Tag: silence
Of Silence
Let us act in conformity with that saying of the Prophet: “I said I will guard my ways lest I sin with my tongue; I have put a bridle on my mouth; I was dumb and was humbled and kept silence from good things.” Here the prophet shows that if we ought at times for… Read More ›
It is the silence of the world that is real
Those who love their own noise are impatient of everything else. They constantly defile the silence of the forests and the mountains and the sea. They bore through silent nature in every direction with their machines, for fear that the calm world might accuse them of their own emptiness. The urgency of their swift movement… Read More ›
Beneath the Sands
The human heart is deep, lost in a desert where its deepest longings are lost beneath the sands. Days spent in silent pain, surrounded by others on the same path; yet not a word is said. Love the key that is sought and often not found….or something less that only makes the wounds deeper and… Read More ›
Personal Prayer Cells
The cell is above all the place where the monk encounters God. It is a physical space, yet a space ‘in accordance with the image of one’s inward nature.’… The primary tools of the cell are solitude, silence, listening, and the Spirit.(Keller, Oasis of Wisdom, p. 51) The spiritual life, however, is not limited solely… Read More ›
When Evil Comes Winging Toward You, Step Back into Cave of Your ‘Secret Tabernacle’
When an arrow is shot your way, first, step back. Shield yourself in the shadows. Hide in your “secret tabernacle.” If it is evil, it will come and then leave. If it is good, it will remain. Evil stays mainly when we step into its path and engage with it. A priest made this observation… Read More ›
Pope: monasteries have a precious social function
Serra San Bruno, Italy, Oct 9, 2011 / 02:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News) Pope Benedict XVI called the Carthusian charism of silence “a precious gift for the Church and the world,” and one that contained “a profound message for our life and for humanity.” “Retiring into silence and solitude, man, so to speak, is ‘exposed’ to… Read More ›
Silence allows people to hear God
Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Aug 10, 2011 / 12:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- We need to make time for silence in our lives if we are to pray and listen to God, said Pope Benedict XVI in his weekly general audience, August 10. “Silence is the environment that best promotes recollection, listening to God, meditation,” he told… Read More ›
The discipline of silence
The silence of the Word in the womb of the virgin speaks to you, cries out to you, recommends the discipline of silence. For ‘in silence and in hope shall be your strength’ as Isaiah promises, who defined the pursuit of justice as silence. As the Christ-child in the womb advanced towards birth in a… Read More ›
The School of the Word
Truly a trustworthy word and deserving of every welcome, O Lord, is your almighty Word, which in so deep a silence made its way down from the Father’s royal throne into the mangers of animals and meanwhile speaks to us better by its silence. Let him who has ears to hear, hear what this loving… Read More ›
How the Sea Can Help You Pray
Everyone living today in America in or near a city has a desperate need for the three S’s: silence, solitude, and slowing down—both for psychological sanity and for prayer. 1. Silence. Kierkegaard, the great nineteenth century Danish Christian philosopher, spoke often of silence. Almost the last thing he ever wrote was about silence. He said:… Read More ›