I am aware, / As I go commonly sweeping the stair, / Doing my part of the every-day care / Human and simple my lot and my share / I am aware of a marvelous thing: / Voices that murmur and ethers that ring / In the far stellar spaces where cherubim sing.
“Simple manual tasks, the kind we often seek to obliterate by playing the radio while we work, are actually precious opportunities to strengthen our capacity for inner silence. For with the radio off we can use the activity to practice resting our awareness on the working surface – the place where the newspaper touches the window we are washing, or where the broom’s bristles sweep the floor. If our attention strays we can simply and gently notice that it has, and return it to the working surface.”
“The worst disservice we could do would be to commit the heresy of identifying the act of contemplation with a block of empty time or with the provision of an empty space, or to limit it to a certain peculiarly endowed class of persons, or in Greek fashion, to a social class that was drenched with leisure. Contemplation is, as we have insisted, standard equipment, and can never be completely identified with vacant spaces in life or with freedom from responsibility.”
“I believe that every piece of daily work can be done as a sacramental act. It is not too difficult to pray on one’s knees as the floor is scrubbed, ‘Wash me, O Lord, as I was this floor…’ Awakening from sleep can be woven into a beginning prayer for the day, ‘As I stretch my body and limber my joints for the day’s tasks, thou O Lord, make my spirit supple and ready to accept whatever the day may bring…’ Prayers so brief can run through all the day’s activities. They can be simple, symbolic, spontaneous, based upon the needs and acts of the day.”
“The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament.”
“Turn therefore inwards, and all that is within you will demonstrate to you the presence and power of God in your soul, and make you find and feel it with the same certainty as you find and feel your own thoughts. And what is best of all, by thus doing, you will never be without a living sense of the immediate guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, always equal to your dependence upon it…”
“In Him sit down, who is above the subtle foxes in their holes, and the fowls of the air in their nests; I say, sit down in Christ, who hath no place among them to lay his head; He is your rest. So in him is my love to you all.”
“Our lives hammer us continually with alerts, stimulants, and hazards, which can trigger our fight-or-flight responses, raise our levels of tension and anxiety, and lead us to live in prolonged states of preoccupation and vigilance. Being in constant, sustained alert mode diminishes our ability to access our human abilities of deep thinking, intuition, empathy, feelings, and stored knowledge. Free-floating anxiety is also bad for your health.”
“Flee, for a little while, thy occupations; hide thyself, for a time, from thy disturbing thoughts. Cast aside, now, thy burdensome cares, and put away thy toilsome business. Yield room for some little time to God; and rest for a little time in him. Enter the inner chamber of thy mind; shut out all thoughts save that of God, and such as can aid thee in seeking him; close thy door and seek him.”
“At what time soever thou wilt, it is in thy power to retire into thyself, and to be at rest: for a man cannot retire any whither to be more at rest, and freer from all business, than into his own soul. Afford then thyself this retiring continually, and thereby refresh and renew thyself.”
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