winter, homecoming

This room was a sacred space, a place that he had chosen to make especially his own, a place redeemed from mere "use" in which he would make a conscious attempt to be at rest and to put a part of his life in order. In short, this was the evidence that the man was able to pray.

Let us enter into silence, that the Holy Mystery might take possession of us.

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 knowing, without even my conscious consent, silence entered me.

Wherever you live is your Sacred Chapel if you treat is as the abode of the Beloved.

Deep within your soul
there is a KNOWING PLACE
a sanctuary where gifts are nurtured.

Enter that sacred space.

Spend time there tending your gifts.

There in the chapel of your heart
you will become a gift to be given.

The power of silence lies in its emptiness. Silence is a receptive space. It creates a sacred void, an opening through which you can receive: truth, perspective, strength, healing, revelation. In silence, you transcend words and contact the wordless. You fill up with a peaceful knowing. Silence is not the same as prayer. Prayer is a way of directing your feelings and thoughts, focusing them and sending them toward a source. Silence is listening, receiving, being. One is trying to reach the source of communication with it; the other, silence, is allowing yourself to hear the source within yourself, to become one with it... In prayer, you are the sender; in silence, you are the receiver.

Experience proves that there is a power in holy places, power to quicken the spiritual life and vitalize the soul with fresh enthusiasm and inspiration. While strong spiritual emotions have been felt for long periods of time by successive generations of dedicated men and women -- especially if they have had among them those who may be reckoned as saints because of their genius for devotion -- the mental atmosphere of the place becomes imbued with spiritual forces, and sensitive souls capable of response are deeply stirred thereby when they come into it.

Space -- whether it's architectural, spiritual, physical, or emotional -- is the medium in which we come alive, in which we feel ourselves and those around us to be alive without blame, without demands, without expectations, without fear, without hope... Space has a spiritual equivalent and can heal what is divided and burdensome in us.

When each day is sacred,
When each hour is sacred,
When each instant is sacred,
Earth and you, space and you,
bearing the sacred through time;
You'll reach the fields of light.

To drink deeply of the silence,
inhale the quiet,
lose myself in timelessness --
that is soul-space.