June 1991 (Vol. IV, No. 6)

Warmest GREETINGS as we move into a new season. May each one of us take time to walk down the path that leads to the sacred Silence. And as we learn to treasure our inner awareness, may we come to know the immense love, the intense light, within the vastness of our own soul.

As we become sensitive to our soul's experience

As we become sensitive to our soul's experience, we find the smallest moments, the slightest breezes, can move so much inside us in the stillness. Life's brief encounters with intimacy have more importance. With the subtle qualities we find in our inner life, the silence leads us. The pure presence always begins inside. From our soul's quiet recesses we are taken to caverns and gardens and skies above mansions of silence. Our interior life is full of the ways of the soul. Our dreams, feelings, intuition, and thoughts are just the beginnings of the vast language of our soul in the silence. In our meditations and prayers we hear the small whispers, the perfect presence speak to us, seeking our awareness and appreciation. To value our inner life is to open the doors for the galaxies of stars in the silence to be discovered. These stars turn out to be not so far away but right next to our soul and in the midst of the hearts of those around us.

~ from MONASTERY WITHOUT WALLS by Bruce Davis with thanks to Mary Lou Evans
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Let us be still

Let us be still; trustingly still; not only calm and quiet on the surface, but still from the center of our being, out, out, out ...
~ Anonymous
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O Great Spirit

O Great Spirit, whose breath gives light to the world, and whose voice is heard in the soft breeze: We need Your strength and wisdom. Cause us to walk in beauty. Give us eyes ever to behold the red and purple sunset. Make us wise so that we may understand what you have taught us. Help us to learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock. Make us always ready to come to you with clean hands and steady eyes, so when life fades, like the fading sunset, our spirits may come to you without shame. Amen.

~ traditional Native American Prayer with thanks to Liz Simons
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No escape from paradox

No escape from paradox: Wisdom manifests itself, and is yet hidden. The more it hides, the more it is manifest; and the more it is manifest, the more it is hidden. For God is known when apprehended as unknown, and is heard when we realize that we do not know the sounds of God's voice. The words uttered are words of full silence, and they are bait to draw us into silence. The truths manifested are full of hiddenness, and their function is to hide us, with themselves, in God from whom they proceed. If we hide the precepts of wisdom in our heart -- precepts of humility, meekness, charity, renunciation, faith, prayer -- they themselves will hide us in God. For the values which they give to us, are completely hidden from our eyes. They bring us to the source of a life that is unknown to the natural wisdom of the world, and yet from this source of nature itself proceeds, is nourished, and is sustained.

~ from SEASONS OF CELEBRATION by Thomas Merton
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All persons are both artist and mystic

All persons are both artist and mystic because all are called to be in touch with the true self, the deep experience that is theirs, and to utter images from that silent space.

~ from COMING OF THE COSMIC CHRIST by Matthew Fox
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The act of love plunges us into God

The act of love plunges us into God, who is given in silence. Anything else would run the risk of detracting from the gift. "Silence is the speech of God", according to St. John of the Cross. This act of love frees us from ourselves. In this love, God is revealed in a silence that strips us and makes us experience that "blessed are the poor". Silence preserves us from illusion and gives us security ... The grace of contemplation places the soul in a kind of immobility and silence, which we cannot do of ourselves. God does all this by way of love, which involves a death of the mind and a resurrection of the heart.

~ from THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE by Thomas Philippe
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Symptoms of Inner Peace

A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fear.
An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.
Loss of interest in judging self and in judging other people.
Loss of interest in conflict, and in interpreting actions of others.
Loss of ability to worry. Frequent episodes of appreciation.
Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.
Frequent attacks of smiling through the eyes of the heart.
Increasing susceptibility to love ~ and the urge to expand it.
Increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.

If you have the above symptoms, your condition of peace may be so far advanced as to not be treatable.

~ Sue Tunney
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Do not move

Do not move
in order to touch me,
for I am stillness itself.

Do not be drawn
in many directions
in order to take hold of me;
I am unity itself.

Stop the movement,
unify diversity,
and you will surely reach me,
who long ago reached you.

~ Anonymous, with thanks to Abby Seixas
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Let us then, labour for an inward stillness

Let us then, labour for an inward stillness,
An inward stillness and an inward healing;
That perfect silence where the lips and heart
Are still, and we no longer entertain
Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions,
But God alone speaks in us, and we wait
In singleness of heart, that we may know
His will, and in the silence of our spirits,
That we may do his will, and do that only.

