The Still, Small Voice of Color
May 27th, 2008 by 
ruah
Would you think me a bit mad if I told you God spoke to me through color?
Most of the few people who I’ve told about God’s pigmental locutions do, in fact, think I’m a bit mad. But just as we don’t choose God because He chooses us (John 15), we don’t choose the medium through which he communicates Himself; He chooses the medium. For many the medium is lively and electifying: locutions, ecstasies, visions, dreams and direct encounters with the divine. For others the medium is hidden, mundane, in the “still, small voice” of prayer. Many hear and feel nothing. Such was the case of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta for over fifty years. She felt absolute nothingness for decades, but in that emptiness received everything.
Without divulging too much of my soul I can say that I’m often in the middle of that spectrum in my relationship with the Most Holy Trinity. However, at some points in my life, He’s appeared most sensationally to my soul. I use that word deliberately, for He uses my extreme sensitivity–to light, sound, words, music and even color–to communicate to me. It at times has been quite subtle, but at other times quite visceral and striking.
Perhaps in another blog entry, I’ll delve into my sensory interior drama with greater detail (it is kind of a long story). But for right now I will say that while the devil has access to our exterior senses and some of our interior senses, God has access as well. We must train ourselves in prayer and thought to be attentive to the still, small voice of God, whatever flourishing form it takes.
Color Notes for the Road:
*In the midst of my color journey years ago on a pilgrimage, I heard of the book “Astonishing Splashes of Colour” by Clare Morall. While the premise of the main character–having synaesthesia, a condition where one’s senses are crossed (hearing colors, smelling sounds, etc.)–is very interesting, in the end it was just a postmodern piece, colour without form or soul.
*An electronic palette for Colorphiles. I love this. This is linked to a recent blog entry on Color Etymologies.
* Color Matters, another Color web site.
