The Beginning of Love ...

A Flying Bird and Reflection on Hood Canal, Washington

The beginning of love 

is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, 

and not to twist them 

to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
~Thomas Merton

Silence is the language of Eternity ...

The louder our world today is, the deeper God seems to remain in silence.

 Silence is the language of eternity; noise passes.

~ Gertrud von Le Fort

Be ...

Be Still and Know that I am God

Be Still and Know that I am

Be Still and Know

Be Still

Be

If music, visual images and nature are a pathway to "Be-ing" for you, listen and watch this video on Youtube called Be Still and Know That I Am God.  Thanks to The Celtic Christian Tradition on Facebook for finding this beautiful offering through which to encounter God in the stillness! 

Nature Moves in Silence

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. 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

The Moon over Hood Canal, Washington

Green Bird

Green Bird keeps watch over my Mandala Soul

Come Green Bird 

and soar deep within Me

I am hidden, 

Green Bird can you See Me?

From my perch 

in the Dogwood tree of our Mandala Soul, 

     I know your deepest longings ...

  Come Green Bird 

and soar deep within Me

Who will come forth 

from the edge of our Mandala Soul 

to challenge Me?

From my perch 

in the Dogwood tree of our Mandala Soul, 

     I know your deepest longings ...

What say you Green Bird?  

     I shall dance in the center of your BEing 
and simply BE

 Who will come forth

from the edge of our Mandala Soul 

to challenge Me?

I am hidden, 

Green Bird can you See Me?

What say you Green Bird?  

I shall dance in the center of your BEing 
and simply BE

Green Bird keeps watch over my Mandala Soul!

© 2013 Cindy Serio

  
Here I am at St. Andrew's Retreat House in the Hood Canal area of  Washington for a Retreat called "Awakening the Creative Spirit" with Christine Valters Painter and Betsy Beckman of Abbey of the Arts.  I make this simple offering of the gentle opening of my own creative spirit ... a mandala and poetry!

Take the Link above to find many interesting offerings at Abbey of the Arts which will invite you to awaken your own creativity.  OR you can email me: Cindy Serio and I'd be happy to chat with you about the creative process and spiritual growth!

Silent Night ...

Rolling Ridge Retreat and Conference Center

The light 

keeps shining
    in the dark,
and darkness 

has never
    put it out.   

John 1:5

Deep within us ...

“Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continually return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us.”

("A Testament of Devotion," Thomas Kelly, Quaker mystic)

PRESENT in the PRESENCE

Photo by Dan Barcus Nov 2012 Lakeview

I am present
I am here
My feet touch the ground
I breathe the air
I see things around me
I hear birds
I see trees
I smell flowers

God is present
God is here
God is everywhere so
He must be here

Creation is present
God's creation envelopes me

God's presence is here
I can’t see it
I can’t hear it
I can’t touch it
I just feel it

One is physical
One is spiritual

When the two meet there is communion

There is Presence

Am I in God's presence
or am I just present?

In the presence there is Peace.

In the presence there is Love.

In the presence there is Growth.

In the presence there is Compassion.

In the presence there is Joy.

In the presence there is Understanding.

I want to be Present in His Presence.  

©Dan Barcus 2009

Thanks Dan!

the Word of God chose to be silent ...

Breathing Christ

In Mary the Word of God chose to be silent for the season measured by God. She, too, was silent; in her the light of the world shone in darkness. Today, in many souls, Christ asks that he may grow secretly, that he may be the light shining in the darkness. In the seasons of our Advent - waking, working, eating, sleeping, being - each breath is a breathing of Christ into the world.

Caryll Houselander
Source: The Reed of God

Seen on the Inward/Outward Blog

the contemplative ...

 ... the contemplative, not only sees and touches what is real, 

but beyond the surface of all that is actual, 

he [and she] attains to communion with Freedom Who is the source of all activity. 

This Reality, this Freedom, is not a concept, not a thing, not an object, 

not even an object of knowledge: 

it is the Living God, the Holy One,

 the One to Whom we dare to utter a Name only 

because [God] has revealed a Name to us, 

but Who is beyond all Names ...

 

The New Man, (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux) 1961:15

Weekly Reflection for December 3, 2012

 Merton Institute of Contemplative Living