Hear the silence
May you go deeper in prayer
Biography
And so it follows that when prayer is at it's most profound...I believe we are not “praying” so much as we are "being prayed". With that being said, it is our part and we do have a freely given choice to actively participate in prayer. It is my hope that this website will help those who visit it to recognize our common path and perhaps may lead all of us into contemplation.
These first 10 songs were originally inspired by a small group of Poor Clare nuns of whom my daughter was one. We would visit them twice a year and on most occasions, my wife made them a wonderful meal and afterwards we'd gather together and I'd play or "pray" many of these songs. They, with great humor, referred to these evenings in the monastery as, "Dinner and a show!" Of course there was no applause...only the sound of silence as these dedicated women reflected on or used the song to enter deeper into prayer.
These songs are "inspired" in another sense as well, but perhaps no more poignantly than the way I was inspired to be a teacher, a father or a business man. Prayer has humbly taught me that God is at work constantly in all creation and in our lives from the practical to the sublime. The Holy Spirit is involved in each tick of my heart, and He is the same Almighty God who keeps the earth on its axis. When a myriad of ideas comes to me; I try to organize them and express their essence within my own body and at this moment in time.
I often think that I am really in constant prayer...no, not on my knees or meditating, but every time I acknowledge the beauty or pain around me...my soul cries out. And I think of life as just one big prayer...blessed with joys and suffering, but always accompanied by a presence that can't possibly be described in word or song, but my soul can't help but try.
Reflections
*Below are notes on each of the songs. To hear the songs, click on the Music Player tab and select the title.
1. Peace of Christ
I often refer to this, my first song, as the "Walking Prayer". While walking our sheltie Chloe on a regular basis, the allure of nature spoke strongly to me. The trees, the sky, the rocks along the road all seemed to be filled with the divine. At that time, a wonderful elderly priest (Fr. Dan) would often say Mass at our parish. He explained to me that as he made the sign of the cross (before the Gospel reading) on his forehead, lips, and heart, he'd silently say the words, "May the Peace of Christ be in my mind, on my lips and in my heart". There is a completeness and flow to this physical prayer that corresponded with each step on my walk.
Allow the cadence and rhythm to lead your heart into the Peace of Christ much like a mantra.
Also, I encourage you to take a prayerful walk, be aware of that which presents itself and then compose your own verse. It's a simple sentence formula of a short phrase that requires the last word before the comma to rhyme with the last word of the sentence. Make this song your "own" walking prayer.
2. Dialogue
Prayer, it's often said, is simply a conversation with God. Sometimes we do the talking; sometimes He does. We often use words; He seldom does. Perhaps words from scripture come to mind as we await a response, but that's the extent of any voice from God most of us ever receive. But, just when it seems that He may not even be tuned in to my efforts, a sense of presence often comes over me. I'm not sure I could handle actual words and I'm terrified of what He might actually say. But that presence_ that sense of He is there, not "up there", but right here as a still voice in my heart, is more profound and wonderful than a volume of words.
You will notice a definite pause in this song between our attempts to communicate and when His response becomes manifest. This signifies the gap in our minds, not His, for without Him we would not even be able to articulate our most primal need. I try to pour my heart out to God, tell Him everything. I hold back no punches. He is a "big god"; He certainly can take whatever I dish out. Then I try to wait in silence for the realization of His mercy.
3. The Silence You Hear
This is the "sister" song to "Dialogue". Though a younger sister, having been written months later, it arose from what I feel was a deeper prayer experience.
There is a proclivity on my part to try to control God, to pray when I think I need Him and to count on Him in times of distress. The rest of the time He is just hanging out in Heaven or dealing with someone else's issues. Oh, so human an attitude to think in this vein! When, and probably only when, I turn these thoughts off for a brief moment, do I then experience a more profound silence.
Silence can be scary. Just how uncomfortable are you when you hear the break in this song between my musings and God's profound response? We are not accustomed to silence, especially on the typical recordings most of us might listen to on a day-to-day basis. Absolute silence (such as in outer space) or an unexpected silence (as when the electricity fails) is scary, or at least shocks us a bit. However, the silence that is a channel to the divine is partly me cultivating awareness and partly a free gift from God. A sunset is still a sunset, whether we notice it or not, but it can be awe inspiring if we open ourselves to the play of light.
This silence is not seeing God face to face...rather, it is something we can actually handle, but it is often so filled with divine presence that it resonates and thus is a "silence you hear"!
