A Pilgrimage into Silence and Beyond: Welcome to Pecos Abbey

the Power of Slowing meets us in the wilderness.  

~ Gerald May, The Wisdom of Wilderness

I began to experience the Power of Slowing as we drove into the mountains and approached the Abbey.  The clouds were beginning to break in the distance and much of the recent snow had melted into the earth, only flurries in the wind to remind me of the wild nature of the wilderness I would be immersed in for the next few days.

the river calls ... divine whispering in the wind

                                                               Be still and Know that I am God.   Psalm 46:10  

 

In the sunshine and in the snow, I am God.

In your walking and in your resting, I am God.

In your joy and in your sadness, I am God.

In your laughter and in your tears, I am God.

In silence, everything is experienced as "within" but not as "within us."  We, along with everything else, are within silence.

~Robert Sardello

God of the Wilderness,

May I sink deep, deep into Silence.

Amen.

The Prior at Pecos Abbey, Father Aidan, invited us to join the monks for praying the hours of the Daily Office.  From their schedule, I set my own:  Vigils 6 am, Midday 12 noon, Vespers 5 pm, and Compline 7:15 pm.  Listening for the bells ... leaving my silence for sweet moments of worship.

 Trees dance in the wind

branches shiver in the cold

like my soul on a brisk winter walk.

Sunsets are so beautiful that they almost seem 

as if we were looking through the gates of Heaven.

~John Lubbock

And now I lay me down to sleep ... Amen!

Take this link for Part 3: Silence, Sabbath, and Snow

To take the journey from the beginning, take this link:
A Pilgrimage into Silence and Beyond