We become better at something in ourselves—more skilled, more creative, more effective—when we work. We discover that, indeed, we are good for something. Good work is, at the time, its own kind of asceticism. It needs no symbolic rituals or contrived penances.
The very act of continuing something until we succeed at it is soul-searing, life-changing enough... It makes us equal partners with the rest of the human race in this one common endeavor to grow the globe to wholeness. Good work is our gift to the future. It is what we leave behind—our persistence, our precision, our commitment, our fidelity to the smallest and meanest of tasks that will change the mind of generations to come about our sacred obligation to bear our share of the holy-making enterprise that is work.
When Magdalena entered the room the next time, Inigo asked her for paper and ink. He had found the formula and did not want it to slip from his mind.
"In those who proceed from good to better, the good spirit touches such a soul gently and softly as when water drops upon a sponge, and the evil spirit strikes it sharply and noisily, causing disquiet as when water drops upon a stone."
Each of us is a separate and sacred being, a being made most real when it weaves itself into the pattern of all Being. The harmony of all Being includes each of us within it, and its health requires our individual effort. So we live; each of us a needed part of the Universal Soul -- each in all, and all in each, one pattern, one truth, one body.
Like justness in a judge's decision, or beauty in a painting, soul is a quality of absoluteness in something relative. Understood profoundly, people are connected to the holiness of the world in such a way that they reveal a dimension of holiness in themselves, a dimension of depth that is absolute.
In 2000, while I was in the hospital for by-pass surgery, an old man called out for help each night. All the prayers for his comfort and quiet seemed to float away. One night I found myself saying,
"Old man, you are not going to be miserable this night. My soul is coming over and our souls are going out dancing!"
I don't have a rational explantion, I only know he was quiet that night, my soul uplifted. I believe our souls danced that night. The next day the old man died. Such is the power of Spirit in our lives.
~ in a letter form Jacqueline White, a Friend of Silence
Prayer fulfills the need humans have for God, for inspiration, for affirmation of our own spirits. In prayer, we communicate with the essence of everything that exists, including our own essence. We have a message to share with life, with God, and we want to share it with authority. The message is coming directly from our hearts, we are talking with our divinity, with Divinity Itself. The power of prayer can lead us into love, truth, and personal freedom.
As your prayer and meditation become deeper, they will defend you
from the perpetual assaults of the outer world. You will hear the
busy hum of that world as a distant exterior melody, and know
yourself to be in some way withdrawn from it. You have set a ring
of silence between you and it; and behold! within the silence you
are free.
Sacred Friend, be with us this day. Within us to purify us; Above us to draw us up; Beneath us to sustain us; Before us to lead us; Behind us to restrain us; Around us to protect us.
There are two dimensions to prayer: speech and silence. Of the two,
speech is necessary, but silence takes precedence. Silence is the
authentic medium of prayer, the rich matrix in which true communion
becomes possible. And being a medium, silence has a positive existence.
For the one who truly understands prayer, silence also conveys a message;
it too speaks... Silence prepares the soul for prayer, to hear the
pain of others, the pain of the world.