~ Longfellow with thanks to Gladys Cloonan
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In the stillness

In the stillness, we are receiving the fullness of life.
~ Anonymous
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May 1991 (Vol. IV, No. 5)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

We have a destination

We have a destination: the heart of God. Though we have come a long way from our true home, we can still return if we give ear to our spiritual instincts, our inner heritage as a spiritual being. To do this, we must listen for the heavenly music, the Voice of God, which is constant, changeless, and unerring. Have you ever gazed in awe as a flock of migrating geese cuts through the sky? Did you look up with a strange longing welling up in you, a lonely restlessness which you cannot name? If so, you have felt the call to Soul ... you have heard the Voice of God."

~ from ON THE BREATH OF THE GODS by Ariel Tomioka with thanks to Angie Sherrard
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I go among trees and sit still

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.

Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

~ from SABBATHS by Wendell Berry
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Nearest to expressing the inexpressible

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

~ Aldous Huxley
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If only I listened to my own rhythm

If only I listened to my own rhythm, and tried to live in accordance with it. Much of what I do is mere imitation, springs from a sense of duty or from pre-conceived notions of how people should behave. The only certainties about what is right and wrong are those which spring from sources deep inside oneself. And I say it humbly and gratefully and I mean every word of it right now, though I know I shall again grow rebellious and irritable. 'Oh God, I thank you for the sense of fulfillment I sometimes have, that fulfillment is after all nothing but being filled with you. I promise yet to strive my whole life long for beauty and harmony and also humility and true love, whispers of which I hear inside me during my best moments.'

~ from AN INTERRUPTED LIFE by Etty Hillesum
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Silence is the highest form of music

Silence is the highest form of music ... Music of the infinity, referred to as the music of the spheres, is often heard in deep solitude or reflected in natural sounds -- the wind, the ocean, the melody of birds. The single note of a temple gong is far more powerful than an orchestra of one hundred instruments. The clear sound it produces reverberates deep within our mind and body, conveying a sense of infinite peace and bringing us close to the melodious silence of infinity.

~ from DIET FOR A STRONG HEART by Michio Kushi
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There is always Music

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it.

~ Minnie Aumonier
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Since I am coming to that holy room

Since I am coming to that holy room,
Where, with your quire of Saints
for evermore, I shall be made you
Music; As I come, I tune the
instrument here at the door.
And what I must do then, think
here before.

~ "Hymn to God in my sickness" by John Donne
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No voice

No voice;
but oh! the silence sank
Like music on my heart.

~ Coleridge
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Music ingathers all

Music ingathers all, yet takes one only
into its secret when the chimes begin.
When that great rain of sound comes down,
the lonely of spirit is elect and enters in.
One evening shines with bells; alone, apart we listen, awed,
to the antiphonal pealing of our hearts.

Music by right is for the solitaries
whom a long silence trains to the profound.
The bells are ours; we come at the first airy
rumor to drench our deserts with their sound.
Yet anyone who listens may become
hermit or anchorite under the shower
when the great chimes -- tree shakes its leaves of light.

~ "The Evening Chimes" from Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers
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I was the music

I experienced in myself a curious phenomenon: I was listening with the heart. And if I just listened, through the heart, just listened, and no thinking was involved in it, then the heart sang with the violins, it was the trumpet call, it was the woodwinds, and I was the music.

~ from DAUGHTER OF FIRE by Irina Tweedie
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There is music even in the beauty

... there is music even in the beauty,
and the silent note which Cupid strikes,
far sweeter than the sound of an instrument.
For there is music wherever there is a
harmony, order, or proportion: and thus far,
we may maintain the music of the spheres.

~ from RELIGIO MEDICI by T. E. Brown
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The one who understands my music

The one who understands my music can never know unhappiness again.

~ Beethoven
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Prayer gives the silence

Prayer gives the silence, which is the very clear song that is simple, full of devotion, full of itself, in nature, in everyone. The notes of the silence lift every bird and are perfect for every heart, one note at a time.

~ Anonymous
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April 1991 (Vol. IV, No. 4)

GREETINGS! The long winter is over ... signs of nature's yearly renewal are seen all over the land ... earth giving birth to new life, new hope. May each one of us participate with awe and reverence, taking time to recognize a springtime renewal of our souls.

The stillness of the forest

Outer silence, the deep true silence of nature and prayer, calls forth the silence hidden within one's inner being. For to be other than silent in the stillness of the forest or the chapel seems inappropriate and irreverent. In silence, the rare times I attain true inner silence, I recognize my inner self, and I am also aware of God's presence in me as well as a loving, merciful gaze upon me. It is in the mutual gazing upon the infinite and the infinite upon me that I find peace. Oh, why then, silence, are you so hard to attain when you bring so much joy? Why do I so often avoid you? Because the silence is where God is to be found? You have such gifts to give. While our inner being is often noisy, filled with less than productive chattering of the mind, you are always waiting for us to accept you presence in us. To be still, to be silent brings its own gifts. The reward is in the stillness, in the silence, in the sitting.

