PROCESS OF FORGIVENESS by W. A. Meninger
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Without forgiveness

Without forgiveness there is no future.

~ Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu forgiveness Buy on Amazon

The bridge to love

Forgiveness is the bridge to love.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous forgiveness

Forgive the ingrown toenail

FORGIVENESS is not simply the absolving of an enemy, or one who has done us wrong. Forgiveness must encompass all those things which disturb the tranquility of our soul: the barking dog that robs you of sleep, the heat of summer, the cold of winter; forgive the ingrown toenail, the flea that bites; forgive the cranky child, wrinkles, a forgotten birthday... And these are only a beginning. Such forgiveness must be practiced daily and with sincerity

~ by Barbara Wood
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Ask to learn how to forgive others

In the silence, ask to learn
how to give of yourself,
how to forgive others, and
how to live with gratitude.
Thus, we need not seek inner peace:
Peace will find us!

Blessed are you who forgive
without remembering
and
you who receive forgiveness
without forgetting.

Even as the silence exposes my subtle deceptions, my inauthenticity, my "sins" (much deeper than a mere catalog of misdeeds) -- it exposes at the same time God's unconditional love for me:

  • surprising in its lack of judgment,
  • astounding in its completeness,
  • and flavored with a sweet forgiveness.
~ Linda R. Douty
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Forgiveness allows the process of transformation to continue

Forgiveness is the treatment and the conditioning that helps loosen habits and patterns. When we fa1l foul of old ways, when we fail to get beyond our "stuff," despite all our good intentions, we have to forgive ourselves and try again. We have to act as compassionately toward ourselves as we would toward a child we were teaching a new skill. Forgiveness allows the process of transformation to continue by removing the obstacles that can check the flow.

~ Daniel Martin
Daniel Martin Ecology-spirituality forgiveness

What is the most beautiful form of love?

To forgive is the higest, most beautiful form of love.

~ Robert Muller
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I gave up trying to stop the tears

I gave up trying to stop the tears. I abandoned my ruined defenses:

"I don't deserve any support from God after what I did." "Maybe not, but God's not interested in operating a brownie-point system – only in loving and forgiving those who are brave enough not to deny what they've done, no matter how terrible, brave enough to be truly sorry, brave enough to resolve to make a fresh start in serving Love as well as they possibly can."

I sat there with tears streaming down my face, and then just as I was thinking how utterly I was cut off from the Great Healer, that shining, mysterious figure I had tried so hard for so long to follow, Clare reached out across the table and briefly covered my clenched fists with her scarred hands.

~ from THE WONDER WORKER by Susan Howatch
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To forgive means to give life

To forgive means to give life, to remove what has been an obstacle to friendship and communion: those inner, psychological walls that had prevented dialogue or communicatíon. These walls are judgments that separate and isolate us from others and push people into anguish and inner death. To forgive means we no longer judge others. Forgiveness breaks down blockages to communication and communíon so that we can say to one another: I love you and want you to live.

~ from THE SCANDAL OF SERVICE by Jean Vanier
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Forgiveness keeps the slate of my heart open

Forgiveness is always necessary when I have the perception that I failed to love and accept myself or another. Forgiveness allows me to let go of any feelings of inadequacy that arise in me. Forgiving myself is the affirmation that I do not buy into the feelings of inadequacy that invariably arise when I judge myself or another. Forgiveness keeps the slate of my heart open for Spirit to write on.

~ from THE BRIDGE T0 REALITY by Paul Ferrini
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I have stood alone on rocky shore

I have stood alone on rocky shore,
asking for forgiveness in contrition,
And looked across the sea into the sunset
and known God's benediction.

~ Aileen Mercurio with thanks to Richard Pottios
Aileen Mercurio forgiveness

Pain-bearer, Life-give of us all

Pain-bearer, Life-giver of us all,
in the silence, hear our prayer
for forgiveness and healing,
for peace and for love.
Amen.

Forgiveness brings a quiet mind
a peaceful heart...
love.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous forgiveness

Develop an attitude of constant acceptance and forgiveness

Little slights, harsh or unthinking words that sting and hurt, something said or done that has left wounded feelings are not that hard to forgive. No one is perfect and all of us, at one time or another, have done these things without even realizing it. Develop an attitude of constant acceptance and forgiveness as you go about daily life, shrugging off these little things in the realization that only your own attitude is bringing the distress you are feeling about them. Forgive yourself first for getting upset: then forgive the other person – entirely. To really erase the memory, think of something nice about that person and send out vibrations of concern and affection instead. If the person really meant to hurt you, this is entirely disarming! Love conquers all.

