When the angels touch our hearts and "kiss our minds," We are forever changed. Our wonder in being human comes back strong with angelic guidance. The magic of nature, the mythic quality of being human, the pain of the soul, the soaring of the spirit, the beauty of compassion, and the grace of reverence all come together, weaving life into a meaningful experience.
A common way of praying for me is to allow myself to move deeply within into the center of self. I may begin by presenting a situation of concern to God and then move into silence. This is a dark (not depressing) kind of praying, but I descend deep into the mystery where there is both peace and silence; I lose consciousness of the time and place in which I exist in the moment and move into the darkness of God, into unknowing... I return to waking consciousness feeling vulnerable and empowered; I experience tenderness and new awareness.
~ from FROM CENTER TO CIRCUMFERENCE by Elizabeth-Ann Vanek
BLESSINGS and GREETINGS, dear friends. Pausing in silence as we move into a new season, may the Indwelling Light within your heart shine forth ... may peace blossom on the earth and justice dawn like new-born light! And may your holidays be seasoned with love and light and peace!
Deep within us all, there ís an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn líves, warming us wíth intimatíons of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon the face of humanity.
The energy of human consciousness may share an afflnity with light that we do not yet understand. Turning toward that light, we might find it the source of all our inspiration and creativity.
The silence as broken at last by the bell signifying the end of morning activity. Turning to the old woman, I asked, "What are you looking at?" I immediately flushed. Prying into the lives of the residents was strictly forbidden. Perhaps she had not heard. But she had. S1ow1y she turned toward me, and I could see her face for the first time. It was radiant. In a voice filled with joy she said, "Why, child, I am looking at the Light."
The mind is to be a reservoir of Light — free, ready to give color and form, ready to speak from Wisdom's Source. Silence is the opening note. The Indwelling Light illumines the heart and mind, loosening the sightless, stormswept self. The freeing of Light, of God's own Life within, is the means of self-expression — not self-filled expression — but God-like freedom.
~ from THE ANGEL OF THE PRESENCE by Elsie Nevins Morgan
On the pavement a group of schoolchildren was walking past the
driveway with their teacher. I noticed these young children
crossing and suddenly I saw them in a way I have never seen human
beings before or since. They were so full of light I could
hardly 1ook, and on each child's chest where the heart is, a huge
radiance like the sun was shining. Each little child had this
dynamic, brilliant light, this radiant sun, ín the center of
their being. The experience of the líght, its brillíance and
energy, was beautiful and overwhelming. Later I came to
realize that what I saw is the true nature of human beings —
we are dynamic, luminous creatures of light.
~ from THE FACE BEFORE I WAS BORN by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
It is better to live a holy life than to talk about it, Lighthouses do not ring bells and fire cannons to call attention to their shining — they just shine.
Without the Light, the journey of life is fraught with dangers and no traveler's vision can penetrate the haze of self-centeredness. The ímage of God as Light that suffuses all the universe is one that unítes the divine transcendence and immanence... All of creation is replete with "signs" of God's presence, but they cannot be discerned without the Light.
The millennium holds the promise that Heaven will be created on Earth, and this will be accomplished by grounding spirituality into all walks of life. We are the light and co-creators with God, and it is our responsibility to use this light to bring peace, love, happiness, and abundance to the Planet.
~ from THE LIGHT SHALL SET YOU FREE by N. Milanovich and S. McCune
We are made for Light. There are moments of perfect happiness,
moments when one feels so well, at peace with oneself and with others.
Such moments of fullness exist. They are rare, perhaps, but we have
all experienced them. Each of us is capable of living such moments.
They continue to send signals to us even when we are in despair. For
on the mountain God summons us to the Light.
Sometimes at the momet of despair, a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted," accepted by that which is great than you.
No deep darkness in the world Can overcome the light. A single candle flame will burn Against the darkest night. Let all the world of darkness come ... Resentment, envy, fears. Then light the single flame of love the darkness disappears!
There are lights which ascend and lights which descend. The ascending lights are the lights of the heart; the descending lights are those of the Throne. The false self is the veil between the Throne and the heart, like springs toward like. Light ascends toward light and light descends upon light, and "it is light upon light."
~ from PERFUME OF THE DESERT by A. Harvey and E. Hunt
Nothing was changed, yet everything was changed. Compared to this, she felt as if she had been sleepwalking all of her life. "God is here."
I pierce the universe. God pierces me. I do not think; I am thought. I do not know; I am known.
Every movement, every breath was poetry. She had passed through her dark night of the soul, and understood now how the light in one's heart – the light of faith – could shine brighter than the midday sun.
Blessed One, Flood my soul with Thy Spirit and light ... Shine throuh me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Thy Presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only You. Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light for others. Amen.
Heartfelt BLESSINGS OF THANKSGIVING, dear friends! As we move
into a season filled with holidays and celebration, may we
remember to pause each day for renewal and to feast with the
Divine Guest on soul nourishment served in the Silence.
I need time to listen, to examine, and to confess ... to listen for the Voice, if for no other reason that so I will recognize it more clearly in the ways it speaks into the noise and bustle of the life I lead. The silence that I seek must be nurtured until it lives in me no matter where I am at the moment. The silence I seek must be something more than the absence of the numbing noise and debilitating detail of life in our society. It must be a solitude that is transcendent, a stillness that can be found in the midst of noise, a silence that is portable.
A day filled with noise and voices can be a day of silence, If the noises become for us the echo of the presence of God. When we speak of ourselves and are filled with ourselves, we leave silence behind. When we repeat the intimate words of God that are within us, our silences remain intact.
SILENCE: an energy which extends beyond the furthest reaches of the universe — and never vanishes, a quiet which pervades every particle of this world, and glides through the blackness of the great harbor by night, and speaks differently by day. Speech is the body of silence: the word floats up from silence; it flows back into silence. The word of relationship and the quiet of the heart are inseparable — like love and the silence from which it is born, and the rest to which it returns, unceasingly.
Quiet ... silence ... tranquility. Those are qualities of life seldom enjoyed today. Incorporating silence into daily living is both possible and desirable. But in order to make silence a presence rather than an absence, we have to work at it. The effort can result in greater introspection, spiritual sensitivity and creativity. No matter how busy life becomes, anyone can discover occasions each month, each week, and even each day, to create nourishing silence.
~ from "Give Yourself the Silent Treatment" by Victor M. Parachin with thanks to Charlotte Miller
The spaciousness of silence nurtures new sensitivities, new sense-abilities. During this phase of the spiritual journey, the emphasis will not be directly on speaking but on perceiving: on SEEING instead of just looking, on LISTENING instead of just hearing. Eyes and ears are not sufficient... To speak from the heart, we must listen to the speech of the heart, which grows articulate in being moved and is animated by the speech of the world. The eyes of the heart do not find nouns in the world, but verbs. The seeing and listening of the heart enable us to appreciate the world and all it phenomena as animate. We must simply become quiet enough, heartfully sense-able enough, to perceive and inwardly honor this silent speech of the world.
The solitary life, being silent, clears away the smoke-screen of words that we lay down between our mind and things... Words stand between silence and silence: between the silence of things and the silence of our own being, between the silence of the world and the silence of God. When we have really met and known the world of silence, words to not separate us from the world nor from others, nor from God, nor from ourselves because we no longer trust entirely in language to contain reality.
