I longed for the disciplined clear thinking mind that leads to a simple life. As it's been said: 'Don't just do something. Sit there.'

I had never felt deeply challenged by these little moments of what can only be called dishonesty.

Nineteen-year-old Virgilio Tognato from Thiene in northern Italy has just published his first book: no mean achievement for someone who at the age of nine was thought to have an IQ of nil.

The Rev Ray Simpson is Guardian of the Community of Aidan and Hilda on Lindisfarne.

In a restless world, silence can be the source of healing and creativity, believes Rosa Bellino

The most precious secret I have found for creating happiness is the practice of silence and inner listening.

For over 300 years the Quakers have been working for peace and acting as mediators. Campbell Leggat mines the experience of a group who have never been afraid to stand up to power or to listen at the deepest level.

The fighting in Central America has dragged on for decades. In May 1989 we published a profile of Guatemalan activist Eliezer Cifuentes, who only just escaped a hail of bullets and was forced into exile in Costa Rica. There he struggled with `the tigers of hatred in my heart for the military, whom I blamed for the attempt on my life, and for the US which I felt was backing them'.

How can we expect to manage our own lives, and find satisfaction in them, if we do not make time for hearing the word of the Lord?

As I skied, I suddenly became aware of a big hare hopping along in the light snow: It stopped, sat back on its hind legs, pricked up its ears, looked at me, and then hopped on again.