Through Fecund Darkness Into Great Silence..
“..the dark divinity of our plight…”
(The Contemplative Heart, by James Finley*)
“..a time to be silent..”
(from Ecclesiastes 3:1 – 8)
Picture taken in Chennai
Hat-tip to Beth at louie, louie for the quote*
Related post
The Liturgy Of The Hours: Compline
“We entrust ourselves to the night as if it were a great ocean from which we can fish up all sorts of wonderful things..”
From The Music of Silence by David Steindl-Rast
Compline completes the Liturgy of the Hours.
Its end marks the beginning of the Great Silence
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“Let all mortal flesh keep silence..”
Picture taken at sunset, Kopua Monastery, New Zealand
Related posts
Stumbling Into Light: Part 9
Opening the doors to silence..
Picture shows visiting nuns in silent prayer at Kurisumala Monastery
A Sudden Silence
The film-set falls silent.
The crew, the actors and the excitement disappear.
It seems one disgruntled member of the community has applied for a legal injunction to halt all movie proceedings.
The filming disrupted his life.
The rest of us are in shocked mourning.
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Picture taken in Fort Cochin
Wandering Westward: Seeking Solitude
“Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while.”
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Picture taken on the path to the chapel, at Holy Cross Abbey, Virginia.
Wandering Westward: Moving Forward To Retreat
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But for now, a time of silence…
Pictures taken at the Church of The Holy Comforter and St Cyprian, Washington DC
The Leaving..
A beautiful week with my dear son and his lovely wife has passed all too quickly.
I head for North Island,
and a week of profound quietness..
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Picture taken beside Lake Te Anau, New Zealand.
The Busyness Of This Morning
“Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence…”
From: The Desiderata of Happiness
Max Ehrman 1872 – 1945
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Pictures taken at seven o’clock in the morning. Pattalam, Cochin.
A Visit To The Hill-Top Temple
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From the wilds of Wayanad and the elephants of Tamil Nadu, we crossed into Karnataka.
Our first stop was at the Himavad Gopalswamy Betta Temple.
Built almost 700 years ago at the summit of a quiet and lonely hill, it is often hidden by mist. But we had arrived in brilliant sunshine.
Despite, or perhaps because of the presence of many devotees, there was a palpable sense of quiet and prayer.
Having received the blessing of the temple priest in the inner sanctum, we walked around the temple then made our way back down the steep and narrow track.
On this road, a pilgrim bus had jammed the rear corner of its chassis while taking a sharp hair-pin bend.
With minimal fuss, the passengers disembarked while the bus was re-manoeuvred into a drivable position, then quietly returned to their transport. There was neither shouting nor horn-tooting from drivers blocked by the stationary vehicle.
Something of a rarity in India.
Perhaps the calm and peace of the temple was more pervasive than I had realised…
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The Sound Of Silence
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Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must blog.
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Neither Use Nor Ornament 