~ from "Silence in the Forest, Silence in Me" by Shirely J. Daney in Monos Newsletter
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The heart of every liturgy

Today when I receive communion, I am reminded of our dark roots within the earth. I know my energy flows in two directions: the Spirit lifts me up, yet my bond with all creation pulls me down into the depths of life. This moment of tension -- when we are suspended between the heavens and natural world -- is the heart of every liturgy.

~ from A PASSION FOR THIS EARTH by Valerie Andrews
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Spirit that hears each one of us

Spirit that hears each one of us,
Hears all that is --
Listens, listens, hear us out --
Inspire us now!
Our own pulse beats in every stranger's throat,
And also there within the flowered ground beneath our feet,
And -- teach us to listen! --
We can hear it in water, in wood, and even in stone.
We are earth of this earth, and we are bone of its bone.
This is a prayer I sing, for we have forgotten this,
And so,
The earth is perishing.

~ from "Thinking Like a Mountain" by Barbara Deming with thanks to Patricia Dorsey
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To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
O heart within my heart,
in you I place my trust.
Let me not feel unworthy;
let not fear rule over me.
Yes! let all who open their hearts
savor You and bless the earth!
~ Anonymous
Anonymous nature

A long and loving look at the universe we inhabit can actually change us

A long and loving look at the universe we inhabit can actually change us. We can become different persons.

Prayer with nature is a passionate listening to the beating heart of the world. It is appreciation. And it is always praise.

Let us plant dates, even though those who plant them will never eat them ... We must live by the love of what we will never see. This is the secret discipline. It is a refusal to let the creative act be dissolved away in immediate sense experience, and a stubborn commitment to the future of our grandchildren. Such disciplined love is what has given prophets, revolutionaries and saints the courage to die for the future they envisaged. They make their own bodies the seed of their highest hope.

~ from TOMORROW'S CHILD by Rubem Alves with thanks to Tina Beneman
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EARTH teach me stillness

EARTH teach me stillness
As the grasses are stilled with light.
EARTH teach me suffering
As old stones suffer with memory.
EARTH teach me humility
As blossoms are humble with beginning.
EARTH teach me caring
As the mother who secures her young.

EARTH teach me courage
As the tree which stands all alone.
EARTH teach me limitation
As the ant who crawls on the ground.
EARTH teach me freedom
As the eagle who soars in the sky.
EARTH teach me resignation
As the leaves which die in the fall.

EARTH teach me regeneration
As the seed which rises in spring.
EARTH teach me to forget myself
As melted snow forgets its life.
EARTH teach me to remember kindness
As dry fields weep with rain.

~ from the poetry of the Ute Native American Indians with thanks to Pat Drypolcher
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Tasted in one small moment.

Just as a whole world of beauty can be discovered in one flower, so the great grace of God can be tasted in one small moment.

~ Henri Nouwen
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I reach out my hand to God

I reach out my hand to God that He may carry me along as a feather is borne weightlessly by the wind...

~ Hildegard of Bingen
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March 1991 (Vol. IV, No. 3)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Into the furnace of prayer

PEACE be with you ... PEACE be among the nations! During this Lenten season, may the wind of the Spirit that drove Jesus into the desert, into the furnace of prayer, also drive us with a passion to enkindle the fire of our devotion in the desert of Lenten love.

~ paraphrased from "Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim" by Edward Hays
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Once I enter wilderness

Once I enter wilderness, I am more honest with myself. The lure is less what I can tally or photograph than what I can sense: the quiet, intangible qualities of desert, mountain and forest. Wilderness has been characterized as barren and unproductive; little can be grown in its sand and rock. But the crops of the wilderness have always been its spiritual values -- silence and solitude, a sense of awe and gratitude -- able to be harvested by any traveler who visits. Prayers in the wilderness were like streams in the desert for me -- something unanticipated and unchronicled welling up, and because of that surprise, appreciated all the more. Not until I actually left the wilderness was I conscious what had been the extent of my thirst.

~ from WILDERNESS SOJOURN: NOTES ON DESERT SILENCE by David Douglas
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To learn how to be

No one can know the ultimate mystery. We never will. But we can invest our lives with courage, dignity, sympathy, understanding, in such a way as to take the utterly crazy things that happen and transform them into a joyful and creative illumination. I am in search of the creativity that is at the center of human-beingness. I cannot know where this lies until I get there, but I have faith it is there where one aspect of God is. All of this implies my dealing with the opposite of what I am used to, a passive and quiet listening to what life says. To learn how to be.

~from AND A TIME TO DIE by Mark Pelgrin
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Choosing my "not belonging" in order to belong

For me, the question is whether my encounter with death has freed me enough from the addictions of the world that I can be true to my vocation as I now see it "sent" from above. It clearly involves a call to prayer, contemplation, silence, solitude, and inner detachment. I have to keep choosing my "not belonging" in order to belong, my not being from below in order to be from above. For, the taste of God's unconditional love quickly disappears when the addictive powers of everyday existence make their presence felt again.

