‘In the quiet of prayer we learn how to keep God’s love alive in the world.’ ~Author Unknown

A prayer for Guidance: O God I ask you to be with me with this day. I don’t know what lies ahead of me today but I ask you to be with me. Give me the strength and courage to get through everything as best I can. Help me to see clearly the things that matter and the things that don’t. Help me to use every gift I have, remembering that it is from you. May your presence in my life give me a generous and open heart, making me an instrument of peace and love in whatever choice I make. Help me to use these days as a time to make good positive choices in everything I do. I would like to include any person who needs a prayer, a word of encouragement, help or guidance at this time. For anyone who finds life a struggle please give them the inner strength to keep going. When I have doubts, questions, uncertainties, fears or worries, hold me in your special care. Even if today does not go good or if I feel I messed up, help me to restart and get going again. Whatever may happen all I need to know is that there is nothing that you or I can’t handle together today. Amen (Today is my gift to you)

“We’ve reached a time in human history when our global environmental crisis requires that we make permanent life-style changes. More than ever before, we need to fall back in love with the land. Silence is our meeting place.

“It is our birthright to listen, quietly and undisturbed, to the natural environment and take whatever meanings we may. Long before the noises of mankind, there were only the sounds of the natural world. Our ears evolved perfectly tuned to hear these sounds — sounds that far exceed the range of human speech or even our most ambitious musical performances: a passing breeze that indicates a weather change, the first birdsongs of spring heralding a regreening of the land and a return to growth and prosperity, an approaching storm promising relief from a drought, and the shifting tide reminding us of the celestial ballet. All of these experiences connect us back to the land and to our evolutionary past.

“One Square Inch of Silence is more than a book; it is a place in the Hoh Rain Forest, part of Olympic National Park — arguably the quietest place in the United States. But it, too, is endangered, protected only by a policy that is neither practiced by the National Park Service itself nor supported by adequate laws. My hope is that this book will trigger a quiet awakening in all those willing to become true listeners.

“Preserving natural silence is as necessary and essential as species preservation, habitat restoration, toxic waste cleanup, and carbon dioxide reduction, to name but a few of the immediate challenges that confront us in this still young century. The good news is that rescuing silence can come much more easily than tackling these other problems. A single law would signal a huge and immediate improvement. That law would prohibit all aircraft from flying over our most pristine national parks.

“Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything. It lives here, profoundly, at One Square Inch in the Hoh Rain Forest. It is the presence of time, undisturbed. It can be felt within the chest. Silence nurtures our nature, our human nature, and lets us know who we are. Left with a more receptive mind and a more attuned ear, we become better listeners not only to nature but to each other. Silence can be carried like embers from a fire. Silence can be found, and silence can find you. Silence can be lost and also recovered. But silence cannot be imagined, although most people think so. To experience the soul-swelling wonder of silence, you must hear it.”

And so we pray this news.

God says I was there with you
in the howling of the tornado
and the shaking of your house,
and now I will be there with you
wherever you go next.

God says I was there with you
when you lost your loved one
in the whirling tornado,
and now I will be there with you
as you mourn his or her loss.

God says I was there with you
when you surveyed the destruction
of all your cherished possessions,
and now I will be there with you
as you purchase new things
and start all over again.

God says I was there with you
when you reached out for your dog
but could not hold him close to you
as the winds intensified,
and now I will be there with you
as you keep him close inside your heart.

God says I was there with you
when you accepted the help of others,
and now I will be there with you
as that circle of love expands
and brings you fresh hope.

God says I was there with you
when all seemed lost forever,
and now I will be with you
as you struggle to survive
and reclaim your life once again.
So be it.

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Date: 2011-04-19