![]() It is a profoundly humbling and fruitful experience. We naturally begin to contemplate the infinence of His perfection, love, mercy, justice, glory, being, realizing we add nothing to Him and yet we are invited to be in relationship with Him. When we sit silently before Him, we surrender to this reality in a unique way, humbly acknowledging the weakness of human understanding and language. God is ineffible and our limited human heart cannot begin to comprehend Him. ![]() “The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him.”īesides building intimacy with God, silence allows us space to adore Him. So what are we waiting for? Let us strive for that "sweetness of inner silence" and bring the fruits of our "gentle peace" to all those around us. In truth, the depth of our intimacy with Him makes us all the more capable of loving those around us anyway. Let us strive to develop this level of intimacy not just with those we have been blessed with in our lives, but with He who has gifted them to us. Deep intimacy requires deep listening in our personal lives and in our spiritual lives. These are often not even communicated in words, but in actions, facial expression, or even in things left unsaid. We must silence the dialogue of our own "ego" which makes us deaf to the underlying needs, desires, and pains of those we love. We cannot just silence our tongues (although this is a start). The depth listening needs to be on another level all together if we want to acheive intimacy. If we think about the most intimate relationships we have in our lives-our family, our friends, our spouses-we can recognize immediately that the intimacy there is built on years invested in deep and true listening. A soul that has never tasted the sweetness of inner silence is a restless spirit which disturbs the silence of others. A deeper interior life, one of gentle peace and of that silence where the Lord dwells, is quite out of the question. A talkative soul lacks both the essential virtues and intimacy with God. Like anything, the depth of your silence will improve with practice. Once that is complete, thank Our Lord for His grace, and carry on. Instead just let them roll past and persevere for the time you established. When you begin, don't be discouraged by distractions-that only makes them more present to your mind. ![]() Find a quiet place, greet Our Lord, telling Him you want to sit quietly with Him and asking for His help. ![]() Set aside some time today to practice silence. Our day-to-day busyness makes our minds over-flowing with distractions and imaginings that are hard to ignore. John of the Cross reminds us, it is a necessary practice. Sitting silently with Our Lord is often a challenge for us, but, as St. What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue, for the language he best hears is silent love. Here are some quotes to reemphasize the value of silence and why it's worth our time and effort. There are two realities we need to accept: first, silence is an integral part of the development of our interior lives-we cannot develop one without silence and second, in the modern world, silence is something we have to actively pursue-it rarely comes to us organically anymore. You can't even pump gas or take a cab ride without clips of news, entertainment, and advertising before your eyes and ears. Few people would argue with the statement that our modern society offers little opportunity for silence. Smart phones and mobile devices keep messages, emails, streaming music and video platforms, and social media feeds available to us essentially at all times. ![]()
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