~ from BEYOND THE MIRROR: REFLECTIONS ON DEATH AND LIFE by Henri J. M. Nouwen
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Available to be poured-out-through

Many of us live under the illusion that if we are not for good or for evil we can exist in some moral limbo. The reality is that if we do not choose to be given for the purposes of God, then we are available to be used for the purposes of evil. To be unconscious is to leave oneself open to being manipulated; to be awake and weeping is to be in touch with reality and available to be poured-out-through by the love of God.

~ from THE FOUNTAIN AND THE FURNACE by Maggie Ross
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Let us then labor for an inward stillness

Let us then labor for an inward stillness,
An inward stillness and an inward healing.
That perfect silence where the lips and heart
Are still, and we no longer entertain
Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions,
But God alone speaks in us, and we wait
in singleness of heart, that we may know
God's will and, in the silence of our spirits,
That we may do God's will, and do that only!

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with thanks to Pat Prescott
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Stricken with silence

Returning to the source of one's being is rarely an experience that can be expressed in words. Kabir says, 'Those who have had a taste of this love are so enchanted that they are stricken with silence.' Have you ever been 'stricken with silence'? If so, you have tasted the ineffable; you have had a mystical experience. Silence is too often defined as 'the absence of something' when it is much more than that. Silence is also a search for something, a search for the depths, for the source ... Silence moves people. Being, one my say, is silent. We must embrace silence in order to express being. Then -- and only then -- does it speak deep truths to us ...

~ from THE COMING OF THE COSMIC CHRIST by Matthew Fox
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The all-important aim in meditation

The all-important aim in meditation is to allow God's mysterious and silent presence within us to become more and more not only a reality, but the reality which gives meaning, shape and purpose to everything we do, to everything we are.

~ from WORDS INTO SILENCE by John Main
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As it stands in reality

In prayerful solitude I find not only God and myself but the world and all in it, not as it sees itself but as it stands in reality.

~ Robert Farley
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Before Prayer

I weave a silence on to my
lips...my mind...my heart.

Calm me, O Lord,
as you stilled the storm.
Still me, O Lord,
keep me from harm.
Let all the tumult
within me cease.
Enfold me, Lord,
in your peace
~ Anonymous
Anonymous peace

February 1991 (Vol. IV, No. 2)

Blessings to Friends of Silence with prayers for peace to all peoples on Earth. Ironically, to pray is to go into the desert spaces of our hearts where, in solitude and silence, we can find peace as we commune with the Beloved. Today, when the desert is not silent, Carlo Carretto in LETTERS FROM THE DESERT reminds us that:

Love which must give unity to what is divided

... the affairs of the world, like those of the stars, are in God's hands -- and therefore in good hands. And yet it is so difficult to have genuine faith in God's action in the affairs of the world. And so, the poor life of our soul goes on, in the light of unreal faith and sentimentalism. Halfway between God and the world there is a confusion of aspirations, contradictions and compromises.

Yet, in the depths of our hearts we know ... it is love which must determine our actions, love which must give unity to what is divided. Love is the synthesis of contemplation and action, the meeting-point between heaven and earth, between God and us ... I have known the satisfaction of unrestrained action, and the joy of the contemplative life in the dazzling peace of the desert, and I repeat St. Augustine's words: 'Love and do as you will.' Don't worry about what you are to do. Concentrate on loving instead. And by loving you will find out what is for you. Loving, you will listen to the Voice. Loving, you will find peace. In the end, Love is the solution to every problem, the motive for all good.

May the day soon come with all peoples of the world will choose to walk in the direction of Love! Amen.

~ from LETTERS FROM THE DESERT by Carlo Carretto
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Oh, Lord of the Light

Oh, Lord of the Light,
Lord of the Shining Worlds,
the One Light.
within each One...
the One Light moving
across the face of the Earth...

Awakens souls
in the shadow of illusion,
Awaken love
and forgiveness
in every heart,
Awaken Peace on Earth...

~ Source Unknown
Unknown love

A heart which has burned itself empty

It is the task of the teacher to set the heart aflame with an unquenchable fire of longing ... and, to keep it burning until it is reduced to ashes. For only a heart which has burned itself empty is capable of love.

~ from THE CHASM OF FIRE by Irina Tweedie
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The inextinguishable light

The saints speak of something they call the inextinguishable light. It is a light not of the eye but of the heart that never ceases to walk in purity and clearness. It swiftly leaves the darkness behind, and constantly strives towards the day's height. Its constant quality is to be continually purified. This is the light of eternity that can never go out, and that shines through the veil of time and matter. The saints never say that this light is given to them, but that it is given only to those who have purified their hearts in love for the Lord, on the narrow way which they have freely chosen.