~ from LIVING THE GOLDEN PATH by Ruth Ryden
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February 2001 (Vol. XIV, No. 2)

Blessed friends... Listening deeply, you can come to hear within and through the silence your own heart beating in harmony with the Divine Guest, your soul's companion. In the Silence: the wonder of God's Love!

When you move more and more into that love center

If the clearest connection to God is inside the heart, when you move more and more into that love center, the ache of being two, of feeling separation, dissolves... Whatever is deeply loved — friend, grandchild, late afternoon light, masonry, tennis, whatever absorbs you — this may be a reflection of how you move in the invisible world of spirit. It is your beauty, the elegant point where everything is one. The uniomystica is a lived thing ... a transformed intention, an intensity, and the peace of walking inside it: The Friend.

~ from THE ILLUMINATED RUME, commentary by Coleman Barks
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To cultivate love

O beloved friends, please listen: the purpose of human life, the supreme ideal of which all other ídeals are simply an expression, is to cultivate love... There is no boundary whatsoever to Pure love — it embraces humanity and Divinity equally. In this most intense love, no sense of duality can remain.

~ from GREAT SWAN by Lex Hixon
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In love, you grow and come home to yourself

The heart ís the inner face of your life. The human journey strives to make this inner face beautiful. It is here that love gathers within you. Love is absolutely vital for a human life. For love alone can awaken what is divine within you. In love, you grow and come home to yourself.

~ from ANAM CARA by John O'Donohue
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What is my nature, boundless love?

In your nature
eternal Godhead,
I shall come to know my nature
And what is my nature, boundless love?
It is fire,
Because You are nothing but a Fire
And You have given humankind
a share in this nature
for by the Fire of Love,
You created us.

~ Catherine of Siena, her prayer
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Even a bitter drink is sweet when it is from the Belove

The experience of love is the most fulfilling and important experience we can have, the highest of all values. Sometimes we need to be shocked out of our complacency and indifference to know the reality, the centrality, of love. Without becoming passive, we can stop resisting and submit to Love. We begin to see the ínfinite power of Love as the greatest cause in the universe, and little by little we begin to serve it. Eventually, we begin to see that even a bitter drink is sweet when it is from the Beloved.

~ from THE KNOWING HEART by Kabir Helminski
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No one can love God without knowing their own misery

It is only when we come to total and unconditional "love" of our own darkness that we can know God incarnate in us, loving and understanding us in our totality. Pascal says that no one can love God without knowing their own misery.

~ from SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MADE ON by Helen Luke
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Then something overcame me

One day I stood quietly gazing through our sliding glass doors. It was a windless day, and without thinking, I found myself slipping into a silent world. Then something overcame me. Whereas silence had been a visitor, a friend with whom I communed when I chose, now silence slipped into the core of my being. Without my knowíng, without even my consciousness consent, sílence entered me ín a way a spouse penetrates his espoused. I realized with a shock that this seeking of silence had led to consummation. I was consumed. I was wed — in a way that had no guests, no celebration, no fanfare or music, and no witness. Except my heart.

~ from SILENCE by Barbara Erakko Taylor
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Compassion is an awareness that you become

Compassion is an awareness that you become, rather than something that you do on occasion.

~ Gregg Braden
Gregg Braden love Buy on Amazon

Compassion is an awareness that you become

Compassion is an awareness that you become, rather than something that you do on occasion.

~ Gregg Braden
Gregg Braden love Buy on Amazon

I had begun to believe that no one would ever love me again

My dear, for the last ten years Arletta has been coming to see me every Thursday, and when he can't come, he stops in to tell me. We're old friends. I think he likes to talk with me. Do you know, when he found me, I couldn't even walk? Some of my toenaíls were at least three inches long. He came back with fríends. They heated water, cut my toenalls, and rubbed my feet. Look, over there is the basin, all polished and shiny. Do you know hím very well? I wonder what he sees in me. I had begun to believe that no one would ever love me again.

~ from ETERNITY, My BELOVED by Jean Sulivan
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Love, the root of life

Pure Love is seeking desire, searching through space, through the air, through the ground, seeking fulfillment. On and on it goes until at last awakening in Itself, It finds Its foundation in the heart... God's Love is the One Flood that never recedes, but rises, rises, covering the universe, covering every living atom. The lowest and highest join in one overwhelming desire to give all to Divine Love: Love fulfilling, feeding', giving, opening in every direction — giving without beginning or end; Love, the root of Life.

