My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. ... Psalm 57: 7-9

Songs of joy and grief, songs of sunlight and shadow, songs of insight and unknowing: These are our heart songs, the waves of thinking and feeling continuously streaming through our inner lives, the matrix from which all our actions spring. They are personal, unique to the individual, their particular quality dependent on the interaction of what we bring to life and all that we experience.

But if our inner world remains merely personal, land-locked, as it were, with no inflow to refresh or outflow to get rid of impurities, it quickly become stagnant - dead thinking that never revises its theories, hollow feeling that lacks real relationship, and meaningless routines that are content with repetition. It does not matter how sophisticated the thinking, how intense the feeling, or how demanding the activity, if they remain self-contained and self-focused, they are of little use to anyone, even ourselves. The ability to rise above ourselves is key to both wisdom and healing, and is necessary for truly altruistic service.

Such transcendence is possible only in an atmosphere of openness, when we turn from the noisy cacophony within and respond to the quiet voices that whisper to us from the world outside ourselves, without preconception, analysis, or judgment. Through active listening and intuition we can receive the thoughts and feelings of others - the people currently in our lives,those who have gone before, and those we know only indirectly. Through the imagination, we can relate to the images that flow through dreams, the natural world, and all artistic endeavours, their beauty and meanings available to all who care to appreciate them. And through inspiration, we can connect to the spiritual world, to all that exists beyond form, its riches freely given, ours by the simple act of breathing them in.

Paradoxically, when we learn to embrace what lives outside ourselves, just as it is and not in relation to our own private and limited world, we become more fully ourselves. Our own songs become more authentic.

At the same time, we draw closer to God, who is the source of all the bounteous gifts we receive, and gradually we learn to surrender our individual voices to His purposes. Only then are we capable of touching another in a quiet and genuine expression of love, without the need for personal recognition or reward.

O Breath of God, fill these tiny flutes of ours with your heart songs, absorbing our own, that our individual voices may join all others in a harmonious and joyful celebration of your love, in all places, and for all time. Amen.

Contributed by Diane S.
Published Sunday May 8, 2005
Week 24 of Liturgical Year A