The Holy Pause

“Have you ever sat with a friend when in the course of an easy and pleasant conversation the talk took a new turn and you both listened avidly to the other and to something that was emerging in your visit? You found yourselves saying things that astonished you and finally you stopped talking and there was an immense naturalness about the long silent pause that followed. In that silent interval you were possessed by what you had discovered together. If this has happened to you, you know that when you come up out of such an experience, there is a memory of rapture and a feeling in the heart of having touched holy ground.

— Douglas V. Steere, 1955 (source)
American Quaker ecumenist and professor

Talk with a friend. Set out to have an easy and pleasant conversation.

How do you move through conflict in your close relationships?

Have you ever experienced difficulty in your relationship with Spirit? What did you do?

Share your response!

Banner image: Joey Hartmann-Dow

Author

  • Douglas Van Steere (August 31, 1901 – February 6, 1995) was an American Quaker ecumenist and professor of philosophy and theology. Steere organized Quaker post-war relief work in Finland, Norway and Poland, was invited to participate as an ecumenical observer in the Second Vatican Council and co-founded the Ecumenical Institute of Spirituality. He authored, edited, translated and wrote introductions for many books on Quakerism, as well as other religions and philosophy.

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