Beginners please

            In our time elderly people may often be hard on youth for the way they are behaving saying “We never behaved so badly when we were young.”   But they must remember what kind of conditions and social norms those children are now being brought up in.

 Similarly practising Muslims who are scrupulously observing the Law of Islam may be impatient with those who are slowly approaching Islam or whose hearts are drawn to a circle of believers.  They may expect those people to conform quickly.  If this is the case it is a sign that you have not yet understood anything, and that your practices are only blinders.  If you are wise you will expect or demand only very little in the way of conformity from newcomers.  Don’t try to load your burden on them.  If you are trying to shift your burden you must consider its causes.

Don’t worry about bringing people in line. Concern you self with making sure that your own practices are becoming a means for attaining inner peace and are not becoming an end in themselves.  If your practice brings you inner peace and wisdom others will emulate those practices voluntarily.

From Rising Sun p 94

Simple praying – make time

People pass their days coming and going but in the evening everyone returns to their beloved.

The Lord asks you to be alone with Him, even for just five minutes, in an intimate time of the late night.

Who turns to their Lord in the night will find Him near, and will be able to rely on Him even in the midst of great and terrible events.

During the day – or at night take a bath; then sit quietly and say in silence;

My God, I have left everything but You.

Now I am with You.

I know that You will never leave me, that You are always with me;

But I am not with You.

I would like to be with You if only for a little while. Oh my God may I sit with You a while,

Looking to You, listening to You, doing what I do for You alone, and being only for You!

From  Love pp81 and 79