#still small voice

[many-sparrows]

Once my friend told me that he felt Christian imposter syndrome sometimes because he had never had a big, life altering encounter with God. But we encounter God everywhere. It's in the way you let me sit on your couch and ramble about a breakup when we barely knew each other. It's in sunshine. Laughter. The faces of my friends who have never set foot in a church. It's in all the people who have shown me grace and mercy when I wholly didn't deserve it. It's the ache you've been trying to explain. It's the way that birds just know when to push their babies out of the nest. The way that I have found myself back in church even though no one would blame me if I hadn't. The way that we, creatures from a miniscule part of the universe, not only wanted to, but taught ourselves how to look into deep space. The sound of water flowing along a creek. It's the rhythm of the ocean, beating since before our species existed. You can go your whole life without having a big, come-to-jesus, altar call moment when you were "saved," and that's ok. Your faith doesn't have to run on adrenaline highs and intensity. God's in the still small voice. All the little miracles around you.

[theinwardlight]

From Marmaduke Stephenson, A Call from Death to Life (1659). Stephenson was an early Quaker martyr, hanged on Boston Common for his faith. 

[momentsbeforemass]

“I can’t do this”

(by request my homily from Sunday)

I’d like to talk with you today about the Trinity. In a way that won’t put you to sleep, and won’t drift into heresy.

You and I say one of the classic explanations of the Trinity every time we recite the Creed. We’re going to do it again right after this homily.

But what does it mean? What are we actually saying?

We’ve all heard the Trinity described as one God, in three persons. The Creed calls the first person “the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” It calls the second person “the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages.”

“Begotten” means that the Son is produced by the Father, and is of the same nature as the Father.

“Begotten” also means that the Son exists because the Father exists, but (and here’s where the “born of the Father before all ages” part comes in) there was never a time before the Father produced the Son. The Son is always coming forth from the Father. Like light from a fire. Fire always produces light – it’s the very nature of fire to do that. And so it is with the Father and the Son. It is the very nature of the Father to produce the Son.

All of that is baked into the Creed. But it’s actually not the most important part. The most important part is the relationship between the Father and the Son. And the nature of that relationship is one of love. The Son looks to the Father in love and the Father loves the Son and delights in the Son.  

This is what St. John is talking when he says that God is love.

What you and I need to know is that this love (which is the very nature of God) is not just a feeling or an emotion. It’s active. It’s dynamic. To the point that it’s a living thing flowing between the Father and the Son, uniting the Father and the Son.

The love between the Father and the Son is so concrete that it amounts to another a person, one that shares completely in the love that is the nature of the Father and the Son. This is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. But the Trinity is not a closed loop of the Father and the Son with the Spirit flowing between them.

The Holy Spirit not only flows between the Father and the Son, the Spirit overflows. Pouring out the love between the Father and the Son into all of creation. Including you and me.

And it is with the Spirit that we have our most intimate moments with God. When your heart is moved, in prayer and in the sacraments, in those most intimate moments with God? That’s the work of the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit is always active, always dynamic. As Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, “the Spirit of truth will guide you.” And the way that the Spirit does that is from the inside. With that still, small voice. The one that’s always with you. No matter what you’re doing.

My grandfather was a Normandy veteran. A few years before he died, the movie “Saving Private Ryan” came out. Just like it did for a lot of World War II veterans, it broke the ice and helped him to talk about the War.  

He told me how he persuaded his commanding officer not to give him a Purple Heart. Not because he was brave. But because he didn’t want his wife (my grandmother) to get a letter informing her about the medal. In effect, telling her that he had been wounded.

He also told me how he and another man from his unit rescued a wounded soldier from a mine field. They heard the wounded man calling out for help. When they got close and saw the warning signs for the mine field, they didn’t know what to do.

My grandfather thought to himself “I can’t do this.” As he thought it, he heard that still small voice, down deep, finishing his sentence – “can’t do this…alone.”

It stopped him cold. He knew it was the voice of the Holy Spirit. In that moment, he knew that God was with him, even on the edge of a mine field. And he knew exactly what they needed to do to rescue the wounded soldier.

He showed me the citation that he received when they were awarded the Soldier’s Medal for the rescue. Then he very pointedly told me that there were only two rescuers named on the citation, but it took Three to get through the mine field.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t just speak to us in the great moments, the moments when we’re called to be heroes, when we can save a life.

The Holy Spirit is always speaking to us. Even in the most everyday moments.