4. Breathe on Me
He [Jesus] breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.' (John 20:22). One can't help but also think of God in the book of Genesis breathing life into Adam after forming him from dust. All life comes from God, and the Holy Spirit, the very energy of the Trinity, seems to be always associated with air or wind or breath.
I often focus my breath as I try to calm my overly active mind to prepare me for my morning meditation and prayer. Here are a few thoughts that I have experienced in this practice. We obviously are breathing all the time and fortunately don't have to think about manufacturing our next breath. Our body does it subconsciously, which is why we tend not to pay attention to it until we struggle to get our breath, say when we first come up for air when we swim underwater. But everything we do is linked to our breath. When tense or excited , our breathing becomes restricted and sporadic. When we are relaxed, our breathing returns to the easy belly breathing of a baby. It is not within the scope of my writing to explain how, but there is plenty of information on the internet to help us to learn to relax through focused breathing. It is so automatic that we tend to forget what a powerful tool breathing is, not just for relaxing, but, I suggest, for prayer as well. We want to be as "present" to God as we want Him to be for us...so we make the sign of the cross, we lovingly run rosary beads through our fingers, we splash holy water on our foreheads. These are all beautiful, "physical" sacramentals that have deep meaning and help form and solidify us in our Catholic culture and are our humble attempt to place ourselves before God. But, just think for a moment on the most basic of physical gifts, the gift of our breath. Why not offer the gift back as slow deep breaths that require us to enter into the present moment and to let go and trust? We can ask Christ to breathe on us and reflect on the fact that the Holy Spirit is breathing us into existence at every moment. "Send forth your spirit and you will renew the face of the earth"(Psalm 104:30)".
5. Come Away
This song was written to be sung at the Mass where my daughter Megan would profess her vows as a Poor Clare nun. The words and emotions expressed were cathartic in a two-fold way. One, they were for her (as I perceived her journey) to commit her life to Christ in a radical fashion. Secondly, they seemed to express what I needed to do to mentally and spiritually surrender my daughter to religious life.
To have a fore-taste of heaven here on earth is freely given by God in many ways: the beauty of nature, art, music, literature, the Mass and other forms of Liturgy, but I feel that it's most profound in the relationship we have with others. Our Christian faith presents as a Trinity, that is, as three persons in one God who are in "relationship": Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When we are lovingly aware of the beauty of our relationship with others, we vaguely mirror the relationship of the Trinity. To let go of sinful things makes great sense, but when we need to let go of a good thing such as a daily sharing of life with a loved one, then we struggle. When I finally did let go and trust God, I started to see everyone as part of the human family (albeit an extremely dysfunctional family), I also realized that my "understanding" or grasping of my precise part in that family doesn't ultimately matter. I do need to follow and discern as clearly as humanly possible God's will, but when I truly do "let go of knowing" and hold His hand, then I have often felt a great peace as a most beautiful consolation.
6. Still
"Be still and know I am your God." (Psalm 46:10)
It both fascinates and challenges me that God lays out a command, an attitude and a method to be able to approach Him. It is a most difficult thing for most of us with a modern mind...we seldom practice stillness. It seems it is as if only when nothing else is demanding our attention, that we can then possibly glimpse the glory of God.
For me, it often seems so simple, "He is God and I am not." Most of the time, I need to wrestle with my ego to grasp what should be the most obvious concept, but subtle thoughts of self-sufficiency still plague me.
There are "human" ways of accessing God, where our efforts must count a bit. The psalmist tells us that God can't deny a humble heart. Perhaps stillness is a wonderful place to cultivate a humble heart.
7. My Yoke Is Easy
I'm not sure that the word "easy" is found in the bible a lot. Not much about Jewish law in the Old Testament or, for that matter, the Good News of the New Testament seems to suggest that life is easy. Yet,, Jesus offers us this very scenario, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me: for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matt. 11: 28-30).
It seems that picking up our daily cross and suffering is more mainstream Christian theology than expecting the process to be easy. So I grasp at this odd saying and caress it for all it's worth, trusting that there just may be a sense of ease in attaching our lives to Jesus, especially when we come as a child.
