Six days of our week are dominated by the motif of buying and selling, but the Sabbath is a day of giving and ceasing our striving for things. As we keep the Sabbath, instead of our possessing things or space, time possesses us.
Marva J. Dawn, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly p.40
If busyness can become a kind of violence, we do not have to stretch our perception very far to see that Sabbath time — effortless, nourishing rest — can invite a healing of this violence. When we consecrate a time to listen to the still, small voices, we remember the root of inner wisdom that makes work fruitful. We remember from where we are most deeply nourished…
Wayne Muller, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal & Delight in Our Busy Lives p.5
In Sabbath time we bless what there is for being. The time for seeking is over; the time for finding has begun
Wayne Muller, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, & Delight in Our Busy Lives p.202
This then, is the theology of progress…Never in this life, only in the next. Only when we get to the promised land… Sabbath challenges the theology of progress by reminding us that we are already and always on sacred ground. The gifts of grace and delight are present and abundant; the time to live and love and give thanks and rest and delight is now, this moment, this day
Wayne Muller, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives p.79
Even the most harried workdays become tolerable when you know a day of holy peace is shortly arriving. The days succeeding the day of rest become days of light too. They shimmer with the afterglow of a revived spirit.
Rabbi Naomi Levy, To Begin Again (1998)
Sabbath honors the necessary wisdom of dormancy..We, too, must have a period in which we lie fallow, and restore our souls. In Sabbath time we remember to celebrate what is beautiful and sacred; we light candles, sing songs, tell stories, eat, nap, and make love..Within this sanctuary, we become available to insights and blessings of deep mindfulness that arise only in stillness and time.
