Aligning with Grace

Advent - A Time for Miracles (A Repost) I arise in the darkness and am drawn to meditation after a deep, and nourishing sleep... I sit in the stillness, the gentle rain, and the quiet - and give thanks for so many things... I marvel at the beauty of the last few days - sweet time spent with soul friends - and with a community of kindred souls... I am grateful for so many messages given and received... I revel in the opportunities to share with like-minded souls the blessings we have received and the incredible work God is doing in our lives... I sit and I pray - and ask to be shown the way through some situations I must navigate - buoyed by the dearest soul companion who shared her own story and encouraged me to ask every day, to be shown the way - and be willing to discover that the path was always there in front of me - waiting for my recognition... I share with a lovely friend and student - that despite whatever may be - or not be in my life - God's...

ADVENT - A Season for Forgiveness (A Repost) Today, I send out a few Christmas cards, and in many of them, I simply wrote: "May the blessings of this Sacred Season inviting Stillness and Silence be yours. I am grateful for the gift of you!" Advent, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali - all more or less intersect - and echo and invite the celebration of light - and at heart are joyous occasions. It is also a time to set right things that aren't, and I found myself reflecting on this yesterday, as I read through the readings for the day. This weekend, I went down to the basement to retrieve and dust off my Lectionary - a remnant of the days I was a liturgist and responsible for worship services. I was moved to add the liturgical readings of the day to my morning reflections. Today, for example, is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception... In my morning meditations, I read from the booklet "Walk With Me," that I picked up at St. Mary...

Advent - Be Still and Know (A Repost) Perhaps the most unusual film to be released last year was "Into Great Silence." Some of the reviews described this film as: a transcendent experience, intoxicating, and breathtaking. The movie explores the world of the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps, where Carthusian monks have resided for centuries. The movie has no score, no speaking, and none of the usual things we would expect in a movie. Instead, this film invites us to immerse ourselves fully in the hush of monastic life. It is a world of silence... It reminds me of the psalmist who in Psalm 46 invites us to follow this exhortation from the Divine: Be still and know that I am God. This season invites us into silence. Yet when we venture outside - there is rarely any silence. Every public place we go to provides an onslaught of noises which barrage the senses. Many people have not experienced the joys or the delights of silence. Some are even afra...

Silence is a superpower. I bet you never knew that! Neither did I, actually. I was just talking to my dear friend Lisa recently, and we discussed our different strengths. Sometimes we don't really see ours - or at least, they may not be immediately visible to ourselves or to others. My friend and I spoke about how some people come into the world to make a splash, but others affect the world more quietly. Some come in to anchor energy, and by their quiet, and unnoticed contributions, they still manage to make a big difference. Some of us shift energy quietly and gently. Some of us teach. And others listen and learn. But the truth is, we all do this at various times throughout our lives. We are teachers and students to one another over and over again. Some of us are here to be activists. Some of us hold space for others. And a rare few can serve both roles just as skillfully. Lisa described all of these abilities as superpowers that we have and can deploy as...

"I need to be silent for a while, worlds are forming in my heart." ~ Meister Eckhart "Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil wit the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for unknown God." ~ Henri-Frederic Amiel One of the suggested practices that I came across recently for the new year, is to listen for a word that may manifest in your heart as a guiding theme or principle for the year. As I listened on my walk today, the word that came was silence... Actually, everything I've read or come across in the last couple of weeks has served as an invitation to cultivating greater silence... Martin Scorcese's latest movie, now in theaters, is titled "Silence..." The song that shows up on my...

This New Year is calling me to greater Silence... I awaken several times this week, as the first rays of dawn trickle into my bedroom - slyly coaxing me to rouse - beckoning me to meditation and quiet contemplation, and to the recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours, in solidarity with monastic communities everywhere... I move about this day - in total Silence... Everything I seem to stumble upon in my reading brings me back to the importance and necessity of Silence in this point and time... From those first rays of dawn to the first inkling of twilight - my day progresses - with its many domestic duties gently unfolding and spilling into each other, in total and simple Silence... I speak not a word, to anyone - save for my prayers, internally voiced, which I lay at the feet of the Divine... It is truly delicious for me in every way! Yes, I feel a call to greater Silence, to Quiet, to drawing more deeply Inward, and to spending less time online with its many distracti...

What do you hear when you are silent? Take a moment, or two - or several minutes - and spend it in silence, and note what you "hear..." For a while now, I have been observing what I've come to refer to as "Sabbath Sundays" and "Silent Tuesdays."  On Sundays, for most of the day, I try and unplug from all things technological, including all my devices. In fact, I was describing this recently to someone I know, explaining how I literally place a shroud over my iMac, by covering it with a beautiful lace veil a dear friend made for me. The friend I was talking to, knowing my cultural origins, completely understood the metaphor and exclaimed,  "Oh! It's a mantilla for your iMac!" On Tuesdays, I have been taking a day of silence. Generally I sleep in, then sit in meditation with no fixed ending time, just letting the practice bring itself gently to conclusion. I try not to run errands of any sort, and often do not speak until my husba...

In the last few weeks, three events occurred in quick succession, that knocked me out of my orbit. Each one more dreadful than the preceding one. Yet, in the midst of it all, I entered fully and joyfully into the celebration of the Christmas Season. And while I spent a few sleepless nights, and many cold and windswept days walking around, saying many different kinds of prayers - rosaries, mantras, and so forth - since I am comfortable in the spiritual practices of many traditions - I chose not to share the experiences with anyone at first. But as the year began, I realized that turning to wise friends would actually help me put them all behind, and so I did. Each one, offered words of wisdom and insight, that were similar to ones that had come to me in the silence of prayer and meditation, for it is there that God speaks. Mother Teresa of Calcutta , once said, during an interview for a documentary, that "God speaks in the silence of the heart, and we listen." But the truth is...

This entry, seems to very perfectly follow in the footsteps of yesterday's posting...In fact, I almost titled it, "Life as Practice, Practice as Life Part 2!" I finish the first phase of organizing my books, a feat that has consumed several weeks in stops and starts - many arms filled with them, and boxes carried down to the basement - others juggled and redistributed from one room to another, but now the organization and rearrangement is much more logical and methodical, and volumes will be easier to find. All my theology and spirituality books from many decades of teaching and study, occupy one wall - with one shelf for example, exclusively dedicated to my massive collection of Thomas Merton writings, and multiple offerings by other authors, now all gathered together. Everything now feels right... I find that I have two copes of Inviting Silence: Universal Principles of Meditation by Gunilla Norris , and though I have read this brief volume many times before, I curl u...

There are no words to describe my second " darshan " with Mother Meera ... Readers of this blog, will recall that in September of 2008, I had the opportunity to experience darshan with Mother Meera when she came to Maryland. The word " darshan " literally means "sight" - and is most generally understood as to be granted a vision of the Divine, or the opportunity to be in the presence of a Divine Incarnation, avatar, or saint and receive a direct transmission of their energy. Two years ago, I had the most incredible experience. But, much has happened in my life since then, and I felt much lighter and joyous, and much more deeply transformed this second time. It has seemed to me, in the couple days since I had darshan , that something very profoundly shifted in me... Darshan with Mother Meera occurs in silence. I was so lost in meditating, I almost missed my opportunity to go up to her! When you finally do approach her, you kneel before her and she cradl...