8. Lord You Know Me
"Where can I flee from your presence?" (Psalm 139)
It's comforting to think I can hide from God occasionally just so I don't feel like I'm having to "perform" or keep up my "good guy" image. But, then when I return, it's usually a very obvious fact that God never stopped sustaining me the entire time, whether I paid attention to Him or not. It's not like God somehow winds us up like a clock, but instead..."with every breath you fill our soul with love that flows yet stays."
9. Lord God of All
We all recognize that proclamation from the Mass as the priest prepares the gifts for consecration, "Blessed are you Lord God of all creation... ." All creation includes not just the earth, sun, moon and stars which have epic meaning to us, but animals and insects, seasons and weather and everything that we experience.
Though certainly this is a song of praise, I took the liberty to approach with an attitude that this be a "lullaby to the Artist."
10. Oh Strengthen Me
God has offered us all many gifts, but to access their potential, we need to relinquish our claim to its power. Power is often most easily found within our own weakness.
1. Peace of Christ
I often refer to this, my first song, as the "Walking Prayer". While walking our sheltie Chloe on a regular basis, the allure of nature spoke strongly to me. The trees, the sky, the rocks along the road all seemed to be filled with the divine. At that time, a wonderful elderly priest (Fr. Dan) would often say Mass at our parish. He explained to me that as he made the sign of the cross (before the Gospel reading) on his forehead, lips, and heart, he'd silently say the words, "May the Peace of Christ be in my mind, on my lips and in my heart". There is a completeness and flow to this physical prayer that corresponded with each step on my walk.
Allow the cadence and rhythm to lead your heart into the Peace of Christ much like a mantra.
Also, I encourage you to take a prayerful walk, be aware of that which presents itself and then compose your own verse. It's a simple sentence formula of a short phrase that requires the last word before the comma to rhyme with the last word of the sentence. Make this song your "own" walking prayer.
2. Dialogue
Prayer, it's often said, is simply a conversation with God. Sometimes we do the talking; sometimes He does. We often use words; He seldom does. Perhaps words from scripture come to mind as we await a response, but that's the extent of any voice from God most of us ever receive. But, just when it seems that He may not even be tuned in to my efforts, a sense of presence often comes over me. I'm not sure I could handle actual words and I'm terrified of what He might actually say. But that presence_ that sense of He is there, not "up there", but right here as a still voice in my heart, is more profound and wonderful than a volume of words.
You will notice a definite pause in this song between our attempts to communicate and when His response becomes manifest. This signifies the gap in our minds, not His, for without Him we would not even be able to articulate our most primal need. I try to pour my heart out to God, tell Him everything. I hold back no punches. He is a "big god"; He certainly can take whatever I dish out. Then I try to wait in silence for the realization of His mercy.
3. The Silence You Hear
This is the "sister" song to "Dialogue". Though a younger sister, having been written months later, it arose from what I feel was a deeper prayer experience.
There is a proclivity on my part to try to control God, to pray when I think I need Him and to count on Him in times of distress. The rest of the time He is just hanging out in Heaven or dealing with someone else's issues. Oh, so human an attitude to think in this vein! When, and probably only when, I turn these thoughts off for a brief moment, do I then experience a more profound silence.
Silence can be scary. Just how uncomfortable are you when you hear the break in this song between my musings and God's profound response? We are not accustomed to silence, especially on the typical recordings most of us might listen to on a day-to-day basis. Absolute silence (such as in outer space) or an unexpected silence (as when the electricity fails) is scary, or at least shocks us a bit. However, the silence that is a channel to the divine is partly me cultivating awareness and partly a free gift from God. A sunset is still a sunset, whether we notice it or not, but it can be awe inspiring if we open ourselves to the play of light.
This silence is not seeing God face to face...rather, it is something we can actually handle, but it is often so filled with divine presence that it resonates and thus is a "silence you hear"!
4. Breathe on Me
He [Jesus] breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.' (John 20:22). One can't help but also think of God in the book of Genesis breathing life into Adam after forming him from dust. All life comes from God, and the Holy Spirit, the very energy of the Trinity, seems to be always associated with air or wind or breath.
