quote | listen

A starting point for hearing God's invitation to action is learning to listen with the ear of our heart as Benedict instructs. Words from the media, colleagues, and our mailboxes bombard us; an endless number of billboards assaults us along our highways. Sometimes we pay attention to what is spoken from the pulpit, but often our worship services are so busy and full of words that they have little effect. We need to give some time simply to being in the presence of the created universe with no other purpose than to attend to what is there. Listening to the voice of nature will help us attune ourselves to the words of God spoken in silence to the deep places of our being.
-Elizabeth Canham

quote | william clemmons

journeying more deeply into our deepest center and into the world around us pushes us into seeing more deeply into all of life. not only are we forced to deal with the illusions of our false selves, but also of society.

the one who begins to live deeply as a contemplative begins to see things as they really are. we are called to deal with the illusions of ourselves, so we can enter into a loving dialogue with the world. we are called to embrace the world as we journey deeper and deeper into ourselves and God.

we turn with a singleness of vision, to see God in each new situation, in every person, and every experience--seeing all those things in a truer perspective.

inviting the swirls.

Excerpt from Abandonment to Divine Providence:


Oh! divine Love, hide yourself, test us, mingle, confuse and snap like threads all our ideas and systems. Let us stumble and find neither roads nor paths in the darkness. Formerly we found you in the peace of solitude, in prayer, in various religious exercises, in suffering, in helping our neighbors, in turning away from social and business affairs. We have done all we can to please you, but now we can no longer find you in these things as once we did. May our failure compel us to find you in yourself, and then in all things and everywhere.