by Christine Sine,
Last week, I found myself re-reading a portion from Return to Our Senses about learning to listen to silence and spent the whole week trying to immerse myself in silence. I asked my Facebook followers: What sounds draw you into silence? Then came Lilly Lewin’s inspirational Freerange Friday – The Gift of Silence. I think God is trying to say something here and not just to me.
Sixteenth-century John of the Cross called silence God’s first language. Not so much a silent place which is almost impossible in our noisy world, but a silent soul, almost as difficult to accomplish with our wandering minds, noisy hearts, and perpetual inner chaos. But once again, I pose my question of a few years ago: Are We Deaf to Silence?.
St Benedict uses 2 words for silence: quies and selentium.
Quies is the silence that comes with the absence of noise. The silence that comes as we turn off the TV, disconnect from the internet and discard our cell phones. This is an external silence. It is an extremely important form of silence that all of us who live busy, urban lives crave and yet find it difficult to enter into. And it is one aspect of the silence that I always appreciate during our quarterly retreat times.
Silentium is an internal and intentional posture of complete attentiveness towards God. It is the silence of making space for, taking time for, and paying loving attention to the One we proclaim to be our beloved God. This kind of silence is often expressed in contemplative prayer. It is often more difficult to enter into than quies because it doesn’t just mean finding a quiet place, it means establishing a quiet attitude. It requires us to set aside the distractions of our minds and hearts, draw from the stillness that is within us, and communion with the spirit of God in a very special way. It is this kind of silence that I think Elijah experienced in the wilderness as related in 1 Kings 19:11-13 (adapted from Return to Our Senses 53, 54).
I suspect that we are even more deaf to the silence of silentium than we are to the silence of quies.
Richard Foster suggests that the reciting of poetry is one way to help enter into this kind of contemplative silence as it invites us to slow down and listen. The reciting of Psalms is obviously a good place to start, but I am increasingly finding that contemporary prayers written by others provide a marvellous pathway to silentium. One of my favourite prayer writing inspirers is John O’Donohue. His book, To Bless The Space Between Us, is one that I come back to time and again. However, over the last couple of weeks, I have also been invited into silence by poetry written by some of our own Godspace authors. Kim Balke’s Driftwood Dreams has had me in tears at times and has the added advantage of inviting me back into physical spaces where I have found silent refreshment in the past. Ana Lisa de Jong‘s poetry is particularly inspirational and I love how Jenneth Grazer reads her poem Alchemist from her book, Joy Instead of Mourning: Words For Winter. Talk about drawing me into silence!!!
I don’t find that it is just reading poetry that draws me into silence, it is also writing it that touches my soul in a way that nothing else seems to. As you know, I write a lot of poetry these days, much of it revolving around garden imagery. Not surprising as the garden is one of the places where I most frequently encounter the silentium of God. I hope you enjoy this poem which bubbled up from within me as I contemplated silence this week and particularly as I thought about what invites me into silence. You might like to take some time to reflect on what invites you into silence too.
There are sounds
That call me into silence,
That invite my soul to rest
And sit in the Holy presence of my beloved Jesus.
There are sounds
that still the chaos of my mind
that quiet my wandering heart and center my distracted spirit.
The melody of birds in the early morning hour,
The soft fall of water in my desktop fountain,
The whisper of my breath
As I turn my thoughts inwards,
Towards my beloved One.
Here I sit in reverential stillness
At peace within and without,
Surrounded by the gentle embrace,
Of the One who is my all and in all.
© Christine Sine – June 2021
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Want to learn more about summer practices and connecting with God through summer symbols and experiences? Check out Christine Sine and Lilly Lewin’s Making Time for a Sacred Summer Online Retreat. This course allows you 180 days of access for only $24.99!
So sorry I did not get last week’s service posted – too much trauma with a sick puppy. Hope that you enjoy this one twice as much.
A contemplative service with music in the style-of-Taize. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers. Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756
by Tom Sine,
In my last post, I celebrated the reality that all churches love their young people. However, I also confirmed the fact that Pew Research’s prediction a decade ago is coming to pass in most churches in the US… a high percentage of both Gen Y (ages 25 to 40) and Gen Z (ages 9 to 24) are choosing not to affiliate with churches.
