The restless hollowness which surfaces into our consciousness when we reflect in silence is already the nearness of God, who is like the pure light which, spread over everything, hides itself by making everything else visible in the silent lowliness of its being. The Incarnation urges us, in the experience of solitude, to trust the nearness -- it is not emptiness; to let go and then we will find; to give up and then we will be rich.
"YHWH." It is the Name that by tradition we are forbidden to pronounce. Free yourself, I thought. Pronounce it. With no vowels, it came out: "Yyyyhhhhwwwwhhh." It sounded like breath. God's Name: the breath of life! No words, just the whispering, murmuring sound of a deep-drawn breath. For years I took delight in this discovery It hanged the way I prayed. Yet the hart of what had moved me I still had not discovered. I did not know it was my mother's breath I yearned for. For my mother to breathe easy once again, to draw once more a deep and even breath – that would be God for me. For each of us I realized, the deepest Name of God arises from the depths of our own life.
SPRING BLESSINGS! dear friends. A brief meditation, if you wish:
In the silence, repeat your name to yourself a few times ... reall the different feelings of being alled by name over the years: by family members ... teachers ... friends ... nicknames ... titles ... changes of name. Listen. Imagine God, the Beloved of your heart (whateer name you all the Unnameable Mystery) calling you by name ... Silently bask in this naming as a way of honoring your name and the Name.
We are uniquely loved more than we can imagine; each one of us is known and called by name. How we respond is up to us.
Know who you are. Do not debase the name. Carry it in your heart, a root flame of love. Walk through the world in silence. The moment will come. The sign will be a soft, stirring of wings, a gold shimmer of air.
A name ís an important word with meaning and energy that identifies someone or something. Our names bring certain patterns to our lives and have the capacity to forge our destinies. A name is also used as a way of entering into a person's world, wisdom, or life ... a code ingrained is us that allows us, when it is called, to remember, recognize and respond to our purpose.
There are many truths that do not have a name. Truths do not need names. But we do. We notice truths with names much more easily than truths we have not yet named, and naming is a way of realizing a truth that we had not noticed before
A name is a holy place. The name is a womb that nourishes the one who bears it with all the love and hope mingled in the giving of the name. If not dictated by some angel, names are chosen carefully for for saints or statesmen, prophets or poets, family doctors or relatives or places with wonderful sounds. Names are chosen with love in gratitude or by faith in potential or for hope of intercession. Names carry meaning within them, every year of life drawing out the meaning of the life named.
The human being is God's representative on this earth, one who knows the true names of things. This knowing of the names is the knowing of the distinguishing characteristics of things, their innate qualities.
We have seen the highest circle of spiraling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Silence. But we have named it God because only this name, for primordial reasons, can stir our hearts profoundly. And this deeply felt emotion is indispensable if we are to touch the dread essence beyond logic.
All things change when you measure them. You might as well sing, the sound of your voice joining the others, like water overflowing, the name of the living God.
Please call me by my true names so I can hear all my cries and my laughs at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names so I can wake up, and so the door of my heart can be left open, the door of compassion.
