"Listen, I bring you news of great joy."
Joy is the transparency of grace,
the overflow of Christ's presence into us,
into the lives of others.
Joy is a gift, the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
"Christ's joy is the sharing in the unfathomable joy,
both divine and human,
which is at the heart of Jesus Christ glorified."
The deep, quiet joy of the gift
of goodness of life,
of one's family and friends,
of loving and being loved,
of holiness,
of the Eucharist.
We were created for joy!
Genuine silence may proclaim that truth is not in the last analysis an idea or a proposition but a reality greater than any argument or matter of speech.
It was said that Abba Agathon lived for three years carrying a stone in his mouth until he had learned to keep silence.
Listen to the silence, for the silence is alive. It speaks through the darkness with a whisper.
Close your eyes and you will see clearly
Cease to listen and you will hear truth
Be silent and your heart will sing
Seek no contact and you will find union
Be still and you will move forward
on the tide of spirit.
Be gentle and you will need no strength
Be patient and you will achieve all things
Be humble and you will remain entire.
~ from THE BOOK OF RUNES with thanks to Anne Strader
GREETINGS, dear friends, and BLESSINGS be yours. A CALL to silence, a meditation network for peace and healing of our world, invites people of all traditions, cultures and religions to participate in a week of reverencing the Silence -- May 7-11th. For, at the heart of silence there is peace, there is our essential being, there is the Holy One. This silence of love, trust, friendship and mutual respect bonds us together. Friends, in the Silence, may we offer ourselves as bearers of peace.
Eliminate something superfluous from your life.
Break a habit.
Do something that makes you feel insecure.
Carry out an action with complete attention and
intensity as if it were your last.
There comes a Time when, on one hand a vague Awakening stirs the soul, the consciousness of a Higher Law ... and the sufferings we endure from the contradictions of life, compel us to renounce the social order and to adapt the New. And this time has now arrived.
Awareness, like grace itself, is always freely being offered -- but it is a living and sensitive thing. It does not take kindly to being ignored or abused. If one does not pay attention to the presence of the holy in the very midst of daily life, it simply withdraws (or, more accurately, we discover that we have withdrawn ourselves from it!); and it may be a long and weary time before we find again that particular facet of Truth which would have been such a great help to the very next stage of our journeys.
~ from ENCOUNTERS AT BETHLEHEM by Jean Jones Andersen
How shall the mighty river
reach the tiny seed?
See it rise silently
to the sun's yearning,
sail from a winter's cloud
flake after silent flake
piling up layer upon layer
until the thaw of spring
to meet the seedling's need.
Make tender, my heart:
release through gentleness
Thine own tremendous power
hid in the snowflake's art.
A deep way of learning to pray is to try to live in the presence of God. We try in a relaxed way to become aware of the Divine Presence during our waking hours. We need the grace of quiet concentration and perseverance to develop this disposition. Gradually, awareness of God's presence becomes an underlying theme of our life, an undercurrent of our stream of consciousness that never leaves us totally. This silent orientation is more spiritual and less bound to images than other kinds of prayer... We try in inner quiet to grow in living faith in the conviction that Divine Love is alive and at work deep within us.
~ from COMMITMENT by Susan Muto and Adrian van Kaam
Existential prayer is one form of mystical contemplation. It is the prayer of just being. It has few words; and perhaps it has no images at all. In this prayer I just AM -- like the flower of the field or the birds of the air; and by just being I give glory to God.