I often focus my breath as I try to calm my overly active mind to prepare me for my morning meditation and prayer. Here are a few thoughts that I have experienced in this practice. We obviously are breathing all the time and fortunately don't have to think about manufacturing our next breath. Our body does it subconsciously, which is why we tend not to pay attention to it until we struggle to get our breath, say when we first come up for air when we swim underwater. But everything we do is linked to our breath. When tense or excited , our breathing becomes restricted and sporadic. When we are relaxed, our breathing returns to the easy belly breathing of a baby. It is not within the scope of my writing to explain how, but there is plenty of information on the internet to help us to learn to relax through focused breathing. It is so automatic that we tend to forget what a powerful tool breathing is, not just for relaxing, but, I suggest, for prayer as well. We want to be as "present" to God as we want Him to be for us...so we make the sign of the cross, we lovingly run rosary beads through our fingers, we splash holy water on our foreheads. These are all beautiful, "physical" sacramentals that have deep meaning and help form and solidify us in our Catholic culture and are our humble attempt to place ourselves before God. But, just think for a moment on the most basic of physical gifts, the gift of our breath. Why not offer the gift back as slow deep breaths that require us to enter into the present moment and to let go and trust? We can ask Christ to breathe on us and reflect on the fact that the Holy Spirit is breathing us into existence at every moment. "Send forth your spirit and you will renew the face of the earth"(Psalm 104:30)".
5. Come Away
This song was written to be sung at the Mass where my daughter Megan would profess her vows as a Poor Clare nun. The words and emotions expressed were cathartic in a two-fold way. One, they were for her (as I perceived her journey) to commit her life to Christ in a radical fashion. Secondly, they seemed to express what I needed to do to mentally and spiritually surrender my daughter to religious life.
To have a fore-taste of heaven here on earth is freely given by God in many ways: the beauty of nature, art, music, literature, the Mass and other forms of Liturgy, but I feel that it's most profound in the relationship we have with others. Our Christian faith presents as a Trinity, that is, as three persons in one God who are in "relationship": Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When we are lovingly aware of the beauty of our relationship with others, we vaguely mirror the relationship of the Trinity. To let go of sinful things makes great sense, but when we need to let go of a good thing such as a daily sharing of life with a loved one, then we struggle. When I finally did let go and trust God, I started to see everyone as part of the human family (albeit an extremely dysfunctional family), I also realized that my "understanding" or grasping of my precise part in that family doesn't ultimately matter. I do need to follow and discern as clearly as humanly possible God's will, but when I truly do "let go of knowing" and hold His hand, then I have often felt a great peace as a most beautiful consolation.
6. Still
"Be still and know I am your God." (Psalm 46:10)
It both fascinates and challenges me that God lays out a command, an attitude and a method to be able to approach Him. It is a most difficult thing for most of us with a modern mind...we seldom practice stillness. It seems it is as if only when nothing else is demanding our attention, that we can then possibly glimpse the glory of God.
For me, it often seems so simple, "He is God and I am not." Most of the time, I need to wrestle with my ego to grasp what should be the most obvious concept, but subtle thoughts of self-sufficiency still plague me.
There are "human" ways of accessing God, where our efforts must count a bit. The psalmist tells us that God can't deny a humble heart. Perhaps stillness is a wonderful place to cultivate a humble heart.
7. My Yoke Is Easy
I'm not sure that the word "easy" is found in the bible a lot. Not much about Jewish law in the Old Testament or, for that matter, the Good News of the New Testament seems to suggest that life is easy. Yet,, Jesus offers us this very scenario, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me: for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matt. 11: 28-30).
It seems that picking up our daily cross and suffering is more mainstream Christian theology than expecting the process to be easy. So I grasp at this odd saying and caress it for all it's worth, trusting that there just may be a sense of ease in attaching our lives to Jesus, especially when we come as a child.
8. Lord You Know Me
"Where can I flee from your presence?" (Psalm 139)
It's comforting to think I can hide from God occasionally just so I don't feel like I'm having to "perform" or keep up my "good guy" image. But, then when I return, it's usually a very obvious fact that God never stopped sustaining me the entire time, whether I paid attention to Him or not. It's not like God somehow winds us up like a clock, but instead..."with every breath you fill our soul with love that flows yet stays."
9. Lord God of All
We all recognize that proclamation from the Mass as the priest prepares the gifts for consecration, "Blessed are you Lord God of all creation... ." All creation includes not just the earth, sun, moon and stars which have epic meaning to us, but animals and insects, seasons and weather and everything that we experience.
Though certainly this is a song of praise, I took the liberty to approach with an attitude that this be a "lullaby to the Artist."
10. Oh Strengthen Me
God has offered us all many gifts, but to access their potential, we need to relinquish our claim to its power. Power is often most easily found within our own weakness.