~ from THE WAY OF THE ASCETICS by Tito Colliander
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I asked God for strength

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things,
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of people,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
I as given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for -- but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men and women, most richly blessed.

~ Prayer of an unknown confederate soldier
Unknown love

Love is love

Life is love: love overflowing, that has no limits and that gives itself freely; love that yields mercifully to every need; love that heals the sick and rouses to life what was dead; love that protects, defends, nourishes, teaches, and forms; love that is afflicted with the afflicted and glad with those in joy; that is ready at the service of each one in order to fulfill the plan of the Beloved, in a word: the love of the divine Heart.

~ from ESSAYS ON WOMAN by Edith Stein
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We have to be on our guard

We have to be on our guard against wanting to judge for ourselves what point we have reached in the way of pure love. Only God knows this. What we recognize of ourselves, also of our faults and failings, is only the illuminated part of the surface. The deep roots are also hidden from us. God, who knows these, can purify them.

~ "Letter 143" by Edith Stein
Edith Stein Letter 143 love

Love is the beauty of the soul

Love comes from within you. When you ask for love from one another, you miss the very source of love. When you give love to another, you find the source of love within you.

Inasmuch as love grows in you, so in you beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.

~ St. Augustine
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January 1991 (Vol. IV, No. 1)

ALL GOOD WISHES to friends of Silence around the world! ... with the hope of a peace-filled, joy-filled and grace-filled new year. After the busyness of the holiday season, 'til good to take time for inner reflection. Wordsworth describes it well in "The Prelude":

How gracious, how benign, is Solitude

When from our better selves we have too long
Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop,
Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired,
How gracious, how benign, is Solitude...
There is really nothing you must be.
And there is nothing you must do.
There is really nothing you must have.
And there is nothing you must know.
There is really nothing you must become.
However. It helps to understand that the fire burns,
and when it rains, the earth gets wet...

~ from IT WAS ON FIRE WHEN I LAY DOWN ON IT by Robert Fulghum
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All of us are solitaries

All of us are solitaries: we are born alone through the birth canal into the world and time, and we die alone. No one can enter our interior experience, or its continuum with the outer world we call community. Solitude is the human condition, the universal vocation to be human. It is the willingness, with Love indwelling, to go to the heart of pain to find new life and share it with the world even though you may be separated from it physically. It is from this commitment to be focused through the narrow gate of solitude that self-emptying love is outpoured, and the heart of the community, the heart of its pain, is transformed into the heart of joy.

~ from SEASONS OF DEATH AND LIFE by Maggie Ross
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The Edge of Solitude

Alone, in the cave that he loved so well near the summit of Mt. Subasio, Francis met God again ... Silence and solitude had become dear and sweet to Francis. As he reflected on that, he remembered a time when it was not so. In his youth, he dreaded and took refuge in the gaiety and laughter and frolicking of his friends. Always, at the edge of his consciousness, however, was the somber specter called Aloneness.

That's the way Aloneness appeared to Francis then -- a specter, a mortal enemy bearing a sickle in its hand. It was only when he finally met that specter head on, after his conversion experience, that he found the IT became HER; and then he made friends with her. She became, in fact, his best friend and constant companion.

It was a struggle of course, a struggle to be alone and to allow the pain of loneliness to be transformed into the sweetness of solitude. It didn't come easily and without countless ways in which he had to let the specter within him die. Gradually, he saw that the specter was an illusion -- a figment of his own imagining.

Now, as Francis retrieved himself from the reverie, he thought to himself guiltily, I'm supposed to be praying. Then he smiled. He knew the reverie was part of his prayer, an important part. It was through such a reverie that he had come in the first place to understand solitude for what it really was: togetherness.

~ from TOUCH OF GOD by Fr. Kieran Kay
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Room for much more solitude

Most people agree that there is room for much more solitude than our present way of life affords. Whether the solitude is friendly or frightening, we are likely to feel in it God's presence, or absence. It is of great value to feel either ... Solitude reminds us that human interaction is rich and fathomless. Emerging from solitude, either shaken or serene, I nearly always cherish my first contacts with people, and see more clearly that what passes between us can bear meaning's heaviest weight.

~ from "Meditations" by Addison Hall with thanks to Liz Simons
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The root of friendship is prayer

The root of friendship is prayer, because the root of prayer is presence -- presence to all that is. It is not easy to be present with oneself. We spend most of our time in a flight from prayer, which is a flight from ourselves. We can take only so much of ourselves; but it is only in a radical presence to ourselves, in a coming to say "I am", that we can be present to the One who is all that we are. Our presence to Christ becomes a compelling force to be present to others. We can know that we are living in Christ, that Christ is living in us because we are invited to share in Christ's spirit. Open your hearts to one another as Christ's heart is opened to you, and God will be glorified. Each one of us has been entrusted with a gift which is intended for one another.