As many of us are slowly returning to our sanctuaries this summer, many congregations are disappointed to discover a concerning reduction in the number of returning members. Many more are disappointed that they are seeing virtually no Gen Next young people as well.
I want to emphasize again the very good news about Gen Y & Z that few church leaders seem to be aware of. Since the young people in these two generations are the first two digital generations, they are much more aware of the issues of environmental, racial, and economic justice and a high percentage of them really want to make a difference.
The very good news is that a high percentage of the Gen Next in most of our neighborhoods would value connecting to those in your congregation who are working in neighborhood change-making. Many of these young people would value being asked about their ideas for ways to make a difference in your community. Do consider finding ways to empower these young people to launch their most promising ideas.
However, we urge those who want to enable Gen Next to invest their lives in serious change-making to explore a broader range of housing options to help them more successfully launch their lives and their change-making ventures.
Many young people in middle-class families have been raised to expect to buy a house 20% nicer than their parent’s house with closets the size of small bedrooms. Many parents and others in our churches, who want the best for their young people, don’t realize, in many housing markets, that dream is no longer economically feasible. Young people who pursue housing that is too expensive could wind up not being able to save enough to send their own children to college.
The Atlantic explains that Gen Y, the millennial generation, got hammered by the 2008 -2009 recession. The average school debt was $33,000 and they had difficulty finding work as that recession ended.
Young people today, who pursue a four-year degree are being saddled with much higher school debt than prior generations. First of all, many of the families of the Gen Next young have been hammered by the pandemic recession. Numbers of their parents have lost their jobs. So there may not be money for college tuition let alone money for a down payment on a home. Reportedly, many Gen Z students average school debt is $37,000 and a growing number are sleeping in their cars because they can’t afford to pay for dormitories.
“Many Gen Zers appear to reject the traditional values of the Boomer generation. For example, Gen Z is less likely to value buying a home…”. “Gen Z is also highly motivated by affordability.” This article by a real estate magazine added co-living could be a desirable option for Gen Z. “Co-living may appeal to the convenience and affordability motivators for Gen Z.”
Co-housing is a rapidly growing movement in the US today because it significantly reduces costs for renters and buyers and it also increases relationships which many in emerging generations value. For the Gen Y & Z young innovators that want to invest their lives in serious programs to help empower neighbors, it could be a very smart choice. Clearly, if they can reduce their living costs they will have more time and resources to invest in serious change-making.
There may well be older members of your church that would prefer creating an intergenerational housing option with young innovators. Imagine you were investing your lives in creating social innovation projects designed to empower people who are attempting to find a way to move from languishing in the pandemic recession to become self-reliant.
In fact, I suspect that there are denominational leaders that could imagine repurposing church properties to create intergenerational co-living communities. These new co-living communities could not only create new forms of shared housing that would provide reduce costs for both those young launching their lives and change-making ventures and seniors that could offer support for the young innovators in the turbulent 2020s. If this stirs your interest, email me.
Let’s all create innovative ways to move pandemic languishing to intergenerational flourishing in this decade of accelerating change that reflects the ways of Jesus!
Christine and I are not just advocates for intergenerational living. We purchased an older home here in Seattle over 25 years ago that has three separate flats that is idea for intergenerational living which we call the Mustard Seed House.
We invite young Christians to join us for this opportunity to try out intergenerational living. We offer them reduced rent, share a meal once a week where we share what is happening in our lives, and have a time of prayer together.
Christine and I are always grateful for what we learn from the younger members of the Mustard Seed House. We enjoy gardening together and entertaining friends.
Above is a picture of us painting pots together to get ready for planting some colorful summer flowers. Christine and I are in the center. We enjoy growing and sharing everything from strawberries to tomatoes. We encourage Christians of all ages to consider intergenerational living to help a new gen launch their lives in the turbulent 2020s!
Adapted from the original post on NewChangeMakers.com.
