Bring Back Your Heart Patiently

“When your heart is wandering and distracted, bring it back quickly to its point, restore it tenderly to its Master’s side, and if you did nothing else the whole of your hour but bring back your heart patiently and put it near our Lord again, and every time you put it back it turned away again, your hour would be well-employed.”

— St. Francis de Sales, 1616
Treatise on the Love of God
Photo credit: Georgia Sparling

Today’s Invitation

Notice where your heart is — is it wandering and distracted? Take a moment to bring back your heart patiently to God or Spirit.

Query of the Week

What is your relationship with silence and stillness?

What happens for you when you try to sit still in silence? How do you maintain a state of inner stillness through the noise and demands of your daily life?

Author

Maeve Sutherland

Maeve Sutherland is a communications professional who never recovered from her wonderful childhood at a Quaker elementary school. She has spent her career helping nonprofits share their stories, from schools and universities, to museums, to radio stations. As a Thomas J. Watson Fellow, Maeve spent a year living in “Peaceable Kingdoms,” pacifist intentional communities around the world, where she learned that everyone has a role to play in shaping a better world. She worked as a freelance social media manager before joining Thee Quaker Project. After returning to Quakerism as a young adult, Maeve now attends Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting in Philadelphia.
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