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As I grow older, I discover more and more that the greatest gift I have to offer is my own joy of living, my own inner peace, my own silence and solitude, my own sense of well-being. When I ask myself, 'Who helps me most?' I must answer, 'The one who is willing to share his or her life with me.'

~Henri J.M. Nouwen

All that I have tried to say or write, has always been an inner need to transmit to myself and to others what burst forth, what was illumined and revealed to me in that moment.

~Father Schmemann

I do not write in order to teach others -God forbid!- but in order to reprove my unhappy soul, so that, shamed by my own words, as St John Klimakos says, I who have done nothing but speak may begin to act.

~from The Philokalia, Volume Three

If I can unite in myself the thought and devotion of Eastern and Western Christendom, the Greek and the Latin Fathers, the Russian and the Spanish mystics, I can prepare in myself the reunion of divided Christians. From that secret and unspoken unity in myself can eventually come a visible and manifest unity of all Christians. If we want to bring together what is divided, we cannot do so by imposing one division upon the other. If we do this, the union is not Christian. It is political and doomed to further conflict. We must contain all the divided worlds in ourselves and transcend them in Christ.

~Thomas Merton



Heartfelt greetings to you. I am a little 39 year old woman and reside in the Great White North with my beloved husband and my cat Potion. I am solitary by nature but also quite friendly. I spend most of my time writing spiritual books in my strange and snug curiosity shop of an office. I enjoy sitting in my garden and quietly gazing at the sky. I am a Christian, an ecumenist, and my faith is my life: my only desire is to please God and imitate the Lord. To be gentle...




My black robes are a sign of renunciation and a symbolic cloak of love that covers all wrongs.

More about my vestimentary choices here.


How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young-
a place near your altar,
O Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.

~Psalm 84:1-7



I am a member of the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius, "an organization dedicated to furthering mutual understanding and co-operation between the divided Christians of East and West."

Peace to you always. I must tell you that I am, for the most part, a silent presence on my flist. It also usually takes me forever a long time to reply to email. I was born in the wrong century, I think. I enjoy writing with glass quills.

It is important to me that my writings be like a prayer, an offering. Thus, some time ago I began to write without using contractions and rejected modern terms, favoring antiquated language instead. It was not artifice... It was my reaction to the manner in which words and sentences have been progressively compressed by recent technological devices. I wanted to step out of time... To write lovingly, slowly, reverently. I wanted to voice something sacred, something that cannot be rushed. I wanted to say, "Most beloved, you can rest here. We have all the time necessary."





If you would like to subscribe to my blog, the feed is quiet_professor.


My journal has become like a monastery with a view; dear visitors are encouraged to observe my inner life and daily activities, which I hope upholds and soothes them. It is a very silent place. Every time I write in my journal, I give you a piece of my heart. robed_embrace is the monastery's antechamber, if you will. There, I hold conversations with loved ones now and then.


from the magnificent film "Into Great Silence"

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your understanding and respect. Enabling comments would be a temptation. Because of my pride, I am too inclined to overextend myself. The silence that permeates my journal is, I believe, in accordance with God's will.

You could say that I disable comments for the sake of humility, not to shut you out.

I am also wary of being the cause of a harmful dependence. The Lord cares for you. As for me, I do not wish to thirst inordinately for your approval, praise and affection. Such thirst is a source of inauthenticity, which leads to a spirit of domination: my desire for your esteem would turn you into a self-serving instrument. I think this is why St. Isaac the Syrian wrote,

Be the friend of all, but in your spirit remain alone.



from the magnificent film "Into Great Silence"

I am in a delicate position, because I have been the unworthy recipient of much undeserved love. I must care for my soul even as I dedicate myself to unconditional love.

"I desire mercy and not sacrifice."






Memory Eternal

koinegeek, mixedborder and ladystrange2000