‘To Live With The Spirit’
To live with the Spirit of God is to be a listener.
It is to keep the vigil of mystery,
earthless and still.
One leans to catch the stirring of the Spirit,
strange as the wind’s will.
To live with the Spirit of God is to be a lover.
It is becoming love, and like to Him
toward Whom we strain with metaphors of creatures:
fire-sweep and water-rush and the wind’s whim.
The soul is all activity, all silence;
and though it surges Godward to its goal,
it holds, as moving earth holds sleeping noonday,
the peace that is the listening of the soul. (Jessica Powers)
The Spirit encourages us to listen—to be quiet. It is in listening that the voice is heard…’and after the fire a sound of sheer silence…when Elijah heard it…’
To train ourselves to listen is the place where the Spirit Words are heard.
The poet reminds us.
I listen as much as I can or in some cases willing too. I hear many voices through out the day and not all of them are kind nor gentle. I balance the act with the thought trying to cope with the moment.
I do feel, see and hear the spirit and when I do I smile because it for that moment made quiet the other noises that range wide and loose. And when I try really hard, they stay quiet longer so I can smile even longer.
I often find that the “Soul is all activity” or perhaps the mind, and it is such a struggle to “quiet the mind” and listen. A major goal for the Year of our Lord, 2010.
Thanks for the inspiration! We miss Toronto!
A challenge for sure in our noisy world—I find coming back to ‘breath’ helpful; sitting in silence before God just watching your breath. No mental thoughts. No activity and from that growing stillness follow the Spirit’s leading. —Thanks Stephanie for your comments and we all miss you folks in TO as well.