Gems of Wisdom – Intro

Practices of Peace To Awaken Mind and Heart

Greetings,

The Voices of Angels Foundation brings you prayers of peace.

We are dedicated to Art as prayer, primarily bringing music in the form of sung prayer. Our CDs are distributed nationally, used in hundreds of prisons, Veteran’s hospitals and mental institutions. Here in California, we also have the opportunity to do live music.

When going inside of institutions to share our music and work, we found the general population has some misperceptions about what authentic religion is. We also found some distrust around doing inter religious events.

In response to these issues we compiled excerpts from various sources to try and illuminate the larger view of faith practices. That yes, the faiths are different, but there are universal practices common to all, that can help us in achieving peace of mind and heart in our own lives, as well as in understanding the common values of faiths: justice, tolerance, peace and compassion.

We believe this work is especially important in our world today.

This collection was used over a period of months. Each page being a topic of discussion for those interested in initiating their own spiritual practices as well as for those seeking to deepen their own faiths. Inmates requested copies, psychologists came and visited and wanted to know what material we were using that was making such a difference in the inmates mental health.

So we decided to print them out and share them with you. They were never meant to be read like a book.

We offer them in hopes of starting conversations, whether individually or collectively. We hope they foster mutual understanding of the timeless gifts the spiritual traditions offer us. We offer them as tools and insights. We hope they clarify authentic religion and support the very distinct spiritual work of chaplains. We listed sources, so that you can go to the sources themselves for further detail. If there are any misrepresentations I take responsibility, for I am extremely grateful to these various writers and have done my best to excerpt their writings in the name of promoting peace.

The first document enclosed is The Decalogue of Assisi for Peace compiled by the world’s religious leaders in January of 2002 in direct response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in order to clarify to the world the true nature of religion.

We pray this will serve and be useful to others as well,

Shannon Frediani, Director 
TheVoices of Angels Foundation

The Voices of Angels Foundation is committed to bringing grace and healing to the isolated in our world today:

  • Fostering Inspired Art as a healing, transformative force that can touch the hearts of all
  • Honoring wisdom teachings and spiritual practices from all the worlds great spiritual traditions
  • Creating contemplative sacred space where all can connect with their hearts, souls, and source of inspiration.

WE PRAY to help alleviate the Spiritual and Ethical Poverty of our times.

We share a common goal with all chaplains: to serve the spiritual needs of any individual regardless of faith or heritage. All of our materials hope to satisfy this basic need.

We strive to support chaplains and those they serve.

P O Box 2066 Freedom CA 95019
(831) 761-0930
www.thevoicesofangels.org
a 501C3 non profit