Mute Must we use words For everything? Can there not be A silent, flaming Leap of heart Toward Thee? ~Elizabeth B. Rooney as found in At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in Ordinary Time, compiled by Sarah Arthur In the stillness, Sandy Welcome to the Still Saturday Community where we […]
Still Saturday: If We Are Silent…
One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless. We are so accustomed to relying upon words to manage and control others. If we are silent who will take control? God will take control; but we will never let Him take control until we trust Him. Silence […]
Still Saturday: Murmurs
i find myself thirsty for plain sounds that whisper, glory. sure words resonate where i can hear, once again, God moving through broken lines that murmur with tenderness. but at the heart of poetry, silences. ~Laure Krueger as quoted by L.L. Barkat in God in the Yard In the stillness, Sandy […]
Still Saturday: Dynamic Stillness
But it is hard to hear that inner voice unless I allow myself time and quiet to center down, to focus in. I can find silence indoors, but it seems static. Breathing in the dynamic stillness as the whole creation pauses before God, the psalmist also sensed that, “The heavens declare the glory […]
The Sounds of Silence
I’ve tried to write to the sound of music, but it doesn’t usually work well for me. I create better in silence, although there really isn’t such a thing. I know this because when I’m silent I hear stuff. Stuff like: the pit-pit-pit-pitta-pit-pit-pit of ice melting from the eaves the song of the chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee the distant whoosh […]
Still Saturday: The Silence of Surrender
We enter the land of silence by the silence of surrender, and there is no map of the silence that is surrender…. The practice of silence…cannot be reduced to a spiritual technique. Techniques are all the rage today. They suggest a certain control that aims to determine a certain outcome. They clearly have their […]
Still Saturday: How Being Saved Sounds
An empty room is silent. A room where people are not speaking or moving is quiet. Silence is a given, quiet a gift. Silence is the absence of sound and quiet the stilling of sound. Silence can’t be anything but silent. Quiet chooses to be silent. It holds its breath to listen. It […]
Still Saturday: #BringBackOurGirls
Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still. For once on the face of the earth, let’s not speak in any language; let’s stop for one second and not move our arms so much. ~Pablo Neruda in Extravagaria Sometimes there just are no words. On Sunday, Mother’s Day, we will count […]
Still Saturday: Our Job?
“Maybe it’s our job to incline our hearts toward silence, to head for the slight grace that stillness allows from the noises of our world. Or maybe our job is to disrupt the silence just so, to make some arrival, some gentle voice, some concrete clarity, some step toward reconciling our presence.” ~Dave Harrity […]
Richard Foster on Silence and Writing
I’ve been a Richard Foster fan for years. I’ve got the first editions of Celebration of Discipline (named by Christianity Today as one of the top 10 most influential books of the 20th century) and Freedom of Simplicity. Way back when, I led a Sunday School group through FOS—which probably amounted to simply reading aloud every […]