~ from THE FATHER IS VERY FOND OF ME by Fr. Edward J. Farrell
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I dedicate this winter day to You

I dedicate this winter day to You, as I now enter into the chapel of my heart to sit in stillness with You. May I leave outside the circle of silence all my worries and concerns for this day, as I enter into prayer. 'O Weaver of oneness and Reader of hearts, I know you need no spoken words to tell you of my affection for you. But may these words of prayer be sacraments of my love.'"

~ from PRAYERS FOR A PLANETARY PILGRIM by Edward Hays
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For those who listen in the stillness of their hearts

For those who listen in the stillness of their hearts, there comes a time to put what is heard into action and to stand up against that which is unjust, to live that which is beauty and justice...

~ Catherine Teresa Browning in "Creation" magazine
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Envision peace

Envision peace, be peace, radiate peace

~ Anonymous
Anonymous solitude

December 1990 (Vol. III, No. 11)

May the blessings of the holiday Spirit be with each of you!  Advent is a season to recall once again who we really are and to humbly accept it.  We are human beings, whose privilege it is to have God as our destiny ... human beings, to whom God has given Divine Life from the beginning ... and, in the process of becoming fulfilled, we must pass under the fiery glance of God.  Since we keep fighting off the approaching God, it is always God who must lay the groundwork for Love's approach, who must tame and train the wild human stallion for its advent destiny.  And only when we live panting in the corral, do we open up to God's life-giving breath.

Advent creatures

Is it not true that somewhere deep down in the silence of our troubled hearts, we have always looked for God's coming? Yet, in the last analysis, we need only say our yes to who we are ... we need simply to become more responsive to the secret yearning of our heart, which we often lock up but can never squelch entirely. Inasmuch as we are open and receptive, then we are truly men and women in waiting, advent creatures who allow Love to approach them and look forward to God's coming.

~ from THE ADVENT OF GOD by Johannes Beptist Metz
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To interpenetrate an entire human life with divine life

To interpenetrate an entire human life with divine life, it is not enough to kneel once a year in front of the crib and let oneself be moved by the charm of the holy night. One needs to live one's entire life in daily communication with God, to listen to the words that God has spoken and that have been transmitted to us, and to follow these words.

~ from THE MYSTERY OF CHRISTMAS by Edith Stein
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Attending in readiness waiting

Attending in readiness waiting
My soul meets yours,
Enter, Oh Holy Spirit,
Creation's Lord.

Tending in rapt devotion
Spirit's gentle touch --
Open as an infant's gaze
More insistent than any pain.

Open in steadiness attending
Creation's one and all,
Trusting Its wondrous tenderness.
Am I at least Its child?

~ Pat Munk
Pat Munk waiting

He could gamble with his own suffering

Paraphrased from Elie Wiesel's THE OATH, an old man describes one of the characters:

He could gamble with his own suffering, but not with that of someone for whom suffering was not a game. He knew that nothing justifies the pain one person causes another. Any messiah in whose name people are tortured can only be a false messiah. It is by diminishing evil, present and real evil, experienced evil, that one builds the city of the sun. It is by helping those persons who look at you with tears in their eyes, needing help, needing you or at least your presence, that you may reach wholeness.

~ from THE OATH by Elie Wiesel
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Someone is hidden in this dark with me

I live my Advent in the womb of Mary.
And on one night when a great star swings free
from its high mooring and walks down the sky
to be the dot above the Christus i,
I shall be born of her by blessed grace.
I wait in Mary-darkness, faith's walled place,
with hope's expectance of nativity.

I knew for long she carried me and fed me,
guarded and loved me, though I could not see.
But only now, with inward jubilee,
I come upon earth's most amazing knowledge:
SOMEONE IS HIDDEN IN THIS DARK WITH ME.

~from "Advent" in SELECTED POETRY by Jessica Powers
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This birth is always happening

Here in time we make holiday because the eternal birth which our loving God bore and bears unceasingly in eternity is now born in time, in human nature. St. Augustine says this birth is always happening. But if it happens not in me, what does it profit me? What matters is that it shall happen in me.

~ Meister Eckhart
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Silence is portable cell that we carry with us wherever we go

Silence is primarily a quality of the heart that leads to ever-growing charity. It is portable cell that we carry with us wherever we go. From it we speak to those in need and to it we return after our words have born fruit. And, it is in this portable cell that we find ourselves immersed in the divine silence. The final question in a ministry of silence is not whether we say much or little, but whether our words call forth the caring silence of God, the silence to which we are all called.

