THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH OF

APRIL

"Behold all things are become new."

-2 Cor. 5:17.

THESE WORDS sing in my heart as I enter the SILENCE.

The old condition is crossed out. Again and again I repeat, "It is finished," and I turn my face towards the sunlight of the resurrection.

Like the women who stood by the cross, I am strong in the consciousness of victory.

I await the arising of my cherished hopes. The seals of the tomb are breaking. The arms of the cross are melting into wings of light. The gift of eternal life is mine. I know that my Redeemer liveth.

I go into the deeper silence.

The stillness of the Easter morn is in my soul. I rest in the calmness of certainty. Surely the angels of the resurrection are with me now, bringing life, health, joy and healing in their wings.

I reach out my hands so that I may feel the touch of love, so great and so divine.

I get the vision of the glory dawning over a sleeping world on the grand resurrection morning. I get the wonderful response of earth and air, when those great beings from highest worlds came down to roll away the stone and greet their Lord.

I remember how He said to doubting, fearing souls, "I shall rise again.”

In this silence I plant that message in the hearts of all who see only their Calvary before them-Those who are hidden in the tomb, or those who blindly grope to find the light, I send to them the thought of resurrection. That the darkness of the night precedes the sunrise. That the tide which went back and left only barren sands, shall come in bearing treasures hitherto unknown.

I feel their sensitive response to the treatment. I see the darkness melting round them. Almost unconsciously I hear them say with inspiration born anew, "I shall rise again."

Out of the silence of ages past, the voice that called to Lazarus, positive and strong, comes again with cheering conviction, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." I feel that life eternal surging

through me. The life that always lived, but which He came to give with more abundance.

I visualize all things responding to that life. The miracle of the flowers springing up out of the hard ground, in answer to the great king of light, the sun; the new sap rushing through the trees, and nature writing poems everywhere in blossom and in bud.

My soul is opening with those flowers, to let His love descend on me, like drops of dew in holy sacrament.

Just like the flowers I will trust to Him for care; content to live and serve where He has placed me; to express my life as sweetly as the meadow-daisy, asking for nothing, giving all.

I know that my Redeemer liveth. I know that His life redeems me from all sickness. I know that if I keep His sayings I shall not see death. My life is hid with Christ in God, and I cannot lose it. The Christ in me has arisen and is alive forevermore.

The sun is shining on my world made new. It brings to light the beauties which my eyes have failed to see. I have turned my back on the tomb of the past forever. I have risen with Him, and because He lives, I shall live also.

Thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory to triumph over all things.

I go out to face the beautiful present, knowing that the future will grow in beauty just as the Summer follows the Spring.

THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH OF

MAY

SILENCE FOR MOTHERS' DAY

"As one whom his mother comforteth so will I comfort you."

ON THIS MOTHERS' DAY I enter the SILENCE. I let the promise of the past and present sink into my soul, "As one whom his mother comforteth so will I comfort you."

As these words came to give the people a new understanding of a God they had placed in a far-off Heaven, so they give to me a fuller understanding of the vast eternal love of that great "Father-Mother God," whose eternal presence cannot leave me.

I recall how when a little child in infant sorrow I rushed for consolation to my mother's arms. I feel again the touch of lips that kissed the childish hurt away.

As the darkness of the night was turned to daylight when I heard my mother's voice, so the darkness of life's path becomes illuminated when I shut out all other sounds and listen in the Silence for the voice within“Lo, I am with you alway-So will I comfort you."