Embark on this healing journey with Christine Sine, Lilly Lewin, and Bethany Dearborn Hiser with the Time to Heal Online Course. Each session is lead by one of our instructors and allows you 180 days of access for only $39.99. The goal of this course is to provide time, space, and tools to work toward healing.
by Lilly Lewin,
I have shared before that I believe in the PRACTICE OF SILENCE. We included SILENCE as one of the practices in our SACRED SUMMER KIT because we all need space and opportunity to hear from God. But it is so hard when we are so busy and life is so noisy! Kids, TV, Netflix, News, traffic, appliances, our phones… all add noise to our lives. How do we open the Gift of Silence? Where do we start? First, we need to remember that we aren’t behind! We all are learning, and like any thing worth doing, the practice of silence, TAKES PRACTICE! And the practice of Silence will restore your soul and change your life.
How do you feel about Silence?
When you think of being silent, practicing silence, what feelings or emotions come up for you?
What fears do you have about SILENCE? Talk to Jesus about this.
Jesus was a friend of Silence, and Jesus invites each of us to open this gift so we can draw closer to him!
READ/LISTEN TO THE PASSAGE in three versions. What is God’s word for you today? What is Jesus speaking to you about today? Listen and allow the Holy Spirit to Highlight the passages for you. Be still. Listen. Respond.
LUKE 4
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.”
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
MARK 1: 12 -13
At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
LUKE 5: 15-16
15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Find a space to practice Silence
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER: What is God speaking to you about today from these passages?
Use these passages and the GIFT OF SILENCE as your inspiration this week.
Feel free to use these passages in your small groups for discussion and on your own, and response this week. Journal in response to the question and/or the GIFT, write or find poetry about silence, find a piece of art or a photograph that reflects silence. Create a collage. Find a song that helps you practice silence.
What is God’s Word for you today? What do you notice that you didn’t notice before?
What questions come up as you listen to or read these passages?
What do you notice about Jesus and silence?
The Holy Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness where he was tempted.
What temptations keep you from being alone and silent with Jesus?
What things get in your way when you try to be with God? What things keep you from practicing silence?
Often it’s in the wilderness where we have space to pay attention to what Jesus is saying to us. Outside, away from everything inside that distracts us, we can learn to listen and hear form God.
To practice silence plan a time away from your usual daily activities. Where is a place of “wilderness” near your home where you can go and get away with God? It might be a park, a backyard, or somewhere farther away. It might be in your room with the door closed and the phone off. Where can you practice silence this week?
Pick a sunny spot outside. Or a comfy chair away from distractions of TV and other screens. What do you notice around you? What do you hear?
Set your timer and sit in silence for 3 minutes. What do you notice? What sights do you notice? What sounds? Smells?
Create a place or get outside each day this week and practice silence for 5-15 minutes.
When we practice silence our brain is filled with thoughts that get in the way of being quiet with God/Jesus. THIS IS NORMAL! Use paper and a pen and make a BRAIN DRAIN LIST of all the things that come up and distract you as you listen for the still, small voice of God. You will need a BRAIN DRAIN LIST each time you plan to practice silence. Just keep that notepad nearby!
Read the quotes below. How do they help you understand why we all need silence?
“God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.” Mother Teresa
How might silence help you have space to love others?
“Each of us needs an opportunity to be alone, and silent. To find space in the day or in the week, just to reflect and to listen to the voice of God that speaks deep with us. Our search for God is only our response to his search for us. He knocks on the door, but for many people their lives are too preoccupied for them to be able to hear. “ Cardinal Basil Hume (Benedictine monk, England 1923-1999)
REMEMBER Jesus is with you right now. The Holy Spirit is here with you. Allow space in your day for Silence. Start with five minutes and add a few minutes each day this week. You might start in the shower or the bathtub. Or begin the day in silence rather than looking at your phone or turning on the news. You could drive in silence or intentionally take a walk in silence and listen instead of talking. Use your BRAIN DRAIN LIST to help you!
Start with the simple prayer: “HERE I AM LORD, I AM LISTENING.”
Sacred Summer Kit
For more help with opening the Gift of Silence, going deeper practices, and experiences you can do with your small group, your friends or with your family, check out the Sacred Summer Kit.
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
Want to experience more of the awe and wonder that God offers us? Check out the Gift of Wonder Online Retreat by Christine Sine. This retreat allows for 180 days of access for only $39.99 so you can move through the sessions at your own pace.
by Christine Sine,
A friend of mine emailed me this article: Awe makes us happier, healthier, and humbler. I love the part where it says:
“… researchers who study awe say the emotion shouldn’t be associated only with rare events. Daily experiences of awe, they argue, should be a regular part of the way we engage with the world.”
