It is a central paradox of desert experience that only that which dies can live again. The fundamental rule of the divine life is this: the one who loses, wins. The carefree playfulness and freedom of the Holy One are mysteries entered only on the farside of darkness and death.
~ from THE SOLACE OF FIERCE LANDSCAPES by Belden C. Lane
Gramma died 25 years after she stopped mothering me. But she left me something special, and I hear it whenever the need occurs. A tune wafts in unexpectedly when I am kneading bread or hanging laundry on the line. The opening phrase of an old hymn bursts from my mouth: "Are ye able," I suddenly sing out. "To believe that Spirit triumphs," I can hear Gramma picking up the next line. The verses poses a great question about faith, but I am thinking about what Gramma gave me. "Lillian," I answer, "thank you for my voice."
I sit for a long time in the absolute silence. All at once, there is barely a perceptible noise, a soft rumble as of thunder. The sound dies without discovery of its nature or source. It returns, seeming to come from all directions at once. At last it emerges from its mystery, grows into a tremulous hum, and solidifies into chanting. The music has no tempo. There is no breathing audible in it. No one voice stands out; it is the fusion of all that produces the effect. Long held notes which at last modulate again and again in the calm rhythm of the heart. I am suspended in the sound. And charged. ... The chanting dies away as gently as it began. Once again there is the unanimous voice of silence.
~ "Taking the World In For Repairs" by Richard Selzer
An image to ponder: You have a spiritual mailbox and perhaps have been
unable to live your truth. Each time this occurs, the number on your
mailbox changes, causing the spiritual blessings addressed to you to be
undeliverable. God does not reroute blessings if you are the cause of
the interference. However, if you remain true to yourself, the heavens
can find you even if the outer world seems not to approve of who you are.
Always choose to be truthful in the highest sense — and you will find that
goodness and inner beauty will accompany you along the way.
To speak the truth through our words and through our
lives is the obligation that authenticates spirituality
in us humans. Spirituality is mysterious, but this
we do know: spirituality is the way wherein we will
experience vitality, truth, and transformation.
~ from OUR UNIVERSAL SPIRIT JOURNEY by John P. Cock
I seem to have been only like a child playing on the
seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding
a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary,
whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered
before me.
True integrity grows from an awareness that we can stand in the honest
light of God's unconditional love and be seen in our truth. Integrity,
like a muscle, needs to be worked and stretched. As we sit in the center
of integrity, our heart and God's heart beat as one. The transparent light
of truth filters through, embracing every cell of our being, and we are
able to see and speak more clearly. Then, little by little, as the layers
of lies and pretending are stripped aside, a genuine simplicity remains.
Freed of grandiosity and illusion, we stand radiant and unencumbered in
truth as we claim our own voice with which we dare speak our truth and
live with integrity.
One of the most pathetic things about us human beings is our
touching belief that there are times when the truth is not good
enough for us; that it can and must be improved upon. We have
to be utterly broken before we can realize that it is impossible
to better the truth. It is the truth that we deny which so tenderly
and forgivingly picks up the fragments and puts them together again.
Seek within and you will find the answer. Truth is like a many sided
diamond: every side belongs to the whole but it all depends where you
are as to just how you view it. Every soul views Truth from different
angles. There is a time along the pathway of every soul when it has to
stand alone and find the I Am within without help or guidance or support
from any one else.
~ from FOOTPRINTS ON THE PATH by Eileen Caddy thanks to Bob Blakesley
Luminous is the word of Truth; like
a laser beam, it cuts through
ignorance and illusion.
Lives filled with lies lead to pain
and suffering;
the face reveals but a mask
hiding shame and deception.
About face! Listen and know!
Blessed are those who choose the Truth.
The path is made straight,
the spirit freed to soar.
~ from LUMEN CHRISTI ... HOLY WISDOM by Nan Merrilla
TRUTH: knowing we are integral to the Whole.
Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, whate'er you may believe.
There is an inmost centre in us all
Where truth abides in fullness; and around
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
This perfect, clear perception — which is truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Blinds it, and makes all error, and, to KNOW
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without.
It is not enough to seek and care; to pay lip service to all manner of ideals. Real witness is what counts. It is something to do with leaps in the dark. Recognizing that Truth is hidden. But transformation towards truth is something else. It is practice and diligence.
Compassion is an aspect of Divine love that melts all defenses and resistance when anyone's suffering is really seen. There is nothing the personality can do to create compassion, but when we are willing to be completely open and truthful about whatever we are truly feeling, it arises naturally and soothes our hurt. (We could say that truth without compassion is not really truth, and that compassion without truth is not really compassion.) The Divine love that seeks to express itself in the world through us is a powerful force that can break through all of the old barriers and untruths that have accumulated in us.
~ from THE WISDOM OF THE ENNEAGRAM by D.R. Riso and R. Hudson
These are the three steps of truth. We climb to the first by the toil of humility, to the second by the deep feelings of compassion, and to the third by the ecstasy of contemplation. On the first step we experience the severity of truth, on the second its tenderness, on the third its purity. Reason brings us to the first as we judge ourselves; compassion brings us to the second when we have mercy on others; on the third the purity of truth sweeps us up to the sight of things invisible.
~ from BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX ed. by M. Basil Pennington
I will no longer act on the outside in a way that contradicts the truth
that I hold deeply on the inside. I will no longer act as if I were
less than the whole person I know myself to be.
Prayer is listening to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved. It is to constantly go back to the Truth of who we are and claim it for ourselves. I'm not what I do. I'm not what people say about me. I'm not what I have. My life is not rooted in the world, the things the world gives me. My life is rooted in the truth of my spiritual identity. Whatever we do — we have to go back regularly to that place of core identity.
Blessed be, dear friends! Would that we each knew the amazing deep Truth of who we are and who we are called to be. We usually see but glimpses. Truth is with us. Truth is within us. May we prepare our hearts, souls, and mids to welcome Truth, to receive the Truth of our Being, moment by moment, day by day. Silent be and let the Truth set you free!
A walk in nature can help bring about one of the most essential acts a human being can perform: the stilling of the mind. For when the cacophony of disturbances, reactions, and self-talk subsides, like a windswept sea suddenly finding calm, the lens of our lives becomes a still, pure crystalline window for the cosmos to experience itself through... A walk in the natural world, with conscious mindfulness, can help bathe the senses in the implicate ordering of existence. Such a direct and immediate reminder does much to help steer us back to the center of ourselves.
Silence ... And in the west, the ever-setting sun consumed itself, surrounded by its circling sisters, rushing with the speed of light toward the point systems and cosmic galaxies had been fleeing from the beginning, toward darkness and the primordial Fiat. And across the cold ocean of space, audible as the music of the spheres, the defining cry of creation comes. Maranatha!
