Download Friends of Silence iPhone app for the 30th Anniversary of the Friends of Silence.

Dear Ones,

Nan Merrill wrote in Lumen Christi, Holy Wisdom:

Wend your way through the corridors of time,
not as passengers on a free ride
watching the seasons pass;
Rather, steady mindfulness quickens
the spirit, awakens the soul,
and opens the Inner Gate that leads
to the great Work so needed in these times.

I am writing this Annual Appeal on the eve of Listening at the Gate, a retreat to celebrate Nan Merrill and 30 years of Friends of Silence The retreat will be held at Still Point, a mountain cabin on a windy, forested hillside overlooking the storied Shenandoah River. Still Point is the retreat home of Friends of Silence. There we will listen for how our small but mighty community of Letter readers and pray-ers is and will be part of that great Work so needed in these troubled times. We will listen in Silence and with gratitude for the marvelous gift that is Friends of Silence, born of Nan Merrill's compassion and vision 30 years ago.

In one of the early issues of the Friends of Silence Letter Nan wrote, "Our little community of the Friends of Silence is an expression of the desire to have all our relations, all of our activity in the world, pass through Eternity. If we are to participate in bringing the Blessed Community to its completion, we must be still and know God in our inner beings. We invite anyone who shares this dream, this hope to come and see..to come and be with us each month. This is our beginning...

The invitation to "be still and know God in our inner beings" is at the heart of what is being called forth today, just as it was three decades ago. It is perhaps even more crucial in these shadowy times when it sometimes seems that the only thing between us and utter chaos is the awakened soul. We at Friends of Silence are privileged to participate in a ministry of encouragement and hope, sending out the Letter each month to those who share the dream and have set forth on the necessary journey of soul toward the Inner Gate.

Please help us to continue sending the Letter with its vital words of wisdom and inspiration freely to all who ask. We have thousands on our mailing list, all of whom get the Letter without charge. We wouldn't want it any other way. The Friends of Silence Letter is sustained solely by your prayers and donations. Your generosity and faithfulness is what enables us to pay the printing costs and postage every month and keeps the Letter arriving in your mailbox or email, hopefully encouraging you and thousands around the world who are linked in the Silence, in heart-prayer, and in friendship. This is a living part of "the great Work so needed in these times."

Please join with us in this work. We welcome a donation of any amount. Thank you.

Ever yours in the Silence, Lindsay McLaughlin