~ from THE ANGEL OF THE PRESENCE by Elise N. Morgan
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Love has to go through darkness and pain

Love has to go through darkness and pain and endurance and a stark acceptance before it can come out into the far light of the sun.

~ from THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SUN by Madeleine L'Engle
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When someone has compassion on us

When someone has compassion on us, we find ourselves really seen, heard, attended to. If someone's attention is genuinely compassionate, it does not stop at attentiveness: he or she is willing to speak, act, or even suffer with us and for us. It is in such passivity, as we receive their compassion, that the most powerful dynamics of our own feeling and activity are shaped. Amazed gratitude for such compassion can last a lifetime.

~ from THE SHAPE OF LIVING by David F. Ford
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May the Holy One preserve in me a burning love

May the Holy One preserve in me a burning love for the world and a great gentleness.

~ Teilhard de Chardin
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Reflection of One Love

All loves are but the reflection of One Love and ultimately lead to that love.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous love

To affirm and sustain the seed in another human being

This is one of the things that love is called upon to do:

To affirm and sustain the seed in another human being even though no tangible evidence has been given of the nature and quality of the seed that is growing there. Love depends upon the capacity to reach beneath the surface of persons, to feel and touch the seed of life that is hidden there. And love becomes a power when it is capable of evoking that seed and drawing it forth from its hiding place.

~ from THE SYMBOLIC AND THE REAL by Ira Progoff
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January 2001 (Vol. XIV, No. 1)

BLESSINGS to you, dear friends, in this new year! What is your deepest prayer for yourself and loved ones, for peoples around the world, for our Earth home in 2001? What if eah of us would become a prayer-blessing of peace, harmony, love and joy in the world? What a differene we ould make!

I am learning to observe the silences between the words

In prayer, I am learning to observe the silences between the words. I am learning that I don't have to fill the empty space because the space will eventually sing for itself. The waiting and listening and silence teach that the active work of prayer must be balanced by the humble acceptance of grace.

~ from GRACE'S WINDOW by Suzanne Guthrie
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At the extremity of prayer words vanish

At the extremity of prayer words vanish, or rather the "silence-become-word" surpasses all that can be uttered. Prayer becomes the silence of Love, and this silence reveals the "I" in its deepest aspects; and, should words suddenly arise in prayer, we must regard them as fruits of love that send us back to silence.

~ from AWAKENING TO PRAYER by A. I. Okumura
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The silent cries of our soul

We pray that God may accept our call for help. And we also pray that God, who knows that which is hidden, may hear the silent cries of our soul.

~ Rabbi Url of Strelisk
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The seed of prayer is sown in heaven

The seed of prayer is sown in heaven.
It pushes its stems toward the earth
and comes to grow there.
It produces an abundance of fruit.
Then, as it becomes seed once more,
it thrusts its way back to heaven.

~ Jukichi Yagi
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The root of all prayer

The root of all prayer is interior silence.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous prayer

It is for you to find out what prayer is

Many people ask me, "How does one pray?" For me, alone in my room in a prayerful attitude, I just see myself as incapable of doing anything without God, since indeed, God is the Provider, the Guide ... and so I turn to God. When there is no within or without, then our prayers are answered, for surely it is union with the One Source of all Life, the Divine, whatever words you want, that is the yearning of the soul.

And yes, my friends, it is for you to find out what prayer is. It is the humility of a child. It is the beauty of being. And it is the love of being alive. So ask God how to pray with all the sincerity, honesty, humility, and passion you have within you. And I'm sure that one day your prayer, which will be God's prayer, will be answered.

~ from REASON IS POWERLESS IN THE EXPRESSION OF LOVE by Reshad Feild
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Nothing is more difficult than prayer

Nothing is more difficult than prayer. In all other tasks of spiritual life, however exacting, one can sometimes rest, but there is no rest in prayer, up to the end of one's life.

~ Simon Weil
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Prayer brings us into communion

Praying brings Therese into communion with her mother, her father and her sisters. For part of her experience in prayer is condltíoned by the presence of beloved persons: the presence of human love is a sort of token for the hidden presence of God. How otherwise can a child be trained in prayer, in realizing the hidden presence, except by the sacrament of visible, tangible love? Therese is taken into their prayer and nestles there.

