To read is to listen.
They say that to pray is to speak to God and to meditate is to listen.
Reading is listening.
Reading is a form of meditation.
The beauty of reading rather than just listening in real time,  is we can go back again and again to what resonates, mystifies, feeds. 
We can go back in time.
We can share readings and exchange thoughts, deepen our appreciation for one another.
The books below are ones that have widened my understanding beyond my self-centered perspective.
Humbling, inspiring, nurturing, grounding, reading is truly listening. 
​

Her writing reaches me. Finally, a nightly review that actually works for me, too.

An excerpt from "Night," the seventh pause, page155 of  Macrina Wiederkehr's "Seven Sacred Pauses." 
I am now using this as my nightly review. 

"Stars pierce the darkness of the night sky.
The holiness of night enfolds me.
Angels of protection surround me.
As I enter the Great Silence, I thoughtfully attend to my heart.
With eyes of mercy and delight I scan my actions of this day.
Are the achievements of this day aligned with my hearts deepest yearning for grace-filled living?
Gratitude and compassion rise up from my soul like incense; gratitude for the blessings of the day, compassion for the discouragements of the day.
I prayerfully hold in my heart the ones who have passed through my life this day. Silence and darkness fall upon me like a great protective quilt of love.
Under the careful guidance of the angels and the Queen of Heaven, i put away my fear of the night and my reluctance to enter the silence.
Like a bird going home to roost at the end of the day I, too, seek my rest.
I enter the comforting darkness, robed in trust and confident of divine protection. The deep silence of the hour blesses me; the sweet darkness anoints me.
​The living prayer of this day, now complete, I offer to the Beloved."

​

A beautiful journey crafted in the depths of loving prayer, with a generous heart.

 "Day 1: A Loving Relationship Together
"Discernment is following the inclination of grace, those personal, subtle promptings of the Holy Spirit. Decisions become sacraments of grace when we yield to 'Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven' (Matt 6-10). We need the Holy Spirit to nourish us with this kind of daily bread, this living relationship that guides and perfects what has begun in us through Christ. We need deliverance  from the self-seeking self, from dominant culture; conditioning, and from influences of evil. For our part, we stand ready to forgive and ask to refrain from al the causes and conditions that compromise our heart's desire, which is God. Discernment is our relationship with the Holy Spirit who is at work in us. We (the Holy Spirit and us with our heart's longing) are in this loving relationship together."
Mary Margaret Funk 

"Practice
The first movement in discernment is epiclesis - the Greek word for calling down the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit wants to be involved in the minutest details of our life.
​We ask the Holy Spirit for help. 
Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, come!"

MORE BOOKS!!

​The following is a list of authors and their books that have come into my life and changed me one page at a time, especially in the last 3 years after arriving in New Orleans living 4 blocks from the Community Book Center (2523 Bayou Road, 70119) with Momma Jenn feeding this hungry thirsty chick one book at a time to nurture gradually, with love, into ever-greater awareness. The list is written somewhat in chronological order. Thank you Jennifer Turner, Vera Williams, Ray Bailey, Jayna Brown, Freddy Ramos, Bill Wilson, James and Ruby Green, Maya Ramos, and especially to all the writers. 