That’s the point of the Trinity, of the overflowing love that is the Holy Spirit. God isn’t out there, off in the distance. Through the Holy Spirit, God is with us. Right here, right now.

It’s that still, small voice. It’s the Holy Spirit, guiding us. Calling us to do what needs to be done, to do what we know is right. Calling us to be the better person, to be who God made us to be. Calling us to be better.

When the Holy Spirit is calling us to do something, when we let the Holy Spirit guide us, it will always be for our benefit. But for some reason, you and I forget this.

And instead, when we hear that still small voice, we ignore it. Or we talk ourselves out of it. And end up sounding like my grandfather, when he said, “I can’t do this.”

When what we should be doing is listening for the Holy Spirit to finish that sentence the way He always does – “can’t do this…alone.”

Because that’s the other half of this. When the Holy Spirit is calling us to do something, God will always give us the grace to do it. When we let the Holy Spirit guide us, all we have to do is follow His lead and follow through.

If the Holy Spirit is calling you to get away from a toxic relationship, follow His lead and follow through.

If the Holy Spirit is calling you to try again with that addiction, follow His lead and follow through.

If the Holy Spirit is calling you to forgive someone, follow His lead and follow through.

Today, listen to what the Holy Spirit is calling you to do. Follow His lead and follow through. God will give you the grace to do it.

Sunday’s Readings

[orthodoxsoul]

Too often, the recent convert to Christianity and the Christian too influenced by modern trends in anti-intellectual Christian thought worry that science and Orthodox Christianity are at odds. Courage, dear heart.  John William Draper, in his History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (New York: Appleton, 1874), p. x., said: 

As to the latter [the Orthodox Church], it has never, since the restoration of science, arrayed itself in opposition to the advancement of knowledge. On the contrary, it has always met it with welcome. It has observed a reverential attitude to truth, from whatever quarter it might come. Recognizing the apparent discrepancies between its interpretations of revealed truth and the discoveries of science, it has always expected that satisfactory explanations and reconciliations would ensue, and in this it has not been disappointed. It would have been well for modern civilization if the Roman Church had done the same.

We are not cave dwellers, saddled with superstitions about the natural world. We are created in the image and likeness of God. We glorify Him and praise Him for the way His creation reveals Him to us. We also have no fear that understanding the laws He set in place to govern His creation will alienate us from Him, but rather show us His hand in all things 

[holyspirittrinity]

Listen to still small voice within telling you to awaken.

It is God calling you to awaken and remember who and what you are.

[santmat]

"Learn to sit still and be mentally still, and the silence thus generated with be more vocal than words spoken and written; and you will have an instantaneous solution not only to your own personal problems but to the problems of others as well." -- Kirpal Singh, The Way of the Saints

[dwuerch-blog]

Embracing the Quiet

When Mom was still here on this side of heaven, my sis, Karen, and I talked a lot to her even when she was in a sound sleep. We knew her spirit could hear our words. That’s why I put the phone up to her ear when my children and grandchildren called the day before she passed to tell her what she meant to them. On the day of her passing, I put my daughter’s recorded message up to her ear. Staci…

[thenamesnotatallrelevant]

The "Still Small Voice"

The “Still Small Voice”

It is said that God is the “still small voice”. Perhaps what this teaches us is that:1) God is not where the voices are loudest; and2) you need to keep still, to focus, and to listen carefully in order to be able to hear Him speak.

[chalc0]

My dumb headcanon about Benrey is that he lost his body after final battle and now roams around as voiceless skeleton

Small comic just in sketches because I'm still busy with many projects but if you're interested I can add more pages and render it

[godisinthemidstofher]

Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

I Kings 19:11‭-‬12 NKJV

Still small voice•••

[skrunksthatwunk]

skwisgaar punished arc

[turtleblogatlast]

Something I like about Leo is that he’s honestly really chill? It’s easy to remember the moments where he’s being obnoxious or excitable but I feel like most of the time he’s incredibly “go with the flow” and has an overall affable demeanor.

[theinwardlight]

That which makes people blessed and happy is that they hear and obey the still, small voice, which says, 'This is the way, walk in it'. This is the voice of the true shepherd... And blessed be the Lord, that though his voice is many times very low and small, yet we hear and know it.

William Shewen (1631–95), Meditations and Experiences

Photo of Walden Pond, MA, courtesy of NYTimes. 

[yellowbugifs]

66/365 days of regina mills