October 31, 2022
Why do we need to experience some silence in our lives? Because our talents, our brains, and the world cannot determine who we are, solve all of our problems, and provide us a sense of wholeness and rest. We need to stop the compulsions of our false self and allow ourselves to be in silence for our true self, our inner diamond light, to be seen and validated by our creator.
Today we will experience some practices of silence, including body scans and centering prayer. Our listening portion is
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Be.
I also read the following quote and poem during the pause:
“Solitude is the furnace of transformation … (It) is the place of the great struggle and the great encounter – the struggle against the compulsions of the false self, and the encounter with the loving God who offers (God’s self) as the substance of the new self.” -Henri Nouwen
Gather Me to Be With You
O God, gather me now
To be with you
As you are with me,
Soothe my tiredness;
Quiet my fretfulness;
Relieve my compulsiveness;
Let me be easy for a moment.
O Lord, release me
From the fears and guilts
Which grip me so tightly;
From the expectations and opinions
Which I so tightly grip,
That I may be open
To receiving what you give,
To risking something genuinely new,
To learning something refreshingly different.
O God, gather me
To be with you
As you are with me.
Amen.
Ted Loder, Guerillas of Grace
