Nature is a sacred space that has the power to draw us out

Nature is a sacred space that has the power to draw us out of our small mind into the one Big Mind of God.During warm weather, praying and meditating outside in nature can naturally enhance your practice.You can pray anywhere, even on the subway, but whenever you find yourself in a place that feels sacred, you have already made the connection with God.

April 2006 (Vol. XIX, No. 4)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard? "

BLESSINGS of another Spring season, dear friends!

From the fallow earth new life is springing up as Love's ever-giving, ever-renewing gift to humanity new creation birthed from holy ground, a Sacred trust. Wherever we are — whether traveling afar or in our own backyard — all is Sacred space when we recognize our Oneness with Love Consciousness. And in the silence we can rest in the Sacred Chapel of our heart and gently BE who we are at the core. Be still, and know Love. 

Sacred space is by definition liminal space. Because we are not in control and not the center, something genuinely new can happen. Here we are capable of seeing something beyond self-interest, self-will, and security concerns. True sacred space allows alternative consciousness to emerge.

~ Richard Rohr
Richard Rohr sacred place

In order to access the grace and power of heaven, we must first learn to live within the gap, that sacred space between our thoughts and judgments.

~ Rocco Grecco
Rocco Grecco sacred place

In the forest
was a path
which led on,
and on as if an access
to a deeper realm —
a place where peripherals,
the eddies at the edge of things,
were all forgotten,
and I entered
a silence of green,
became a soundless vortex
moving through stillness.

~ from MARROW OF THE FLAME by Dorothy Walters
Dorothy Walters Marrow Of The Flame sacred place

Most indigenous people will tell you that every location, every part of the Earth, has a spirit and is sacred. They would also say that this sacredness can be intuited, and can directly influence our choices. We can all learn from this wisdom.

~ from "Trusting the Web of Life" by David La Chapelle
David La Chapelle Trusting The Web Of Life sacred place

Days pass and the years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles. O Holy One, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing. Let there be moments when your Presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns, unconsumed. And we, clay touched by Thee, will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder, "How filled with awe is this place and we did not know it. "

~ from MY GRANDFATHER'S BLESSINGS by Rachel Naomi Remen
Rachel Naomi Remen My Grandfather's Blessings sacred place Buy on Amazon

Home is where the heart is not famished, the eye not starved, the Sacred not banished or desecrated. The Sacred cannot be caught in formulas. It cannot be analyzed, not even in terms of ecology, as beauty cannot be caught in the semantics of esthetics. Fingers pointing toward the Transcendent need no vocabulary, for they do not preach. Beyond the dialects of all religions they witness to a religious attitude toward life itself.
 

~ from FINGERS POINTING TOWARD THE SACRED by Frederick Franck
Frederick Franck Fingers Pointing Toward The Sacred sacred place Buy on Amazon

May the nourishment of the earth be yours.
May the clarity of light be yours.
May the fluency of the ocean be yours.
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow wind work
These words around you
As an invisible cloak to guard your life.

~ a Celtic Prayer
A Celtic Prayer sacred place

There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred.

~ Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle sacred place

Remember, remember the sacredness
of things: running streams and dwellings
the young within the nest
a hearth for sacred fire
the holy flame.

~ Omaha Indian Chant
Omaha Indian Chant sacred place

Suddenly I heard the sound; it was
the sacred whispers. The whispers
come to me from the land, the
sky and the sea, and often they
urge me to be still. Above all,
the whispers signal change.

~ Margaret A. Renner
Margaret A. Renner sacred place

… a fire was lit in my heart. My rational doubts and hesitations went up in smoke. My tepid faith, which had become that of the indifferent believer, was rekindled.

I was in front of the flaming bush. I wanted to take off my shoes. It was sacred ground. God was this sacred ground. God was within the entire creation. The entire creation was sacred ground.

~ from CIRCLING TO THE CENTER by Susan M. Tiberghien
Susan M. Tiberghien Circling To The Center sacred place Buy on Amazon

I began to think of sacredness as a kind of dialogue between the human spirit and certain designated places. These sites that call forth reverence, awe, humility, and wonder — we make them sacred. It is a way of honoring those feelings in ourselves. And when we hear the songs the places sing, we hear our own most ancient voices.

~ James D. Houston
James D. Houston sacred place

The contemplation of sacred mountains with their special power to awaken another, deeper way of experiencing reality, opens us to a sense of the sacred in our own homes and communities — a sense that we need to cultivate in order to live in harmony.

~ from SACRED MOUNTAINS by Edwin Bernbaum
Edwin Bernbaum Sacred Mountains sacred place

The world globes itself in a drop of dew. … The true doctrine of omnipresence is that God appears with all parts in every moss and cobweb.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson sacred place

Love speaks in Sacred spaces:
within and without.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous sacred place

To be sacred, a place must be honored, treated with respect. It must gather and hold energy; be alive with the seen and unseen. Above all, a sacred place must be safe — for cells to open, boundaries to expand, what is normally hidden to come forth.

Sacred spaces help us access our own spirits. They offer us doorways through which we can pass, gateways to deepening our connections with nature and our elemental beginnings. Those connections lead us to wholeness; the more we experience the interconnectedness of our bodies and Earth's body, the more we heal spirit.

~ Meg Beeler in "EarthLight" - Spring 2000 #37
Meg Beeler Earthlight (spring 2000) sacred place

True sacred space allows alternative consciousness to emerge

Sacred space is by definition liminal space. Because we are not in control and not the center, something genuinely new can happen. Here we are capable of seeing something beyond self-interest, self-will, and security concerns. True sacred space allows alternative consciousness to emerge.

I entered a silence of green

In the forest
was a path
which led on,
and on as if an access
to a deeper realm —
a place where peripherals,
the eddies at the edge of things,
were all forgotten,
and I entered
a silence of green,
became a soundless vortex
moving through stillness.

Every part of the Earth has a spirit and is sacred

Most indigenous people will tell you that every location, every part of the Earth, has a spirit and is sacred. They would also say that this sacredness can be intuited, and can directly influence our choices. We can all learn from this wisdom.

How filled with awe is this place and we did not know it

Days pass and the years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles. O Holy One, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing. Let there be moments when your Presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns, unconsumed. And we, clay touched by Thee, will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder, "How filled with awe is this place and we did not know it. "

Home is where the heart is not famished, the eye not starved

Home is where the heart is not famished, the eye not starved, the Sacred not banished or desecrated. The Sacred cannot be caught in formulas. It cannot be analyzed, not even in terms of ecology, as beauty cannot be caught in the semantics of esthetics. Fingers pointing toward the Transcendent need no vocabulary, for they do not preach. Beyond the dialects of all religions they witness to a religious attitude toward life itself.
 

May the nourishment of the earth be yours

May the nourishment of the earth be yours.
May the clarity of light be yours.
May the fluency of the ocean be yours.
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow wind work
These words around you
As an invisible cloak to guard your life.

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