~ from TWO SISTERS IN IHE SPIRIT by Hans Urs von Balthasar
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Source of All, act within my being

Source of All, act within my being that I may act in accordance with Thine. Amen

~ Anonymous
Anonymous prayer

Prayer releases energy

PRAYER releases energy as certainly as the closing of an electric circuit does. It heightens all human capacities. It refreshes and quickens life. It unlocks reservoirs of power. It opens invisible doors into new storehouses of spiritual force for the Person to live by, and, as I believe, for others to live by as well. It is effective and operative as surely as are the forces of steam or gravitation.

~ from THE WORLD WITHIN by Rufus Jones
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God is just TOO good to me

In downtown Little Rock late one day, a monk saw a bag lady with her full cart staring at the sky.

She ignored his questions, continuing to study the sunset. He looked and saw the bright reds and oranges set against the deep blue sky and white clouds. It was a stunning display of color and contrast.

After a time, she patted his arm and he looked into her sparkling eyes, seeing the fresh tears on her dirty cheeks and the toothless smile.

"God," she whispered, "is just TOO good to me!"

~ Br. Patrick, The Hermitage at Harmony Hill
Br. Patrick prayer

More things are wrought by prayer

If thou shouldn'st never see my face again, pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.

~ from "Idylls of the King" by Alfred Tennyson
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Praying is hearing, not merely being silent

As my prayer became more attentive and inward
I had less and less to say.
I finally became completely silent.
I started to listen
--which is even further removed from speaking.
I first thought that praying entailed speaking.
I then learnt that praying is hearing,
not merely being silent.
This is how it is.
To pray does not mean to listen to oneself speaking.
Prayer involves becoming silent,
and being silent,
and waiting until God is heard.

~ Soren Kierkegaard
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True prayer

True prayer is a life of radical abiding in God.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous prayer

Praying by moving deeply within into the center of self

A common way of praying for me is to allow myself to move deeply within into the center of self. I may begin by presenting a situation of concern to God and then move into silence. This is a dark (not depressing) kind of praying, but I descend deep into the mystery where there is both peace and silence; I lose consciousness of the time and place in which I exist in the moment and move into the darkness of God, into unknowing... I return to waking consciousness feeling vulnerable and empowered; I experience tenderness and new awareness.

~ from FROM CENTER TO CIRCUMFERENCE by Elizabeth-Ann Vanek
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December 2000 (Vol. XIII, No. 11)

BLESSINGS and GREETINGS, dear friends. Pausing in silence as we move into a new season, may the Indwelling Light within your heart shine forth ... may peace blossom on the earth and justice dawn like new-born light! And may your holidays be seasoned with love and light and peace!

A Light Within which illumines the face of God

Deep within us all, there ís an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn líves, warming us wíth intimatíons of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon the face of humanity.

~ from A TESTAMENT OF DEVOTION by Thomas Kelly
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We may share an affinity with light that we do not yet understand

The energy of human consciousness may share an afflnity with light that we do not yet understand. Turning toward that light, we might find it the source of all our inspiration and creativity.

~ from KNOWLEDGE OF FREEDOM by T. Tulku
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Why, child, I am looking at the Light

The silence as broken at last by the bell signifying the end of morning activity. Turning to the old woman, I asked, "What are you looking at?" I immediately flushed. Prying into the lives of the residents was strictly forbidden. Perhaps she had not heard. But she had. S1ow1y she turned toward me, and I could see her face for the first time. It was radiant. In a voice filled with joy she said, "Why, child, I am looking at the Light."

~ from "Stories To Heal By" by Rachel Naomi Remen
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The mind is to be a reservoir of Light

The mind is to be a reservoir of Light — free, ready to give color and form, ready to speak from Wisdom's Source. Silence is the opening note. The Indwelling Light illumines the heart and mind, loosening the sightless, stormswept self. The freeing of Light, of God's own Life within, is the means of self-expression — not self-filled expression — but God-like freedom.

