Silence admits of many degrees ... but the greatest silence is that of our spirit with God's Spirit: Heart speaks to heart in silence, the language of self-surrendering love.
If we don't know in the depths of our being that God calls us "beloved," we need to. And if we do know it, and it hasn't set us on fire, then we don't know it well enough. Take time daily to be alone and silent before God. And an awareness of your utter belovedness will become a reality for you.
Resurrection is to engage at the core of the Heart of existence and the Love that knows no limits. It is to encounter and surrender to That which is forever seeking us, and from this to conceive the Godseed. Resurrection presumes a void that precedes it, an emptying of our existence. Being empty, we then can be filled; being unknowing, we become knowledge; being nowhere we are suddenly a citizen of the great Realm of Love.
BLESSINGS IN THIS NEW YEAR, dear friends! May we dare to open the door of our hearts to the Silence centered within; may we welome the Presence of the One we have ever sought -- the Divine Guest.
True silence is our search for God ... a suspension bridge that a soul in love with God builds to cross the dark, frightening gullies of its own mind, the strange chasms of temptation, the depthless precipices of its own fears that impede its way to God. True silence is the speech of lovers. For only love knows its beauty, completeness, and utter joy. True silence is a garden enclosed, where alone the soul can meet its God. True silence is a key to the immense and flaming heart of God. This silence will break forth in a charity that overflows in the service of the neighbor without counting the cost.
~ from POUSTINIA by Catherine H. Doherty with thanks to M. Austin Onisko
When you and the silence become friends, it will speak to you as loudly as anything you could ever hear from the outer world. Soon you will not be able to ignore its voice, which after all is the voice of your own spirit calling to you.
In the silence of our prayerful hearts, we stand empty and are so able to hear God knocking at the door and longing to come inside. Too many words insulate us from our inner poverty. Too many words drown out the sound of God's voice at the door.
~ from THE CONSPIRACY OF COMPASSION by Joseph Nassal
We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken us a lifetime to learn. It seems the old are more able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young are more impatient and usually break the silence. It is a waste; for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is a great paradox.
When we sit in silence and begin to focus our attention inwardly, the awareness of the self is strengthened and the spiritual dimensions of the soul are revealed. When we meditate or concentrate our energies on our BEINGNESS, we return to wholeness, the oneness of who we are -- our infinite self. When we meditate, the light of unconditional love is lit within us, and it continues to grow more and more with each meditation. The more we focus on this center, the more our feelings of unconditional love evolve, and, in turn, the more we transform every aspect of our lives, we influence everyone with whom we come in contact.
~ from TALKING TO HEAVEN by James Van Praage with thanks to Ralph Hagelburger
I think the most essential thing in one's life is silence. What is silence? We think if we are quiet, we are silent. But we must come to silence without desire and wanting, otherwise we are not silent.
"Why be silent? I have fallen in love with silence. For thirty-five years I talked enough. There is no motive to talk more."
"If you are in silence, how can you communicate?"
"The mode of communication is not only through language. In the spiritual field, the real communication is through love and silence. In fact, it is really THROUGH silence."
~ from EVERYDAY MIRACLES IN THE HOUSE OF GOD by Mary Pat Fisher
There is the silence in which everything exists, and then there is the noise in my head that I have come to take as the natural background to my life. It has occurred to me that perhaps the trick is to begin to see the silence as the background and the noise as moving across it. The silence, the plain existence of things, is what is real; the thoughts are clouds.
~ from THE EARTH HOUSE by Jeanne DuPrau with thanks to Mary Hazlett
Meeting and greeting the Presence within happens in all degrees of intensity... One day the silence may suddenly, automatically deepen -- like a car going into overdrive -- when you effortlessly remain in the deepest relaxation, undistracted, receptive. In this state you may feel the love going out from you and coming back to you and you may feel within you a sudden walling-up of glowing happiness or intense, vibrant joy. You may find yourself smiling as you realize you are meeting and being met, as you know you are experiencing the Presence.
The music finishes.
It is the quiet of night
Broken by the ticking of a clock,
the hiss of rain,
the growling of a distant car.
The silence of this interval
is not for doing,
not for resting
But to wonder in;
A vulnerable silence
given back to us.
Poet M.C. Richards asks, "In the beginning was the word, but what preceded the word?" Her answer is: SILENCE
A people poverty-stricken for quiet, we! ... Probably never in the history of the world has there been as much noise and as little time in the day for quiet... Carlyle wrote, "Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves," while Einstein believed that imagination is more important than knowledge. If like prayer, imagination needs silence in which to grow, are we not depriving our very souls with such world-wide noise pollution?
~ from "Peace and Quiet" by Daniel O'Hagan with thanks to Mary Kay Martin
BLESSINGS and EVERY GOOD WISH this season of silent nights and holy days ... an apt time to be mindful of the angelic realms and to reconize Earth angels in our midst as well.
EVERY BLESSING, dear friends, in this season of thanksgiving. Taking time to enter the deep well of your own silende while opening to the spirit of gratitude can bear beautiful fruits of kindness, appreiate, peace, generosity, and joy to share with those around you.
Gratitude helps you to be receptive to the life force of the universe. Being appreciative empowers and strengthens you... If you have been praying for help and guidance and no one seems to be listening, start being thankful. Let go of your prayers for what you want and immerse yourself in thankfulness for what you have. When you are thankful, it is inevitable that you will gain in wisdom and inner strength.
Thanks for the sympathies
that you have shown!
Thanks for each kindly word,
each silent token,
That reaches me, when
seeming most alone.
Friends are around us, though
no word be spoken.
Since love and truth are the cornerstones of life and since they are but other names for praise and thanksgiving, it follows that praise and thanksgiving are important components of prayer. This is because prayer in its truest form is an alignment between the spiritual self of each of us with the spiritual Power that defies human understanding.