This sparked my thinking about the ways that our Godspace resources really do help point others to notice the awe and wonder of God’s created world not as a special occasion, but in daily life. One of the newest resources that we have added this past week is the Making Time for a Sacred Summer Online retreat where we took the live webinar that Lilly Lewin and I hosted and turned it into a course that you can purchase for only $24.99 to have 180 days of access to move through the retreat at your own pace. The unique benefit of this course is that it includes the video clips of other participants during the live session so you can see their creativity, their ideas, and their reflections on the activities that we facilitated them through. We looked at symbols of summer that connect us to God, a journaling time to reflect on what a sacred summer could look like and it’s impact, as well as creating a sacred summer kit or centerpiece to use throughout the season. If you haven’t taken a look at the new course yet, we highly recommend that you do!
Our first course called Gift of Wonder Online Retreat that we produced last year was based on my book, The Gift of Wonder, which uses awe and wonder as the premise to find God and experience joy through the wide-eyed wonder of a child. I really enjoyed putting together the slideshow presentations and video sessions with interactive activities to foster awe and wonder.
The Spirituality of Gardening Online Course material brought me so much delight to not only record my sessions but to also partner with other guest gardeners during the uncertainty of the pandemic last year. The biblical metaphors and implications of gardening come alive in this course and truly connect us with Creator God. Each module contains an activity to bring you closer to God and closer to creation whether you have one house plant or a whole garden in your yard. This too is an exploration of awe and wonder for me.
What is your response?
I have been surprised at how many people have contacted me in the last couple of weeks with requests for podcast interviews, weekly discussion series and book clubs revolving around The Gift of Wonder and awe and wonder themes. I think there is a growing recognition of our need for awe and wonder in daily life. What are ways that you experience awe and wonder on a daily basis? Have you taken notice of the symbols of summer that connected you with God this week? Please share with us, we would love to hear from you.
More Awe and Wonder Posts
- Meditation Monday: Walking with Awe
- A Reflection on Awe & Wonder
- Meditation Monday: Awed by Providential Encounters
- Awe and Wonder – What A Creation!
- Meditation Monday: Awed by Uniqueness
- A Season of Awe and Wonder
- Meditation Monday: In Awe of Creativity
- Awe & Wonder in the Eyes of a 7 Year Old
- Awe and Wonder Sightings
Thank you to Benjamin Davies on unsplash.com for the feature photo.
by Lisa DeRosa,
Father’s Day weekend growing up was celebrated by camping at the Marine Corp Base Camp Pendleton. Military families like ours would set up tents and grills right there on the beach. My family brought everything including a portable kitchen sink. We were serious about this camping experience. Sizzling pancakes and bacon, excited screams of kids running away from waves crashing on the sandy shore, crackling wood in fire pits, and palm trees swaying in the breeze are sounds of summer for me.
What are your sounds of summer?
I grew up in the desert of Southern California. Summer temperatures would climb to 110 degrees F (or about 43 degrees C) or more if there was a heatwave. As someone prone to heat exhaustion, it was challenging to find ways to stay cool when the ambient air was so hot. My family started with a small, round plastic pool, then a little larger pool as we grew until eventually, my parents decided it was time for an above-ground pool. Our four-foot-deep pool was the saving grace of desert living. In the summer months, we spent hours caked in suntan lotion and gripping tightly to our pool floaties while Dad grilled dinner in our backyard. Chlorine from the pool, SPF 50 Coppertone suntan lotion, grilled meat and corn on the cob, and backyard pink jasmine flowers are the smells of summer to me.
What are your scents of summer?
Family picnics at the local park where we could get our energy out on the playground included homemade sandwiches, creamy potato salad, fresh-cut watermelon, juicy strawberries, and a tall pitcher of tart lemonade. Sometimes we would buy popsicles or ice cream bars from the ice cream truck that frequented the park.
What are your tastes of summer?
