Sooner or later we shall have to acknowledge that love is the fundamental impulse of Life. It is through love and within love that we must look for the deepening of our deepest self in the life-giving coming together of humankind. Love is the free and imaginative outpouring of the spirit over all unexplored paths. It links those who love in bonds that unite but do not confound, causing them to discover in their mutual contact an exaltation capable of arousing in the heart of their being all that they possess of uniqueness and creative power.
We journey together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable supplies of air and soil; all committed for our safety to its security and peace, preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, and the love we give our fragile craft.
The spiritual journey is a story of a return to our heart, the very center of our being, that has been obscured by our driving compulsion to create our own identify.
We all belong in the heart of God. We belong in God; that is where our heart has its home. In God's heart we always find what we need: attentiveness, the responsiveness, the safe haven for our vulnerable selves. We all belong in the heart of God.
We all belong to God, not as a possession to be grasped, but as a partner in a loving union in which we become free and vibrantly alive. We all belong in the heart of God. Everyone belongs, for we journey together and we are who we are by virtue of our belonging to one another.
~ From "Quantum Grace" in "Earthlight" 2005 by Judy Cannato
"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"
May BLESSINGS OF BEAUTY abound in your life, dear friends ... the simple beauty of a kind, random act of sharing ... the gentle beauty of early morning dew defining a spider's web ... the beauty of communal meditation in the Silence ... the terrible beauty of a great loving response to disaster ... the sacred beauty of unity in diversity ... the wondrous beauty of our Earth home from outer space. Pondering Beauty's gifts in the Silence can evoke a deeper appreciation of Her presence in your life. As Evelyn Underhill put it, "Beauty is reality seen with the eyes of Love. "
I believe that life is about finding the beauty inside oneself, and offering it to the world. I want to live a simple life of integrity and beauty; to live and work from the stillpoint, from the silence. I seek peace with myself, I want to be a person of thought rather than words. More than anything else, I am being asked to walk with slowness, thoughtfulness. Slowness invites an awareness of beauty.
~ from "Heron Dance," Issue 34, Rod McIver, artist
The world is a mirror of infinite beauty, yet no one sees it. It is a Temple of majesty, yet no one regards it. It is a region of Light and Peace, did not humans disquiet it. It is the Paradise of God, the place of Angels, and the Gate of Heaven.
~ from CENTURIES OF MEDITATIONS by Thomas Traherne
One of my mother's most amazing characteristics is the way she has always valued and created beauty, even at a time in her life when such valuing seemed to threaten survival. In this, I know my mother to be the image of God. Not only has God created all things beautiful from nothing; this is no more than we would expect. In those country barns, my mother recognized broken pieces of furniture for what they were and she paid for their re-creation by going hungry. In the same way, God as our mother recognizes the beauty within all the broken and discarded parts of ourselves ...
Exiled on earth as we are, unless we are able to content ourselves with that shadow of Paradise that is Virgin Nature, we must create for ourselves surroundings which, by their truth and their beauty recall our heavenly origin and thereby also awaken our hope.
Beauty lies at the heart of the tea ceremony. Each object used must be beautiful. Special cups are made for this ceremony. Even to look on these cups is to be brought into a wider, calmer realm of the self.
The tea master Okakura KaKuzo has said that beauty evokes harmony and the mystery of mutual charity... . All that we call beautiful is a kind of vessel, like love, that holds what we know.
Who can afford to live without beauty? Beauty fills us with passion; it graces us with joy and lights up our existence. A landscape, a piece of music, a film, a dance – suddenly all dreariness is gone, we are left bewitched and dazzled. If we get lost in dark despair, beauty takes us back to Center.
Beauty is before me And beauty is behind me Above and below me hovers the beautiful I am surrounded by it I am immersed in it In my youth I am aware of it And in old age I shall walk quietly The beautiful trail.
Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their innermost being, their true nature. The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in the evolution of human consciousness. The feelings of joy and love are intrinsically connected to that recognition. Without our fully realizing it, flowers would become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves.
To the medieval thinker beauty was not a value independent of others, but rather the radiance of truth, the splendor of ontological perfection, and that quality of things which reflects their origin in God. Light and luminous objects, no less than musical consonance, conveyed an insight into the perfection of the cosmos, and a divination of the Creator.
Perhaps it seems surprising that physicists seek beauty, but in fact they have no choice. As yet there has not been an exception to the rule that the demonstrable solution to any problem will turn out to be an aesthetic solution.
Composers know how to use harmony and melody like a net to catch beauty's colors and radiance. And when we like what we hear, we open our pores to take in more – just as we close them against what seems ugly or offensive. Isn't that why we remember so vividly the hours or days spent in places we love, perhaps in the mountains or by the sea, where all our senses were awake?
Where is beauty located? Everywhere we recognize it: the pattern is in us. Beauty is the name we give our response to the perfection we sense around us, and within us.
~ from THE NATURE OF MUSIC by Maureen McCarthy Draper
"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"
BLESSINGS OUT OF THE SILENCE, dear friends! FAITH is in recognizing Love's Will unfolding daily in our lives ... in the Silence ... in mysterious ways. In the depth of silence is hidden the Source of love, the Divine Guest, dwelling within every heart. Faith is the eye that unveils this sweet Treasure and illuminates its eternal love. Where is fear in such faith?Only love remains. Silent be ... and see.
The divine and flaming Word shines in the world in the silence of the soul and "moves" it. This movement is living faith and its light is hope or illumination, while all springs from the Divine Fire which is Love or union with God.
We naturally use our faith to strengthen our relationship with God, to focus our thoughts on what is good, to help us love our neighbor. I ask a lot from my faith. To me, it's not simply a place of comfort; it is a reference point from which I take the indecipherable events of my world and place them in a context that is holy, sacred, and dynamic. It won't make the world go away, but it does have the power to shape one into a person of deep sensitivity and true passion.
~ From Science of Mind, July 2002 - Randall Friesen
