by Paula Hirschboeck

O Silence of the Depths                            - quiet us
O Sound in the Stones                               - call us
O  Place of Emergence                            - return us
O  Wisdom of the Wild                            - instruct  us
O  Creator of the Dance                          - quicken us
O  Cry of Justice                                       - embolden us
O Wellspring of Compassion             - overflow through us
O Hidden Garden                                    - take root in us
O Cave of the Heart                                    - illumine us
O Soul of the World                                    - enfold us

CO-CREATED PRAYER  
(The numbers refer to persons whose words I have adapted to flow into this prayer.  These are not direct quotes nor did the authors intend to have the ideas directly apply to Sophia. The ideas reflect my understanding of Sophia.  I do remain faithful to the sense of meaning conveyed by the authors.  Their names are listed at the end )

Gracious Sophia,
            You, arising out of ineffable Silence and Depth, are the womb of all being (1).  Your radiant wisdom and compassion embraces all beings (2).  Your splendor makes us completely luminous (3).  May we reorient our lives to be in constant resonance with your silence (4).  In you, as we awake to awareness of each moment, and to openness to what is, we are given back to ourselves (5).  At the same time, through you, we take the whole universe as our body (6).  Help us stretch ourselves out until we span the chasm of contradictions we so regularly create (7). We persist in contradicting our truth, our beauty and our goodness. Help us stretch out to find ourselves within the divinity of the world (8).

As we sit on the rim of the well of darkness (9), may we not waver from our emptiness (10).  May we break free from the wounding of our own anxieties (11).  Your beauty triumphs over the suffering inherent in life (12).  Your cloak is the very fabric of the cosmos (13).  Within the invisible embrace of your beauty we kneel at the feet of all creatures (14).

Just as the temple bell stops but the sound keeps coming out of the flowers (15), you, Sophia, are coming to us from the future.   May we see you in the unforeseen.  You are teaching us that the known way is an impasse (16).  It is said that we do not hear the birds’ favorite songs (17).  Just so, a soul who loves you often hears what she hears not and often sees what she sees not (18). May we trust the effortless effort from which deep healing and transformation flow (19). You, gracious Sophia, Soul of the World, are longing for a mirror (20).  May your radiance be the light shining in our own eyes.  

Blessed Be.

1 “alaya vijnana” or “womb of all being” is a Buddhist phrase
2 Chandrakirti
3 Marguerite Porte, 14th c. Beguine burned at the stake
4 Robert Sardello in his book, Silence
5 Jon Kabat Zinn
6 Simone Weil
7 Rainer Maria Rilke
8 Rudolf Steiner
9 Pablo Neruda
10 Meister Eckhart
11 John O’Donohue
12 Friedrich Nietzsche
13 Sara Jane Boss in her book, Mary
14 Mechtilde of Magdeburg, medieval Beguine
15 Basho, from a haiku
16 Heraclitus, early Greek philosopher
17 Hafiz, Sufi mystic
18 Marguerite Porete
19 The Dalai Lama
20 Susan Griffin                                                                                                          

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