The seventh line of St. Romuald’s Brief Rule reads: “Realize above all that you are in God’s presence, and stand there with the attitude of one who stands before the emperor.”

My translation is: “Realize above all you sit in the Loving Presence, so stay there, in stillness, with the openness of one expecting a gift.”

In talking with a dear friend yesterday, he explained his concept of God as ‘an envelope of love into which all things, good and bad, are held.’ It is this ‘envelope’ that we sit in, intentionally, when we sit in stillness. We do not sit waiting for God to show up. While we live and move and do everything in the Loving Presence, sitting in stillness is our intentional acknowledgment that we are in the Loving Presence – blessed, graced, and gifted with life. Our job, our task, in stillness is simply to ‘be open,’ to luxuriate in the Loving Presence, to allow the busyness of our minds to sink into the richer truth of the quiet of God’s love. In stillness we open to the deeper mystery of Loving Presence and find rest for our weary souls.