We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability and that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you. Your ideas mature gradually – let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don't try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.
There was simply silence. And in that silence, as I gazed up at the sunlight sparkling through those high upper windows, or followed a secret tug drawing me down into my own heart, I began to know a prayer much deeper than "talking to God."
"Somewhere in those depths of silence I came upon my first experiences of God as a loving presence that was always near, and prayer as a simple trust in that presence.
~ from CENTERING PRAYER AND INNER AWAKENING by Cynthia Bourgeault
Dear Pray-er, A soul not nourished by prayer is like a barren desert: Pray when you work. Pray over every problem. Pray when you are at home, Pray with your family. Pray when you watch the news, Pray over the nations, the planet. Pray in the Silence, Become the Prayer.
The Saguaro (barrel-chested cactus), arms uplifted as though in prayer, might remind us that for countless ages its desert home has been viewed by spiritual seekers as a special prayer space. In the long history of prayer, the desert has often been seen as a holy locale where seekers can travel light and encounter spiritual realities. The desert, whether of sand or of our inner souls, challenges us to see more clearly and to travel with prayer as our best companion.
~ from ONE HUNDRED CRANES by William J. Fitzgerald
"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"
Blessings of Spring renewal to you, dear friends! A prayer may be calling to you, silently budding in the sacred temple of your innermost being, a fragile prayer for you to nurture into birth, response, and action. Blessed are you who listen to the soul-songs waiting to be sung in your heart.
The seed of prayer is sown in heaven. It pushes its stem 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.
