If we are called to be observers and contemplators, we are also called to nourish, to be nourishers, not consumers. Only a nourisher knows when to stop, not to overeat, overindulge, to draw back. To say no. I have a friend who has a coffee mug with the inscription: DON'T JUST DO SOMETHING, STAND THERE ... We often underestimate those who stand there. But I have had to do some new thinking about all this, as I have had to do some new thinking about the sound of the tree falling in the forest. If we are unwilling to practice the gift of contemplation, we are likely to get stuck in one position, and to be fearful of changing it, and so we cling, unable to laugh at ourselves and move on.
O hidden Life, vibrant in every atom,
O hidden Light, shining in every creature.
O hidden Love, embracing all in oneness,
May all who feel themselves as one with Thee,
Know they are therefore one with every other.
BLESSINGS and ALL GOOD WISHES, dear friends! May each one of us radiate from the silence the gifts of wisdom, love, goodness, light and joy. May we recognize that in this, the busiest and noisiest of seasons, we are invited to ever deepening times of silence and solitude to ponder the Mystery of Love born anew in our hearts.
There is a light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond us all, beyond the heavens, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. This is the light that shines in our hearts.
Sisters and brothers, listen. Make your heart crystal clear within. Your senses will be opened and your soul so transparent that you will see into the Love and Wisdom of God ... Spiritual persons who dwell on earth are offered two kinds of spirit: In this way two pure natures come together. The first is the flowing Fire of the Godhead; and the second is gradual growth and expansion of the loving soul.
Increasingly, my intention is to make each day of a living prayer. I am finding that to go out of the darkness into light, I have only to be a little more kind, a little more gentle and loving to those around me, and to myself. It has been in showing love to myself that I have had the greatest difficulty. The simplicity of choosing to live a life of love, rather than a life of fear, is more clearly becoming a reality for me. The power of simply remembering God, and remembering that my true identity is love, has been beyond anything I could have imagined. Let us all join in love, and know that in sharing the thoughts of love and peace with one another we bring the miracle of light into the world.
~ from OUT OF DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT by Gerald G. Jampolsky
What is the greatest kind of love?
Great love does not flow with tears.
Rather,
it burns in the great Fire of Heaven.
In this Fire
it flows and flows swiftly
yet all the while
it remains in itself
in a very great stillness.
Never become too holy or too spiritual. Let the Spirit align itself within you. Become what humanity can be. Nothing more and nothing less. There is no such thing as spiritual development or Higher Self or Greater Self or Lower Self. There is nothing to find, nowhere to go, nothing to reach up to. There is, however, LIFE, human life capable of Being itself. And that is already present in every moment of every day ... By relaxing very deeply and allowing your body to reach a point of stillness, the delicate strings of your Self will be found dancing with the deep current of love that is the Earth. This love is the dance of the still point in the open moment ... your Self is love in action.
~ from LEAVING MY FATHER'S HOUSE by Marion Woodman
There has to be enough communication so that silence can be a grace. That kind of silence demands a deeper love, and until that much love is developed, there is no point in pretending that the love is there when it isn't. The justification of silence in our life is that we love one another to be silent together ... In the depths of community life, we realize the grace of being silent together, but we don't arrive at this by excluding others or treating them as objects. It happens gradually as we learn to love ... The need is for a true silence which is alive and which carries a loving presence.
~ from THE SPRINGS OF CONTEMPLATION by Thomas Merton
What we are called to is conscious harmony with the whole of earthly evolution in the dissemination of Love. In its very essence spiritual knowledge will be changed into Love ... The exterior knowledge of the universe will be interiorised in us. Love is Wisdom reborn from the Self. Love will be manifested as a natural force. This is the secret of all future evolution.
