being

I believe in all that has never been spoken.

I want to free what waits within me.

so that what no one has dared to wish for

 

may for once spring clear

without my contriving.

 

If it is arrogant, God, forgive me,

but this is what I need to say.

May what I do flow from me like a river,

no forcing and no holding back,

the way it is with children.

 

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,

these deepening tides moving out, returning,

I will sing you as no one ever has,

 

streaming through the widening channels

into the open sea.

(The Book of Hours, I 12, by Rainer Maria Rilke)



Within yourselves you have made a room, a secluded space.  You have built it by prayer--the Jesus Prayer or whatever prayer you have found profitable.  You should be more aware of God than of anyone else, because you are carrying within you this utterly quiet and silent chamber.  Because you are more aware of God, because you have been called to listen in your inner silence, you can bring God to the street, the party, the meeting, in a very special and powerful way.  The power is God's but you have contributed yourself.  God has asked you and chosen you to be the carrier of that silent place within yourself.
     In a manner of speaking, nothing has changed in your daily schedule.  So you attend all the meetings as before, knowing in deep faith and its accompanying darkness that you are bringing Christ, the Christ who prayed to his Father all night, alone on the mountain.  You bring the Christ who stole away from the crowds to pray.  You are now carrying him back to the crowds.  So you should be "with" the crowds.

                                                                                     ~Catherine de Hueck Doherty



Never underestimate the power of God that expresses itself through your own uniquely beautiful giftedness.