Daily Primer — July 2, Sea day
Each day you will be given:
A Florilegium entry
A Daily Prayer
and a Night Prayer.
A Florilegium entry
A Daily Prayer
and a Night Prayer.
Loneliness is a negative state, marked by a sense of isolation. One feels that something is missing. It is possible to be with people and still feel lonely—perhaps the most bitter form of loneliness.
Solitude is the state of being alone without being lonely. It is a positive and constructive state of engagement with oneself. Solitude is desirable, a state of being alone where you provide yourself wonderful and sufficient company. My deep yearning is to inhabit enough solitude that I can be with God and with God alone.
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If you go into solitude with a silent tongue, the silence of mute beings will share with you their rest. But if you go into solitude with a silent heart, the silence of creation will speak louder than the tongues of men or angels.
The silence of the tongue and of the imagination dissolves the barrier between ourselves and the peace of things that exist only for God and not for themselves. But the silence of all inordinate desire dissolves the barrier between ourselves and God. Then we come to live in Him alone. Then mute beings no longer speak to us merely with their own silence. It is the Lord Who speaks to us, with a far deeper silence, hidden in the midst of our own selves.
Those who love their own noise are impatient of everything else. They constantly defile the silence of the forests and the mountains and the sea. They bore through silent nature in every direction with their machines, for fear that the calm world might accuse them of their own emptiness. The urgency of their swift movement seems to ignore the tranquillity of nature by pretending to have a purpose. The loud plane seems for a moment to deny the reality of the clouds and of the sky, by its direction, its noise, and its pretended strength. The silence of the sky remains when the plane has gone. The tranquillity of the clouds will remain when the plane has fallen apart. It is the silence of the world that is real. Our noise, our business, our purposes, and all our fatuous statements about our purposes our business and our noise: these are the illusion. God is present, and His thought is alive and awake in the fullness and depth and breadth of all the silences of the world. The Lord is watching in the almond trees, over the fulfillment of His words (Jeremiah 1: 11). Whether the plane pass by tonight or tomorrow, whether there be cars on the winding road or no cars, whether men speak in the field, whether there be a radio in the house or not, the tree brings forth her blossoms in silence. Whether the house be empty or full of children, whether the men go off to town or work with tractors in the fields, whether the liner enters the harbor full of tourists or full of soldiers, the almond tree brings forth her fruit in silence.
Solitude is the state of being alone without being lonely. It is a positive and constructive state of engagement with oneself. Solitude is desirable, a state of being alone where you provide yourself wonderful and sufficient company. My deep yearning is to inhabit enough solitude that I can be with God and with God alone.
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If you go into solitude with a silent tongue, the silence of mute beings will share with you their rest. But if you go into solitude with a silent heart, the silence of creation will speak louder than the tongues of men or angels.
The silence of the tongue and of the imagination dissolves the barrier between ourselves and the peace of things that exist only for God and not for themselves. But the silence of all inordinate desire dissolves the barrier between ourselves and God. Then we come to live in Him alone. Then mute beings no longer speak to us merely with their own silence. It is the Lord Who speaks to us, with a far deeper silence, hidden in the midst of our own selves.
Those who love their own noise are impatient of everything else. They constantly defile the silence of the forests and the mountains and the sea. They bore through silent nature in every direction with their machines, for fear that the calm world might accuse them of their own emptiness. The urgency of their swift movement seems to ignore the tranquillity of nature by pretending to have a purpose. The loud plane seems for a moment to deny the reality of the clouds and of the sky, by its direction, its noise, and its pretended strength. The silence of the sky remains when the plane has gone. The tranquillity of the clouds will remain when the plane has fallen apart. It is the silence of the world that is real. Our noise, our business, our purposes, and all our fatuous statements about our purposes our business and our noise: these are the illusion. God is present, and His thought is alive and awake in the fullness and depth and breadth of all the silences of the world. The Lord is watching in the almond trees, over the fulfillment of His words (Jeremiah 1: 11). Whether the plane pass by tonight or tomorrow, whether there be cars on the winding road or no cars, whether men speak in the field, whether there be a radio in the house or not, the tree brings forth her blossoms in silence. Whether the house be empty or full of children, whether the men go off to town or work with tractors in the fields, whether the liner enters the harbor full of tourists or full of soldiers, the almond tree brings forth her fruit in silence.
PHL - Notes made after reading the article, “The Art of Aloneness” in Psychology Today, published September 28, 2023. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/duty-to-self/202309/the-art-of-aloneness
Then:
No Man Is an Island by Thomas Merton. Silence - pp. 254-ff.
Then:
No Man Is an Island by Thomas Merton. Silence - pp. 254-ff.
Florilegium is the Medieval Latin word for bouquet, or more literally flowers (flos, flor-) which are gathered (legere). The word florilegium was used to refer to a compilation of writings, often religious or philosophical. These florilegium are literary flowers—beautiful words/prayers/thoughts I have gathered. During my sabbatical they will give me something to ponder each day. — PHL.
Lord, whose love gives us every reason to be joyful — you promise that you will abide in us lovingly, and that when we abide in you that our joy will be complete. Help us to be not only earnest, and determined, and disciplined in following you. Help us to be joyful people of faith. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit we ask it. Amen.
John 17:13. Liturgy of the Hours — PHL.
Lord, remember all who live the Christian life:
Show them the light of your face.
Uphold all who serve you in the ministry:
Give them the strength of your Holy Spirit.
Fill the hearts of your people with joy and peace:
Answer all their needs.
It is for you that we live, Lord our God,
and to you that we have consecrated this day;
perfect and purify our offering,
so that our prayer of thanksgiving may rise to you,
in Jesus, your Son, our Lord.
May God light the fire of his love in our hearts.
May the souls of the faithful departed through the
mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.
Show them the light of your face.
Uphold all who serve you in the ministry:
Give them the strength of your Holy Spirit.
Fill the hearts of your people with joy and peace:
Answer all their needs.
It is for you that we live, Lord our God,
and to you that we have consecrated this day;
perfect and purify our offering,
so that our prayer of thanksgiving may rise to you,
in Jesus, your Son, our Lord.
May God light the fire of his love in our hearts.
May the souls of the faithful departed through the
mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.
The Glenstal Book of Prayer, p. 45.