~ from THE ANGEL OF THE PRESENCE by Elsie Nevins Morgan
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We are dynamic, luminous creatures of light

On the pavement a group of schoolchildren was walking past the driveway with their teacher. I noticed these young children crossing and suddenly I saw them in a way I have never seen human beings before or since. They were so full of light I could hardly 1ook, and on each child's chest where the heart is, a huge radiance like the sun was shining. Each little child had this dynamic, brilliant light, this radiant sun, ín the center of their being. The experience of the líght, its brillíance and energy, was beautiful and overwhelming. Later I came to realize that what I saw is the true nature of human beings —we are dynamic, luminous creatures of light.
~ from THE FACE BEFORE I WAS BORN by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
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Lighthouses do not ring bells

It is better to live a holy life than to talk about it, Lighthouses do not ring bells and fire cannons to call attention to their shining — they just shine.

~ D. L. Moody
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God's presence cannot be discerned without the Light

Without the Light, the journey of life is fraught with dangers and no traveler's vision can penetrate the haze of self-centeredness. The ímage of God as Light that suffuses all the universe is one that unítes the divine transcendence and immanence... All of creation is replete with "signs" of God's presence, but they cannot be discerned without the Light.

~ John Renard
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We are the light and co-creators with God

The millennium holds the promise that Heaven will be created on Earth, and this will be accomplished by grounding spirituality into all walks of life. We are the light and co-creators with God, and it is our responsibility to use this light to bring peace, love, happiness, and abundance to the Planet.

~ from THE LIGHT SHALL SET YOU FREE by N. Milanovich and S. McCune
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We are made for Light

We are made for Light. There are moments of perfect happiness, moments when one feels so well, at peace with oneself and with others. Such moments of fullness exist. They are rare, perhaps, but we have all experienced them. Each of us is capable of living such moments. They continue to send signals to us even when we are in despair. For on the mountain God summons us to the Light.
~ from VOICE FROM THE DESERT by Jacques Gaillot
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A wave of light breaks into our darkness

Sometimes at the momet of despair, a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted," accepted by that which is great than you.

~ by Paul Tillich, with thank to Donna Nance
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Then light the single flame of love

No deep darkness in the world
Can overcome the light.
A single candle flame will burn
Against the darkest night.
Let all the world of darkness come ...
Resentment, envy, fears.
Then light the single flame of love
the darkness disappears!

~ Author unknown
Unknown light

There are lights which ascend and lights which descend

There are lights which ascend and lights which descend. The ascending lights are the lights of the heart; the descending lights are those of the Throne. The false self is the veil between the Throne and the heart, like springs toward like. Light ascends toward light and light descends upon light, and "it is light upon light."

~ from PERFUME OF THE DESERT by A. Harvey and E. Hunt
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Shining brighter than the midday sun

Nothing was changed, yet everything was changed. Compared to this, she felt as if she had been sleepwalking all of her life. "God is here."

I pierce the universe.
God pierces me.
I do not think; I am thought.
I do not know; I am known.

Every movement, every breath was poetry. She had passed through her dark night of the soul, and understood now how the light in one's heart – the light of faith – could shine brighter than the midday sun.

~ from LYING AWAKE by Mark Salzman
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Then I shall begin to shine as You shine

Blessed One,
Flood my soul with Thy Spirit and light ...
Shine throuh me and be so in me that
 every soul I come in contact with may
 feel Thy Presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me,
 but only You.
Stay with me and then I shall begin
 to shine as You shine,
 so to shine as to be a light for others.
Amen.

~ Prayer of Mother Teresa
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November 2000 (Vol. XIII, No. 10)

Heartfelt BLESSINGS OF THANKSGIVING, dear friends! As we move into a season filled with holidays and celebration, may we remember to pause each day for renewal and to feast with the Divine Guest on soul nourishment served in the Silence.

I need time to listen

I need time to listen, to examine, and to confess ... to listen for the Voice, if for no other reason that so I will recognize it more clearly in the ways it speaks into the noise and bustle of the life I lead. The silence that I seek must be nurtured until it lives in me no matter where I am at the moment. The silence I seek must be something more than the absence of the numbing noise and debilitating detail of life in our society. It must be a solitude that is transcendent, a stillness that can be found in the midst of noise, a silence that is portable.

~ from LIVING PRAYER by Robert Benson
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A day filled with noise can be a day of silence

A day filled with noise and voices can be a day of silence, If the noises become for us the echo of the presence of God. When we speak of ourselves and are filled with ourselves, we leave silence behind. When we repeat the intimate words of God that are within us, our silences remain intact.

~ from POUSTINIA by Catherlne de Hueck Doherty
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A quiet which pervades every particle of this world

SILENCE: an energy which extends beyond the furthest reaches of the universe — and never vanishes, a quiet which pervades every particle of this world, and glides through the blackness of the great harbor by night, and speaks differently by day. Speech is the body of silence: the word floats up from silence; it flows back into silence. The word of relationship and the quiet of the heart are inseparable — like love and the silence from which it is born, and the rest to which it returns, unceasingly.