~ from THE WAY OF THE HEART by Henri Nouwen
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Like dew from the womb of the morning

In the beauty of holiness have I begotten you, like dew from the womb of the morning.
~ Anonymous
Anonymous waiting

November 1990 (Vol. III, No. 10)

GREETINGS IN ABUNDANCE to all friends of Silence this harvest season! As we recollect the gifts of this year, may we also be mindful of the Source of our deepest blessings. Edith Stein, in "Thoughts", a compilation of some of her writings, reminds us of how every moment is to be a time for giving thanks:

Contemplation and action

For the blessed souls who have entered the profound union of divine life: rest and activity, contemplation and action, silence and speaking, receiving the gift of God in love and returning love by waves of thanksgiving and praise, are the same thing.

~ From THOUGHTS by Edith Stein with thanks to Walter Reinsdorf
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We are all one silence

SILENCE and HOPE ... they belong together. Only in the silence of hope can we find our deepest communion. 'We are all one silence', says Thomas Merton, 'and a diversity of voices'. How can we keep our ears attuned to the silence of our common hope when the divergent voices of our hopes distract us? How can we tune in to their ultimate harmony, audible only to the ears of our heart? Only by being still. Only by nurturing in our heart a stillness that grows big enough to embrace even contradictory hopes, a stillness strong enough to go beyond all hopes in hope ... Hope brings us to the core of contemplative transformation: GLORY. Glory is seed and harvest to hope, its initial spark and its ultimate blaze.

~ from GRATEFULNESS, THE HEART OF PRAYER by Br. David Steindl-Rast
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Sometimes we talk too much

In the middle of a healing conference on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, a young Native American died of acute alcoholism. Unfortunately, it is not an unusual occurrence on Indian reservations to die of alcoholism. I was working with Matt and Dennis Linn who were in training on the reservation. We were invited to the wake that was to be held later that evening. The Linns told me what to do when we got to the tribal hall.

"When we go into the tribal hall tonight, the man will be in a casket in the front of the room with all of his grieving family around him, and nobody will be talking. The Indian people will be there. Go in, don't say a word, take the hand of each of the grieving relatives, shake it once, and sit down with the rest of the people who are there."

We sat there in silence with the family. The Native Americans sat there all night long with that family, not saying a word. Your presence speaks so much louder than anything you could say. Sometimes we talk too much, rather than remembering to "be still and know that I am God".

~ Anonymous
Anonymous silence

The deep things do not come suddenly

The deep things do not come suddenly. Let us be patient -- with ourselves. We may recognize many defects in our natures ... it can all be removed. Go on working silently. Silence and patience go together. Silence has wonderful creative power. Innovators conceive an idea but they do not go out and shout it before the world; they think silently and work quietly until they realize their ideal.

~ Swami Paramananda
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Peace me to together, Oh soul

Peace me to together, Oh soul,
Assemblage human and holy,
Peace together the life and the prayer,
That the Current flows strong in stillness,
And a twinkle in the silence catches the breath,
Oh wonder!

~ "The Black Butterfly" by Richard Moss
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The new challenge for all peoples

The new challenge for all peoples is to broaden our sense of spiritual community, becoming fully ecumenical not only concerning whom we pray FOR, but also concerning whom we pray WITH. If humankind can begin to pray together we can begin to live together, finding new and creative ways to reduce the evils which plague our planet. But how can we pray together with integrity, when we differ so much in beliefs? The best way to being to pray and meditate together is in SILENCE. Words are not enough. In silence we can sense that we are not separate from anyone, and so we can dare to hope for peace. For silence to "work", participants must bring to it some degree of trust, love, and letting-go: a trust in the good-will of the others which moves them to join in such an expression of human caring; a love which brings a sense of heart-felt connection with the others as human beings; and a letting-go for a short time of our desperate clinging to the convictions which separate and divide us, letting these recede to the background of consciousness. After the silence, we return to deal with the same differences, but in a different spiritual climate.

~ Donald Evans
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What I find distinct about gratitude in the wilderness

What I find distinct about gratitude in the wilderness is its simplicity -- the thankfulness I feel here is for what I usually take for granted: my capacity to breathe, move and see ... For the most part, gratitude here wells up unexpectedly, in the quiet corners of the day, over events small and ordinary. Gratitude is the other side of dependence on God: to take anything for granted in the wilderness seems presumptuous, blasphemous. And so, here in these naves of vaulting stone, prayers of thanksgiving begin to edge out prayers of petition.

~ from WILDERNESS SOJOURN by David Douglas
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In moments of solitude

In moments of solitude -- awareness enables the mind and spirit to focus through awe and wisdom on a world of indisputable loveliness -- and to evince its eternity ...

