silence

Those who practice a watch of silence each day find their devotion takes them into ever-deepening realizations of God's immediate presence.

Silent watch periods are momentous opportunities that call for alert, expectant, and reverent participation. They are a foundation for prayer and an altar of awareness in the temple of reception.

They constitute the practice of our realization of God's immediate presence. The high moment of silence is that of consciously realizing God's envelopment.

I sat in the cafeteria alone wallowing in the quiet. I didn't realize how much I missed being silently alone. This place is full of noise. Hard noises and constant noises. Prison is full of people, angry people and people afraid, but always people crowded in rooms and herded like cattle from place to place. I sat down in the cafeteria and closed my eyes and felt God in the silence. I stayed there until they made me leave.

Let candles burn, both warm and bright,
Which to our darkness Thou has brought,
When we are wrapped in silence most profound,
May we hear that song most fully raised
From all the Unseen World that lies around
And Thou art by all Thy children praised.

Night and morning, You are by us faithfully
And surely at each newborn day.

Beside a river, in a spell
Of utter silence, there am I.
Alone I sit within a cell:
The midnight hours are passing by ...
I gaze into the distance, staying
Focused on night's formlessness;
The heart is begging to be praying --
In holy calm, how effortless!
All problems seem so far from me;
The world seem foreign and unreal.
Up in the heavens, You I see;
Within my heart, deep peace I feel.

Listen to Love's speech in God's wondrous,
terrible, gentle, loving, all-embracing
SILENCE.

With my rent miraculously taken care of, my life went deeply inward. I hardly spoke for over a year. Many visitors came, sat in silence, and left. Sometimes I spoke, but mostly I did not. The unwritten rule seemed to be that I would not speak out of discomfort or fear of silence. I would speak only when I felt that somehow a compassionate word might help someone I was with. Fasting, silence, and reading defined my life for several years... I didn't know if I was giving myself to foolishness or saintliness.

What are the fruits of silence?
They are self-control, truth, courage or endurance,
patience, dignity, and reverence.
Silence is the cornerstone of character.

We are often bombarded by so many extraneous stimuli that it is difficult to pray, much less remain attentive in the silence. I can't help but wonder how many times God has called my name and has caught me in my distraction. Perhaps the sum and substance of our conversations with God are being able to talk together as we would with our closest friend. In any good conversation, there are moments of silence -- intimate silences filled with the comfort of the presence of the other.

Elected silence,
sing to me.

Like trees, children grow tall in silence.