~ from DANCING MADLY BACKWARDS by Paul Marechal
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We have to work at silence

Quiet ... silence ... tranquility. Those are qualities of life seldom enjoyed today. Incorporating silence into daily living is both possible and desirable. But in order to make silence a presence rather than an absence, we have to work at it. The effort can result in greater introspection, spiritual sensitivity and creativity. No matter how busy life becomes, anyone can discover occasions each month, each week, and even each day, to create nourishing silence.

~ from "Give Yourself the Silent Treatment" by Victor M. Parachin with thanks to Charlotte Miller
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To speak from the heart, we must listen to the speech of the heart

The spaciousness of silence nurtures new sensitivities, new sense-abilities. During this phase of the spiritual journey, the emphasis will not be directly on speaking but on perceiving: on SEEING instead of just looking, on LISTENING instead of just hearing. Eyes and ears are not sufficient... To speak from the heart, we must listen to the speech of the heart, which grows articulate in being moved and is animated by the speech of the world. The eyes of the heart do not find nouns in the world, but verbs. The seeing and listening of the heart enable us to appreciate the world and all it phenomena as animate. We must simply become quiet enough, heartfully sense-able enough, to perceive and inwardly honor this silent speech of the world.

~ from THE SPEECH OF THE GRAIL by Linda Sussman
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No longer trusting entirely in language to contain reality

The solitary life, being silent, clears away the smoke-screen of words that we lay down between our mind and things... Words stand between silence and silence: between the silence of things and the silence of our own being, between the silence of the world and the silence of God. When we have really met and known the world of silence, words to not separate us from the world nor from others, nor from God, nor from ourselves because we no longer trust entirely in language to contain reality.
~ from THOUGHTS IN SOLITUDE by Thomas Merton
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Silent and radiant people

I believe in the influence of silent and radiant people. Such people are rare. They, nevertheless, give savor to the world.
~ Marius Grout
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Why I make my home in the mountain forest

You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest,
And I smile, and am silent,
And even my soul remains quiet:
It lives in the other world
Which no one owns.
The peach trees blossom.
The water flows.
~ Li Po in THE ENLIGHTENED HEART by S. Mitchell
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Be a lover of silence

If you love truth, be a lover of silence. Silence, like the sunlight, will illuminate you in God, and will unite you to God. Love silence: it brings you a fruit that tongue cannot describe. In the beginning we have to force ourselves to be silent. But then there is born something that draws us to silence. May God give you an expression of this "something" that is born of silence. After a while, a certain sweetness is born in the heart, and you are drawn almost by force to remain in silence.

~ from TRUE PRAYER by Kenneth Leech
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Make sure your talk is an improvement on silence

A tourist spending the night in a small New England Town joined a group sitting on the porch of the general store.  After several vain attempts to start a conversation asked, "Is there a law against talking in this town."

"No law against it," said one old timer. We just like to make sure it's an improvement on silence."

~ thanks to Robert S. Bower
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Too many words can alienate us from one another

I feel an increasing desire to be silent with friends. Words are important in bringing hearts together, but too many words can alienate us from one another. Not every event has to be told, not every idea has to be shared. Once an atmosphere of mutual trust is present we can be silent together and let God be the One who speaks, gently and softly.

~ from THE PRIMACY OF THE HEART by Henri Nouwen thanks to A. Vernilye
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When we first try to sit in silence

It is a paradox that we encounter so much internal noise when we first try to sit in silence.

~ Gunilla Norris
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Only in silence the word

Only in silence the word,
only in dark the light,
only in dying life.

~ Ursula Le Guin
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What does silence open?

Silence open the inner fount from which the word arises.

~ Romano Guardini
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The act of inner attention

The act of inner attention seems to create a medieval walled garden. It is hedged about with silence and stillness, but silence and stillness are not the heart of it. At the center is a fountain and we see that everything has arranged itself around the water playing in the sunlight: here is the source of the timelessness that is everywhere apparent. The more deeply we enter, the more the fountain soars above; awe and wonder claim us.

It asks that we learn how to live, to make a particular path and fullness out of the spirit's eternity and silence.

~ from THE LIGHT INSIDE THE DARK by John Tarrant
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