1 Kings 19:11–13 (NRSV)

11 He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Be with us, O God,

in all things.

Wendell Berry

“Accept what comes from silence.

Make the best you can of it.

Of the little words that come

out of the silence, like prayers

prayed back to the one who prays,

make a poem that does not disturb

the silence from which it came.”

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Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11 (NRSV)

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.

He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Teach us to trust, O God,

the work you are doing in us.

The Cloud of Unknowing

“For this is the work of the soul that most pleaseth God,

to wait in stillness and in trust.

Not striving to see clearly,

nor desiring to feel greatly,

but choosing to rest in the dark knowing

that God is at work beyond our understanding.

For love may reach God in this life,

but knowing never can.

And therefore, be content to remain in this cloud,

trusting that God is nearer than you know.”

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Mark 4:26–29 (NRSV)

He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,

and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow,

he does not know how.

The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.

But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Teach us to see, O God,

what is already before us.

Meister Eckhart

“The soul must forget itself and all things

and must be empty of all images.

For where there is emptiness,

there is room for God to work.

Nothing is so unlike God as distraction,

and nothing so like God

as stillness.”

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Psalm 131:1–2 (NRSV)

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,

my eyes are not raised too high;

I do not occupy myself with things

too great and too marvelous for me.

Here I am, O God.

I make room for you.

Julian of Norwich

Revelations of Divine Love

“For I saw truly that God does all things, however small they may be,

and that nothing is done by chance,

but all by the foreseeing wisdom of God.

I saw that God is in all things,

and that God does all things,

and that God is all things.

And I saw that God’s love was never absent,

nor ever shall be,

and that all shall be gathered and held

in this love forever.”

Refrain

Here I am, O God.

I make room for you.

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Job 33:4 (NRSV)

The spirit of God has made me,

and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

God of breath and nearness,

you are closer than our next inhale.

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

*The Practice of the Presence of God*

“There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God: those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it; yet I do not advise you to do it from that motive; it is not pleasure which we ought to seek in this exercise; but let us do it from a principle of love, and because God would have us.

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Lamentations 3:31–33 (NRSVUE, abridged)

For the Lord will not reject forever.

Although he causes grief,

he will have compassion

according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

for he does not willingly afflict

or grieve anyone.

I return again and again.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

“Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully

in each moment to being present;

inviting ourselves to interface

with this moment in full awareness.

We do this by returning again and again

to the anchor of the breath,

no matter how many times the mind wanders.”

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Psalm 23:4 (NRSVUE)

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

I fear no evil;

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff—

they comfort me.

I stay with what is.

Pema Chödrön, from *When Things Fall Apart*

“To stay present with pain and not run away from it

is the key to awakening.

When we stop struggling against what we feel,

we begin to find freedom

right where we are.”

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1 Corinthians 6:19 (NRSVUE, abridged)

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,

which you have from God…

and that you are not your own?

God meets me in my body.

Bessel van der Kolk

“The body keeps the score:

if the memory of trauma is encoded in the viscera,

in heartbreaking and gut-wrenching sensations,

in autoimmune disorders and skeletal and muscular problems,

then talking about it may not be enough.

The body must feel safe again.”

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