Leo Tolstoy.                             " Walk in the Light"
Mildred Taylor                     "Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry" and "Let the Circle Be Unbroken"  "the Road to Memphis"        
David Cappello                   "The People's Grocer; John G. Schwegmann, New Orleans, the Making of the Modern Retail World"        
Kenneth M. Stampp         "The Peculiar Institution"          
Chiek Anta Diop                 "Civilization and Barbarism"           
Ram Un Nefer Amen       "Ma'at"          
Edward Baptist                  "The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism"         
Cotton and Cane Slaves         "Chained to the Land: Voices from Cotton and Cane Plantations" edited by Lynette Ater Tanner            
Alabama's Slaves               "Slave Narratives: Alabama" from the Federal Writers' Project
Camara Laye                        "The Radiance of the King"   
Howard Thurman             "Jesus and the Disinherited"          
James Cone                           "The Cross and the Lynching Tree" and "A Black Theology of Liberation"       
Frederick Douglas             "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas"          
Toni Morrison                     "The Bluest Eye"
Dr. Joyce Degruy                "Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome"          
Yaa Gyasi                                "Homegoing"           
Zora Neale Hurston        "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and "Barracoon"           
Kalamu ya Salaam            "Be About Beauty"         
Delores S. Williams          "Sisters in the Wilderness"       
Chinua Achebe                    "When Things Fall Apart"          
Mary Washington             "Sojourner Truth's America" 
Black Female Writers     "Midnight Birds and Black Eyed Susans"  edited by Mary Washington
Negro Writers                      "The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers"  edited by Langston Hughes
Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal (Editors)   "Black Fire"
C. Dier                                       "The 1968 St. Bernard Massacre"
Martin Luther King           "A Call to Conscience"
Christopher Emdin           "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood"      
Nikki Giovanni                     "The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni 1968-1998"
Colson Whitehead            "The Underground Railroad"           
Walter Brueggemann       "Silence"         
Leo Tolstoy                               "Walk in the Light"
Doris Kearns Goodwin     "Leadership"  
Valentine Price                     "Up Decatur (Poems)"
Yosef A. A. Ben-Jochannan   "Our Black Seminarians and Black Clergy without a Black Theology"
​James Baldwin                       "Go Tell it on the Mountain"     
Madeleine Albright            "Fascism"      
Toni Morrison                        "The Source of Self-Regard"
Ari Berman                             "Give Us the Ballot"  
Helene Cooper                     "Madame President"
Richard Rohr                         "The Universal Christ"
Toni Morrison                         (In order) "Sula," "Song of Solomon," "Tar Baby," "Beloved" "Paradise," "Jazz"
Sara Bloom                             "The Yellow House"
David Billings                        "Deep Denial"
Steven Greenhouse           "Beaten Down, Worked Up"
Andrew Yang                         "The War Against Normal People"
Ta Nehisi Coates                  "The Water Dancer"
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor "Race for Profit"
Ray Hinton                               "The Sun Does Shine"
Maya Angelou                       "Letters to My Daughter"
Ralph Ellison                          "The Invisible Man"
Maurice Carlos Ruffin      "We Cast a Shadow"
Fred Rogers                            "The World According to Mr. Rogers"
Fanie E. Davis                            "The Little Book of Racial and Restorative Justice"
Nell Irvin Painter               "The History of White People"
Daniel Denvir                       "All American Nativism"
Kaba Hiawatha Kamene "Spirituality Before Religion"
Nina Jablonski                      "Living Color: The Biological and Social Meaning of Skin Color"
Michael Tellinger                "African Temples of the Annunaki"
Muata Ashby                        "Introduction to Maat Philosophy"
Sydney Poitier                     "The Measure of a Man"
Ivan Van Sertima               "They Came Before Columbus"
Alistair Moffat                    "Scotland: A History from Earliest Times"
Jack Weatherford            "Native Roots"
Daniel Estulin                      "The Tavistock Institute"
A.R. Luria                               "The Man with a Shattered World"
Rachel Maddow                "Blowout"
Isabel Wilkerson               "The Warmth of Other Suns"
Julia Cameron                     "The Artists Way"
Jean-Yves Leloup               "The Gospel of Mary Magdalene"
Meggan Waterson            "Mary Magdalene Revealed"
Bryan Stevenson               "Just Mercy"
Matthew Desmond         "Evicted"
Professor Kaba Hiawatha Kamee     "Spirituality Before Religions"
Jayna Brown                         "Babylon Girls"
The Bible                                  Line by line with Chuck Missler on You Tube and Audiobooks
Sincerely, Your Autistic Child
Her Bok                                     Schwaller de Lubicz
The Temple in Man            Schwaller de Lubicz