~ from INFINITE DESTINY by Gwen Frostic
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October 1990 (Vol. III, No. 9)

GREETINGS and BLESSINGS! Are you prepared for Autumn?

Each new season

Each new season evokes a resurgence of new energy, a new beginning. We know that from the darkness and deep silence of earth life, there springs and flourishes that which flowers in beauty. When we plant bulbs in the Fall, we have faith that from that brown globe rooted in decay will come a creation so charged with beauty as to seem a veritable breath of God. And, we can trust that each of our fears and problems, rooted in God-soil deep within, will bring forth blossoms in due season.

~ from WAY OF THE SUN by White Eagle
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Just as each new seed requires a period of gestation

Just as each new seed requires a period of gestation -- a time of deep silence and solitude -- so, too, we need such seasons. "Someone wrote me recently and asked if it wasn't frustrating to have exterior solitude interrupted. Well, you learn to live out of your interior solitude. And perhaps this is one of the keys to living in the madness, the telescoping demands and resulting exhaustion of our society: to explore our own interior solitude and learn not only to be afraid of it but to live out if its self-discipline, its limitless resources and deep silence. Solitude is like a tea ceremony, the celebration of life in all its homely movements taken out of time -- the wonder of the commonplace, the mystery of ordinary life ... Solitude is being poured-out-through. We evolve toward simplicity. We dwell in the Word."

~ from THE FIRE OF YOUR LIFE by Maggie Ross
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One with God

Love makes us one with God.
~ Anonymous
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Learning to really listen

The basic lesson in observing is in learning to really "listen". Unfortunately, most of us whenever we are engaged in conversation with others really only half listen. And when we visit the great outdoors and attempt to get in touch with the Creation of Mother Earth -- do we really try to listen to the messages that are being expressed either audibly or inaudibly therein? Probably not. In all these areas of communication perhaps we need to discipline ourselves to learn the art of truly listening. We each need to rediscover that if we fill the silence, we cannot hear the voice of God. Once we have learned to quiet down and "center in", then we can begin to hear the voices of Creation and also that still, small voice within which can only come through when we are earnestly creating an attitude of "silence". Whenever we can actually stop our busy merry-go-rounds occasionally and seek quiet times and places -- we can then hear that inner voice of our Creator speaking to us with great love, comfort and guidance for our lives, as we listen with the ears of the heart and spirit! Inner harmony, peace and spiritual growth can take place when we learn to listen -- and thus receive the "gift of silence".

~ from "The Gift of Silence" by Leslie Wilson in the July 1990 issue of "The Talking Stick" with thanks to Betty Fribance
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Only one who can bear silence

Only one who can bear silence will hear the voice of God.
~ Anonymous
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Why do I pray?

The following prayer-poem was written by Ernest L. Brown III when he was a teenager many years ago. Our gratitude to Mrs. Fredi Brown, his mother, for sharing it with us:

Why do I pray? Why do I breathe?
Why does my heart propel the blood through my body?
Why, indeed?

I pray because I must ... because prayer is thought,
because prayer is the Nature of God.
What else can be compared to that peculiar comfort,
that indefinable calm that comes stealing over me when,
perplexed and confused, I have turned to God,
simply dropped my burdens and problems,
and flung myself into the Creator's protecting arms?

There is a spirit in us, I am told.
No one with human eyes may see this spirit;
no one may touch it with flesh-and-blood hands.
Yet when I pray I can feel it,
and then it may be said that spirit has talked with Spirit.
Not with words, for there is no need of words.
The spirit in us has touched, recognized and accepted the Lord.
All else has been lost, dropped, forgotten.
No need to remember, to fret and strive after remembering.
I have touched God -- not with my intellect,
my twisted straining thoughts,
not with human-trained logic --
but with something within me which is the spirit in us,
the Christ Indwelling.

Thus it is that I pray -- because I want to be comforted ...
because I want to be strengthened, directed, led ...
because I want to be healed, happy, solvent, loving, loved.
Because I believe that God can give me answers
when I have none of my own, I pray.

~ Ernest L. Brown III
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You do not need so much prayer

A shah of Persia used to sit up at night for vigils and prayers. A friend who was visiting wondered at his long meditations after the whole day's work. "It is too much," he said, "you do not need so much prayer."

"Do not say so," was the answer. "You do not know. For at night I pursue God, and during the day God follows me."

~ from TALES by Hazrat Inayat Khan
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The deep silence of creation

The deep silence of creation is Spirit's voice directing the people as they walk ... Their steps are firm, for Spirit guides the moccasins to tread where it is safe.
~ Anonymous
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We walked slowly and quietly through the woods

A recent meeting with nature brought a strong reminder of the beauty, unity and harmony of Creation ... a viewpoint to balance the seeming madness and greed of the present world situation:

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