All persons are both artist and mystic because all are called to be in touch with the true self, the deep experience that is theirs, and to utter images from that silent space.
Beloved, You love us and call us by name. Awaken in us the desire to know your presence in our hearts. Fill us with you Spirit of Truth opening us to your Love enabling us to trust in your Word. Strengthen our faith so that each day our lives may radiate the Love and the Light of your Life in us.
At times God seems to give us stones impossible to digest. In these moments think of the pearl oyster: it retains the accidental grain of sand within itself for a long time, constantly bathing in it with its secretions. In due time a magnificent pearl is created. In like manner the animosities and antipathies that make their way into our hearts are seemingly indigestible pebbles. However, if we keep them wrapped in prayer, they will become pearls of love. Prayer provokes this miracle of love. Indeed, what appears to be indigestible can become real nourishment for prayer.
BLESSINGS to you, dear friends, in this new year! What is your deepest prayer for yourself and loved ones, for peoples around the world, for our Earth home in 2001? What if eah of us would become a prayer-blessing of peace, harmony, love and joy in the world? What a differene we ould make!
In prayer, I am learning to observe the silences between the words. I am learning that I don't have to fill the empty space because the space will eventually sing for itself. The waiting and listening and silence teach that the active work of prayer must be balanced by the humble acceptance of grace.
At the extremity of prayer words vanish, or rather the "silence-become-word" surpasses all that can be uttered. Prayer becomes the silence of Love, and this silence reveals the "I" in its deepest aspects; and, should words suddenly arise in prayer, we must regard them as fruits of love that send us back to silence.
The seed of prayer is sown in heaven. It pushes its stems toward the earth and comes to grow there. It produces an abundance of fruit. Then, as it becomes seed once more, it thrusts its way back to heaven.
Many people ask me, "How does one pray?" For me, alone in my room in a prayerful attitude, I just see myself as incapable of doing anything without God, since indeed, God is the Provider, the Guide ... and so I turn to God. When there is no within or without, then our prayers are answered, for surely it is union with the One Source of all Life, the Divine, whatever words you want, that is the yearning of the soul.
And yes, my friends, it is for you to find out what prayer is. It is the humility of a child. It is the beauty of being. And it is the love of being alive. So ask God how to pray with all the sincerity, honesty, humility, and passion you have within you. And I'm sure that one day your prayer, which will be God's prayer, will be answered.
~ from REASON IS POWERLESS IN THE EXPRESSION OF LOVE by Reshad Feild
