Solitude and silence can never be separated from the call to unceasing prayer. If solitude were primarily an escape from a busy joy, and silence primarily an escape from a noisy milieu, they could easily become very self-centered forms of asceticism. But solitude and silence are for prayer. The Desert Fathers did not think of solitude as being alone, but as being alone with God. They did not think of silence as not speaking but as listening to God. Solitude and silence are the context within which prayer is practiced.
“We have to make truth and nonviolence not matters for mere individual practice but for practice by groups and communities and nations. That at any rate is my dream. I shall live and die in trying to realize it.”—Mohandas Gandhi
The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. — Black Elk (Heȟáka Sápa)
source: The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux
Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace. — Howard Thurman (Meditations of the Heart, p. 163)
Queer contemplative attention whispers an encouragement to sometimes step away from the screen, the noise, the bombardment of the day in order to be truly present to self, others, and the earth. — Cassidy Hall (Queering Contemplation: Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality, p. 135, Kindle Version)
Through this book, Cassidy brings a fresh eye and offers a wonderful lens to examine life, spirituality, and positive selfhood as she invites her readers to explore contemplative spirituality. I am grateful for her insights, friendship, and her playful, alive, and shy self.
The discipline of community makes us persons; that is, people who are sounding through to each other (the Latin personare means “sounding through”) a truth, a beauty, and a love that is greater, fuller, and richer than we ourselves can grasp. In true community we are windows constantly offering each other new views on the mystery of God’s presence in our lives. Thus the discipline of community is a true discipline of prayer. It makes us alert to the presence of the Spirit who cries out “Abba,” Father, among us and thus prays from the center of our common life. Community thus is obedience practiced together. The question is not simply “Where does God lead me as an individual person who tried to do his will?” More basic and more significant is the question “Where does God lead us as a people?”
Today I was reading a reflection written by Christine Valters Paintner, the online Abbess of the virtual monastery and global community Abbey of the Arts. In her reflection on hospitality she shared a quote from one of my spiritual mentors, Rev, Dr Howard Thurman. The quote that she shared invited me to return to Thurman’s book, Meditations of the Heart in order to simply reflect on this particular meditation.
“Drop Thy still dews of quietness Till all our strivings cease.”
‘Still dews of quietness’ is a happy phrase which suggests a mood, an atmosphere, rather than an idea or a concept. It is a feeling tone of peace, tranquility, that settles down over one’s spirit. It is the thing that can happen only when one somehow manages to stay put for a spell. How wonderful to sit alone, with one’s own life parts gathered together, and sense the whole of one’s interior landscape being invaded by a blanket of calm ~ by the still dews of quietness. This I must cultivate more and more and with ever greater frequency.
‘Till all our strivings cease.’ How deep and often bitter are the strivings within me! The conflicts of indecision, the conflicts of loyalty, the struggle between good and evil courses of conduct, all this and much more makes of my spirit a battle ground, a citadel of tempests raging. All of this is a part of me; all of this must be stilled – must be settled. Oh, how my soul cries out for moments when the battle does not rage, when I hear the whisper of the still small voice giving me reassurance and renewal. After which I can go forward without fear but with confidence that the way I take is The Way for me.
“Drop Thy still dews of quietness Till all our strivings cease.” — Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart, pp. 172-173)
My prayer for you, dear reader, is that you too can hear the whisper of the still small voice giving [you] reassurance and renewal.
Verse of the day
But let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
– Amos 5:24
Voice of the day
But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it.
– Penelope’s mother (the Naiad) in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (2005)
Prayer of the day
Remind us that nothing can stand against your justice and righteousness, Holy God
The people who know God well — mystics, hermits, prayerful people, those who risk everything to find God — always meet a lover, not a dictator. — Richard Rohr (Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer, p. 131)
Verse of the day
And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.”
– Joshua 6:16
Voice of the day
Our masters have not heard the people’s voice for generations … and it is much, much louder than they care to remember.
– Alan Moore, “V for Vendetta” (1982)
Prayer of the day
With the power of our voices, we can bring justice and revolution. Be with us when we shout.