Sunlight peeking through my window around 5 am and staying brightly shining in the sky until 10 pm indicates summer for me. I wake up earlier with the sun and tend to stay up later too. This was a nice perk when I had summers off from school because it felt like I could maximize my summer vacation. During the day, the sky’s blue shades appear differently than during other seasons of the year. Maybe that is subjective, but I love summer blue skies. Times that I could stay awake long enough to see the stars come out, I enjoyed stargazing with friends in college because it is warm enough to be outside even after the sun went down. We found a secluded spot with minimal light pollution and would lay down in the truck bed away from the bugs on the ground.
What sights indicate that it is summer for you?
Laying out on a big, fluffy beach towel while reading a book with the sun’s warmth on my skin feels like the first sign of summer. The slippery feeling but also protection that suntan lotion provides is another tactile indicator of summer for me. I love feeling the grass and sand beneath my feet when I can walk barefoot. Since it is either too cold or too wet to walk barefoot in other seasons, summertime is the perfect opportunity to touch the earth as I walk.
What do you touch or feel that tells you it’s summer?
I never thought about these summer senses as a spiritual experience. As a kid, I enjoyed all the fun, family times that summer brought. But in reflecting now as an adult, and after hearing Christine and Lilly share about symbols of summer during the Making Time for a Sacred Summer Retreat (which is now an online course!), I realize that these are gifts from God! Using my senses to take me back to these memories elicits gratitude and thankfulness to God. They are ways to connect with the Divine through the season and are even opportunities to pray for myself and others in the world! Lilly shared an incredible prayer exercise of putting on sunglasses and praying that we would have eyes to see the world as God does as we wear our sunglasses throughout the summer. What other items could we use for this type of spiritual practice? Take time to ask God to speak through your symbols of summer.
I put together this collage after thinking about my symbols of summer. I was surprised that the very few magazines I have would provide this many relevant pictures and phrases for my collage.
How can using your senses this summer help you connect with God? Can your symbols of summer invite a deeper sense of the immense love and care that God has for you? How? We would love to hear your responses if you would share them with us!
Want to learn more about summer practices and connecting with God through summer symbols and experiences? Check out Christine Sine and Lilly Lewin’s Making Time for a Sacred Summer Online Retreat. This course allows you 180 days of access for only $24.99!
Thank you Ivan Torres for the tent photo from unsplash.com. Collage photo by Lisa DeRosa.
post and photos by Rodney Marsh,
Pentecost and Trinity Sundays mark the beginning of winter where I live and, like Christine, I photographed the above flowers on Pentecost weekend. These flowers are two of many local flowering plants, like many types of wattles, that begin to flower March to May, when the rainy season starts. Their flowering season will last through to December. This Pentecost it was the eucalypts that spoke to me.The flowers above (E. caesia & E. macrandra) form on small trees (2-3 metres, 6-9ft).
This Silver Princess is in our front garden and it flowers most of the year. The photo at the top of the page shows one bud of the Silver Princess yet to shed it’s cap to reveal the beautiful red flower. The cap looks rather plain beside the flowers that have shed their caps to reveal their brilliant red stamens. Many varieties of honey eating birds love these flowers. The adjacent photo shows the beautiful nuts that hang on the branches all year, whilst other branches are flowering.
The right hand photo at the top of the page shows a flowering moort (E. macrandra). The photo was taken in local bush and shows one of the buds yet to shed its ‘long fingered’ cap to reveal its yellow stamens. The adjacent photo shows the buds of the flowering moort before flowering. They may look nondescript but remove the cap and the brilliant lemon flower will burst forth. These buds were removed by one of the many parrots who feed on the seeds within the large nuts.
These flowers tell me that despite what Gerard Manly Hopkins calls the ‘crushing’, utilitarian exploitation of nature, he says, “nature is never spent; there lives the dearest freshness deep down things”. Wherever we live in the world, flowers and all things, shine forth, giving praise and glory to God by their beauty. Observing nature, and all created things, is a spiritual practice, and it requires attention to these ‘deep down things’. This means we must remove our attention from our thoughts and feelings and direct our senses to the ‘other’ where God is found.
