Welcome To The Religion Network!

I'm Lisa Bowman, editor of The Religion Network, a multi-faith Web site. This site provides inspirational quotes through an
exploration of a new spiritual theme every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The Religion network is offered with the
conviction that inspiration can be found in all spiritual faiths, and furthermore, that finding the commonalities
among the world's religions is more healing than pointing up their differences.

Religion as an institution is a precious gift, blessing individuals and uplifting communities. However you choose to
worship, I hope this site enhances your journey. If you'd like to know my story, click on biography.

Entering into a quiet room doesn't automatically
bring us to inner silence. When there is no one
to talk to or listen to, an interior discussion
may start up which is often noisier than the
noise we just escaped. Many unresolved problems
demand attention, one care forces itself upon
the other, one complaint rivals the next,
all pleading for a hearing.

It makes you wonder whether the diversion we look
for in the many things outside us might not really
be an attempt to avoid a confrontation
with what is inside.


Excerpted from "With Open Hands,"
by Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996)
Dutch priest and author
Ave Maria Press, 1972



_________

One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us
feel so helpless. We are so accustomed to relying upon words to
manage and control others. If we are silent, who will take control?
God will take control, but we will never let him take control until
we trust him. Silence is intimately related to trust.

...One of the fruits of silence is the freedom to let God be our
justifier. We don't need to straighten others out.


Excerpted from "Seeking the Kingdom,"
by Richard J. Foster
Theologian and Quaker
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

When we listen to the "inner voice,"
the place we come to eventually is silence.

Dorothy Fadiman
American Filmmaker

_________



The purest faith has to be tested by silence in which we
listen for the unexpected, in which we are open to what
we do not yet know; and in which we slowly and gradually
prepare for the day when we will reach out to a new
level of being with God...

...Not only does silence give us a chance to understand
ourselves better, to get a truer and more balanced per-
spective on our own lives in relation to the lives of others;
silence makes us whole it we let it.


Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Trappist monk and influential author
From "Creative Silence,"
published by the University of Louisville, 1968
American Filmmaker

___________



God far exceeds all words that we can
here express. In silence he is heard,
in silence worshipped best.

Angelus Silesius (1624-1677)
Born Johann Scheffler;
German mystic-poet

Random Bonus Quote:


The mystical is not how the world is, but that it is.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
Austrian philosopher