Michael O'Brien

"Sometimes, even in the middle of a busy street, I would feel the great union, the great peace when speaking and listening were attuned to the voice of the Most High."

"I have felt this rarely in my life, mostly when I was a very young child," returned Pawel. "Time slowed then, a sense of wonder expanded. Angels sent messages, poured out over the world. One had only to look up to see it, to hear it, to receive the messages. But childhood ends. ‘Reality’ conquers all."

"Childhood should not end," David said. "It should take a more mature form, but its innocence should not cease."

He was still and gazed deeply into the infinite pool that bears stars into being. Above him was a tiny smudge of light that was the closest galaxy. It was spinning, spinning, but so far away that one could look for a whole lifetime and not see it alter. The galaxies out there whirled into each other like discs, blinding into space without colliding--passing through each other at thousands of miles per second, yet they did not appear to move.

Suddenly he understood: Time is an illusion of the mind. Only love remains.

Grandma smiles at her. "The light has not departed from you. Never turn from the knowledge of it, little piece of my heart."

"Oh, let me come to you."

"If you were to come to me, a sliver of light would be absent from the earth. You are sent down into the cold dark world to bring it light, though you are but a reflection. In many times and many places you will not see the light that you bring, for it is hidden from your eyes so that others may receive it."

"In my family there was much speaking and much silence. The speaking of words flowed from the speaking of our silences."

"What then is silence?"

"It is being. Spoken language and silence are keys."

"Keys to what?"

"To communion."

"What do you mean by communion?"

"At-oneness. each individual IS a word. As you are a word to me. As we are all words for one another."