The word ‘eucalyptus’ means ‘beautiful cap/hat’ and refers to a unique characteristic that all trees in the genus Eucalyptus share – the presence of the ‘flower cap/hat’. Look again at the hats on the buds of E. caesia and E. macrandra on the topmost photos. When the ‘hat’ or ‘cap’ of the flower falls off, the beautiful stamens are revealed. In the season of Pentecost the shedding of these hats became for me, a metaphor for the gift of the Spirit. So, on the day of Pentecost, when the ‘cover’ of the Spirit was removed, the beauty and power of the Spirit burst forth. In secret, the flower of the Spirit was forming when Jesus was with his friends, then the cap was removed and the ‘the grandeur of God’ flamed out ‘like shining from shook foil’ (Hopkins). At last the ‘freshness of deep down things’ became visible, if you have eyes.
The flower colour and size of the genus Eucalyptus is enormous and the trees range from small shrubs to the tallest flowering plants in the world (the world’s tallest trees, Redwoods, are conifers). There are over 900 Eucalyptus species in Australia and that number is still growing. Nearby where I live, a botanical survey on the Ravensthorpe Ranges discovered ten new species of eucalypts. It seems astounding that these plants remained unknown to Science until 2019! This diversity of trees within the genus Eucalyptus reminded me of the great range of Pentecostal gifts given by the Spirit. The Pentecostal Spirit brings an infinite (yes ‘infinite’ in the real meaning of the word) palette of beauty within each human and between humans. Oh that we could really see.
Observe also how alike and different the flowers of E. caesia and E. macrandra are. Alike and different, as are all our friends, neighbours and enemies. Oh so different. Oh so alike. Alike because all life comes from one God and and different because all manifestations of God’s life is a unique manifestation of the life of the one God. Oh that we could see with the Spirit and uncover the beauty of all that is human and discover each individual’s unique beauty. Oh that we could see the as yet unseen and unrealised beauty within and without us. The way to discover the new and beautiful of the Spirit, within and without us, is to pay attention to what is.
This vision of beauty is both a miracle shown to us, and a miracle performed within us. The summer flowers of the Northern lands and the winter flowers of the Southern lands, both shine forth to us and in them we see a vision of God’s grace in all things. By the gift of Jesus’ Spirit within us are we able to see the world (and our neighbour) in this way. When the Spirit is given we begin to see Christ in all things and all things in Christ. When the Spirit comes all things become new (“if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new ” 2 Cor 5:17 NRSV). Both the gift of sight and what is seen, are precious God’s gifts of love. These gifts enable our joyful participation in the life and love of God.
It is the gracious gift of God’s Spirit that makes observing flowers, birds, walking in nature and gardening spiritual practices. The Spirit opens our hearts to both see and dwell in the presence of God’s love in nature. Nature can only mediate God’s presence in this way because all created things share in God’s gift of life and we, too, can only see this beauty because we, too, share in God’s gift of life. To directly experience God’s beauty we need to pay attention (as my Primary School Science text title advised “Stop, Look and Listen”) to what is, then the beauty of what is will shine forth. If we are inattentive we will ‘have eyes but will not see and ears but will not hear.’
Spiritual Practise:
Thomas Merton (Journals, May 1965) writes of the novices he mentored, “…many of them are concerned with questions. Questions of liturgy… psychology… history. Are they the right questions? In the woods the whole world is naked and directly present, with no monastery (world) to veil it” (Journals May 1965 V241-42 From A Year With Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals). The woods, like God, will often remain silent when we ask the questions which concern us, but, when we are still and silent and attentive to nature (the Kentucky woods, in Merton’s case) then the wordless healing of the Word becomes directly present to us, the importance of the questions we bring will fade and other questions will be asked of us.
Be quiet and still in the presence of a flower (or nature). Pay attention to the flower. Don’t analyse the flower, just be with it. Time yourself (2 mins? 5 mins? 10 mins? 60 mins? you choose) and be disciplined. If you are nowhere near a ‘nature place’ and cannot be with nature, you can still be still and present wherever you are and you can pay attention to what is. You are there, so God is there. You can choose to attend to your breath or any part of your body. Do not give your attention to your thoughts or feelings for these are your creations, not God’s creation. Remove your ‘cap’ and find your own special place in God’s beautiful world.
Embark on this healing journey with Christine Sine, Lilly Lewin, and Bethany Dearborn Hiser with the Time to Heal Online Course. Each session is lead by one of our instructors and allows you 180 days of access for only $39.99. The goal of this course is to provide time, space, and tools to work toward healing.
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