Prayerful Silence

FIRST ELEMENT OF THE MISSIONARY CENACLE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES:

PRAYERFUL SILENCE

Fr. Thomas Judge on Silence:

“Silence is the handmaiden of prayer and recollection. Let us think of the silence of the Son of God, and. observe silence for the sake of Him who was silent for them under trials and circumstances that could have provoked Him to speak. Let them by their silence adore the silence of Jesus tormented.

“I feel how divinely wise our Lord’s council to the apostles was when He invited them to go aside into the desert and rest a while. We need silence and recollection and a departure from the distractions of daily affairs to catch certain whisperings of the Holy Spirit.”

“One of the most useful of all employments would be to quietly leave the crowd and study, in prayerful silence, our own soul conditions. If we would just take the thoughts we think, the words we speak, the things we do, and trace these back to their roots it might be that in the midst of these we would find a great deal of chaff, imperfection, even sin.”

These three quotations from the writings of Father Judge remind us of the importance of silence.  In stressing the value of silence in the spiritual life Father Judge was echoing a tradition that is as old as the Bible and as contemporary as the latest meditation technique.  Because of the centrality of silence in the spiritual life, the Cenacle Spiritual Exercises are conducted in a spirit of silence. 

This is not to belittle the significance of dialogue, faith sharing and spiritual conversation.  In fact, the XII General Cenacle saw these as essential tools in the ongoing renewal of the congregation.  Nor does the silence during the Missionary Cenacle Spiritual Exercises ignore the value of the confreres building the bonds of fraternity by getting together and sharing their stories.  However, during the Missionary Cenacle Spiritual Exercises we choose to spend significant time with our most important dialogue partner and the source of all our missionary endeavors – the Triune God.

In silence we come first to listen to God.  Through deepening our experience of inner silence we reach a stillness in the midst of turmoil.  We create space for God to move in our hearts. Silence becomes prayer when God fills the emptiness with himself.  Through silent waiting, prayer happens.  And out of such prayer we receive as a gift the light and peace, which are the true sources of personal and communal renewal.

The monastery at Taize expresses the value of Silence in this way:

At times prayer becomes silent. Peaceful communion with God can do without words. “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother.” Like the satisfied child who has stopped crying and is in its mother’s arms, so can “my soul be with me” in the presence of God. Prayer then needs no words, maybe not even thoughts.

At Sinai, God spoke to Moses and the Israelites. Thunder and lightning and an ever-louder sound of a trumpet preceded and accompanied the Word of God (Exodus 19). Centuries later, the prophet Elijah returned to the same mountain of God. There he experienced storm and earthquake and fire as his ancestors did, and he was ready to listen to God speaking in the thunder. But the Lord was not in any of the familiar mighty phenomena. When all the noise was over, Elijah heard “a sound of sheer silence”, and God spoke to him (1 Kings 19).

When God’s word becomes “a sound of sheer silence”, it is more efficient then ever to change our hearts. The heavy storm on Mount Sinai was splitting rocks, but God’s silent word is able to break open human hearts of stone. For Elijah himself the sudden silence was probably more fearsome than the storm and thunder. The loud and mighty manifestations of God were somehow familiar to him. God’s silence is disconcerting, so very different from all Elijah knew before.

Silence makes us ready for a new meeting with God. In silence, God’s word can reach the hidden corners of our hearts. In silence, it proves to be “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit” (Hebrews 4:12). In silence, we stop hiding before God, and the light of Christ can reach and heal and transform even what we are ashamed of.

Silence and love

Christ says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). We need silence in order to welcome these words and put them into practice. When we are agitated and restless, we have so many arguments and reasons not to forgive and not to love too easily. But when we “have calmed and quieted our soul”, these reasons turn out to be quite insignificant. Maybe we sometimes avoid silence, preferring whatever noise, words or distraction, because inner peace is a risky thing: it makes us empty and poor, disintegrates bitterness and leads us to the gift of ourselves. Silent and poor, our hearts are overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit, filled with an unconditional love. Silence is a humble yet secure path to loving.