Elisabeth Kubler-Ross writes Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.
Silence. Even spiritual people seem allergic to it. I gave a talk one time on Modern Day Mystics. I mentioned the need to sit still before God, without the formalized prayers or petitions. And the participants admitted that they found that near impossible.
But it really isn't. It just takes hard work. Often, darkness teaches us to be silent. It takes away all thought, and leaves us with feelings of emptiness. And if we sit before God with that emptiness, we find that in the darkness we are learning to discern God. And sitting in that darkness, waiting on God, we learn to listen and discern better and to open our hearts to just the presence of God, without needing any favors or gifts or whatever.
Padre Pio once said that the miracles he performed were "candy for the children". If you want a mature spirituality, learn silence. In silence you will find how out just how sufficient God alone is for all of your needs. And then you will not need the candy.
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Thanks for this - I am finding silent contemplation to be deeply satisfying - but it is hard to do. I found Martin Laird's Into the Silent Land a very helpful book for overcoming the obstacles to sitting silently.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes think that the dark times in our lives are there precisely to help us be still. That is when I learned to sit in silence, simply because I had nothing to say. And during that silence, I tuned into the unseen world and began to hear and see what I had failed to see or hear before, despite my earnest search for God. I believe we change our way of thinking as we journey through life, according to our journey. That's why being helped along is wonderful. We can all learn even as we share.
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