Friends of Silence Monthly Letter for May 2025

Is there enough silence for the Word to be heard?

May 2025

(Vol. XXXVIII, No. 5)

Dear Friends ~ Over the past several months, I've been gathering these quotes and now offer them to you as nourishment for the journey. I hope they bring insight, encouragement, and moments of stillness along the way. ~ Bob

Download Newsletter

Shutterstock Images

Though we know one another's names and recognize one another's faces, we never know what destiny shapes each life. The script of individual destiny is secret; it is hidden behind and beneath the sequence of happenings that is continually unfolding for us. Each life is a mystery that is never finally available to the mind's light or questions. That we are here is a huge affirmation; somehow life needed us and wanted us to be.

To sense and trust this primeval acceptance can open a vast spring of trust within the heart. It can free us into a natural courage that casts out fear and opens up our lives to become voyages of discovery, creativity, and compassion. No threshold need be a threat, but rather an invitation and a promise. Whatever comes, the great sacrament of life will remain faithful to us, blessing us always with visible signs of invisible grace. We merely need to trust.

~ John O'Donohue in TO BLESS THE SPACE BETWEEN US

What is the difference

Between your experience of Existence

And that of a saint?

The saint knows

That the spiritual path

Is a sublime chess game with God

And that the Beloved

Has just made such a Fantastic Move

That the saint is now continually

Tripping over Joy

And bursting out in Laughter

And saying, 'I Surrender!'

Whereas, my dear,

I am afraid you still think

You have a thousand serious moves

~ Hafiz, "Tripping Over Joy," translated by Daniel Ladinsky in I HEARD GOD LAUGHING: POEMS OF HOPE AND JOY

You have to allow disruption in your life. You have to take account of the parts of yourself you would throw out. You have to look in the places you look away from. And this is so the divine comes into birth. The divine wishes to come into birth in every moment.

True love and prayer are learned in the moment when prayer has become impossible, and the heart has turned to stone.

~ Thomas Merton in NEW SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION

Sometimes a person wakes

believing they are a storm.

It is hard to deny it, what,

with all the rain pouring out

of the gutters of the mind,

all the gusts blowing through,

all the squalls, all the gray.

But by afternoon, it seems obvious

they are a garden about to sprout.

By night, it is clear they are a moon—

luminous, radiant, faithful.

That's the danger, I suppose,

of believing any frame.

Let me believe, then, in curiosity,

in wonder, in change.

Let me trust how essential it is

to stumble into the trough

of the unknown, marvel how

trough becomes wings becomes

faith becomes math. Let me trust

uncertainty is a sacred path.

~ Rosemary Wahtola Trommer, "Never the Same," on her blog A Hundred Falling Veils

Shutterstock Images

The outer work can never be small if the inner work is great. And the outer work can never be great if the inner work is small.

~ Meister Eckhart in THE REINVENTION OF WORK

We see that it is not the task of Christianity to provide easy answers to every question, but to make us progressively aware of a mystery. God is not so much the object of our knowledge as the cause of our wonder.

~ Kallistos Ware in THE LIVING GOD

We change the world not by what we say or do but as a consequence of what we have become.

The truth of one's Self can be discovered in everyday life. To live with care and kindness is all that is necessary. The rest reveals itself in due time. The commonplace and God are not distinct.

~ David Hawkins in POWER VS. FORCE

My heart is solitary now.

It finds no companionship anywhere

And no wish to find any.

My sole desire is You,

And You are always absent.

Can one love absence so intensely

That even your presence

Seems like an intrusion?

I move around in aimless circles.

Rituals and sacred symbols,

Once treasured symbols of relating to You

Are meaningless to me now.

They communicate nothing of You,

Who are everything to me

But for whom and from whom I feel no love,

Nor hope of fulfillment.

I am as one turned inside out,

And there is nothing there — not You, not me.

If this is union, there is neither two in One,

Nor One without another.

I long to relate to everyone,

Yet lack the capacity to relate to anyone.

There is only your boundless presence,

That treats me like a thing without a heart,

Except perhaps a broken heart.

For the God I thought I knew

No longer exists

~ Thomas Keating, "Twilight of the Self," in THOMAS KEATING: THE MAKING OF A MODERN CHRISTIAN MYSTIC

The Witness is that which is capable of observing the flow of what is—without interfering with it, commenting on it, or in any way manipulating it. The Witness simply observes the stream of events both inside and outside the mind-body in a creatively detached fashion, since, in fact, the Witness is not exclusively identified with either. In other words, when you realize that your mind and your body can be perceived objectively, you spontaneously realize that they cannot constitute a real subjective self. As Huang Po put it, "Let me remind you, the perceived cannot perceive."

~ Ken Wilbur in PSYCHOLOGIA PERENNIS

Shutterstock Images

Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

To stay with that shakiness—to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feelings of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge—that is the path of true awakening. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic—this is the spiritual path. Getting the knack of catching ourselves, of gently and compassionately catching ourselves is the path of the warrior. We catch ourselves one zillion times as once again, whether we like it or not, we harden into resentment, into a sense of relief, a sense of inspiration.

~ Pema Chodron in WHEN THINGS FALL APART: HEART ADVICE FOR DIFFICULT TIMES

Download Newsletter

In addition to our monthly newsletter, you’re warmly invited to sign up for a free daily quote from Friends of Silence – a gentle yet powerful way to begin your day with reflection and intention.

We’re also excited to host our very first Zoom gathering, Saturday, May 31 at 12pm ET Bring your copy of the May newsletter, marked with words or phrases that spoke to you. We'll spend time in silence, get to know one another a bit,

and share together out of the silence about the Word waiting to be heard.

Sophia Rising retreat: Living the Heroine’s Journey in Edge Times // May 30 - June 1 at Wellspring Retreat Center, Germantown, MD

A women’s retreat celebrating the Divine Feminine. Join us to wander the sacred land of Dayspring listening for the wisdom of the wild inhabitants of woods, stream, and fields. To listen to ancient stories rising out of the heart of the Sacred Feminine. And to gather for council and ceremony woven with the heartbeats of our drums and the power of dancing in sacred circles.

More information and registration details on the Friends of Silence website!

Donate to Friends of Silence

Friends Of Silence

1681 Patriots Way

Harpers Ferry WV 25425

304-870-4574

About Us

Visit Our Website