On June 13, 2007, on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert interviewed the author of Muses, Madmen and Prophets, Daniel B. Smith who spoke about how hearing voices is not always psychotic and could actually be a good thing.
I began to 'hear voices' shortly after I began the practice of lectio-divinia/holy reading, in the year 2000, which was two years after beginning the practice of Centering Prayer as outlined by Father Michael Keating.
The 'voices' speak to me in scripture verses, except for "DO SOMETHING!" which has been the most persistent and loudest, and began the second I looked into the eyes of George, a little boy of Bethlehem.
In the year 2000, George, born and reared in the Little Town of Bethlehem: Occupied Territory, was 'captured' by photographer Debbie Hill, the morning after the Israeli army destroyed his bedroom in retaliation for a few hopeless militants who had infiltrated his once peaceful Christian village to snipe across the way into the illegal settlement/colony of Gilo.
According to International Law; ALL the settlements/colonies in the West Bank are illegal.
The shrapnel that pierced the wall of his sanctuary read "Made in USA" and was delivered via American made Apache helicopters. The second I saw George's eyes, in the photograph that was first published by the Florida Catholic and now graces the banner of my website: http://www.wearewideawake.org/
My heart said "DO SOMETHING!"
What could I possibly do I wondered, but I did make a copy of the photo, put it in a frame and placed it upon the altar [a bar high table] in the upper room of my home. Dozens of times a day, I would stop and gaze into the eyes of that little boy of Bethlehem and beg God to end the insane cycle of violence in the Holy Land for the sake of all the children who live there and deliver and release me from the incessant voice that demands: "DO SOMETHING!"
All these years later, every time I look at George's eyes-or even think about him-the persistent voice continues the incessant refrain: "DO SOMETHING!"
In the year 2000, I was a first year student in an Episcopal-Methodist Formation Program for Spiritual Directors. I knew going into the program that I would NOT be hanging out a shingle as a SD. I was there for the curriculum; studying the saints and others ways of prayer. That is also when I began to write creative spiritual literature.
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