... the affairs of the world, like those of the stars, are in God's hands -- and therefore in good hands. And yet it is so difficult to have genuine faith in God's action in the affairs of the world. And so, the poor life of our soul goes on, in the light of unreal faith and sentimentalism. Halfway between God and the world there is a confusion of aspirations, contradictions and compromises.
Yet, in the depths of our hearts we know ... it is love which must determine our actions, love which must give unity to what is divided. Love is the synthesis of contemplation and action, the meeting-point between heaven and earth, between God and us ... I have known the satisfaction of unrestrained action, and the joy of the contemplative life in the dazzling peace of the desert, and I repeat St. Augustine's words: 'Love and do as you will.' Don't worry about what you are to do. Concentrate on loving instead. And by loving you will find out what is for you. Loving, you will listen to the Voice. Loving, you will find peace. In the end, Love is the solution to every problem, the motive for all good.
May the day soon come with all peoples of the world will choose to walk in the direction of Love! Amen.
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
