Traditionally Vespers (which means evening) is part of the Catholic and Orthodox liturgies, an evening service of prayer and praise. I am appropriating the term for the sake of Course students who would like a framework for stepping away from the world and going within: to commune with Spirit, to reflect, to be refreshed; to bring the darkness of the outer life to the inner Presence to be examined and gently released. Each ACIM Vespers piece is based on a song
Vespers was once called “Lucernarium,” referring to the lighting of candles after nightfall. Every song is a construct of light, embodiment of right-minded thoughts. To the light of these thoughts we quietly bring the darkness and confusion of our lives in the world.
My heart turns to You and opens to Your shining stillness, breath of light fragrantly sweet. Warm wings of peace fold around me, and I am held. Father Father Father. from Song of Prayer
T-14.VII.6. The Holy Spirit asks of you but this; bring to Him every secret you have locked away from Him. Open every door to Him, and bid Him enter the darkness and lighten it away. At your request He enters gladly.
A Course in Miracles is not a meditation path, but it is a teaching that recommends the value of quietness — stopping, pausing, resting, taking a few moments to breathe and reflect, and sitting quietly with one’s ego thoughts and upsets and looking at them honestly. The quiet itself is a symbol of the Holy Spirit in our mind. It comforts and refreshes us. In the quiet we receive guidance. In the quiet we are never alone. As the Course tells us, "God is very quiet." (T-11.III.1)
T-27.IV.1. In quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly resolved.
S-1.I.1. Prayer is a way offered by the Holy Spirit to reach God. It is not merely a question or an entreaty. It cannot succeed until you realize that it asks for nothing. . .Ask to receive what is already given; to accept what is already there. S-1.I.5. Prayer is a stepping aside; a letting go, a quiet time of listening and loving. . .Prayer is an offering; a giving up of yourself to be at one with Love. There is nothing to ask because there is nothing left to want. That nothingness becomes the altar of God. It disappears in Him.
W-pI.125. In quiet I receive God's Word today. W-pI.125.1. Let this day be a day of stillness and of quiet listening. Your Father wills you hear His Word today. He calls to you from deep within your mind where He abides. Hear Him today.
W-pII.264.1. Father, You stand before me and behind, beside me, in the place I see myself, and everywhere I go. You are in all the things I look upon, the sounds I hear, and every hand that reaches for my own. In You time disappears, and place becomes a meaningless belief. For what surrounds Your Son and keeps him safe is Love itself. There is no source but this, and nothing is that does not share its holiness.