Compline always ends with what monastics call the "great silence." We move into the healing silence of the night...Silence is like a river of grace inviting us to leap unafraid into its beckoning depths. It is dark and mysterious in the waters of grace. Yet in the silent darkness we are given new eyes. In the heart of the divine we can see more clearly who we are. We are renewed and cleansed in this river of silence.
Nothing
in the world
is usual today.
This is
the first morning.
Come quickly -- as soon as
these blossoms open,
they fall.
This world exists
as a sheen of dew on flowers.