Thoughts on Silence

When peaceful silence lay over all, and night had run the half of her swift course, down from the heavens, from the royal throne, leapt your all-powerful Word; …  Wis. 18:12

            
The hush, stillness, calm, quietness and tranquility of SILENCE fosters awareness.  Silence promotes being awake and aware of reality.   Silence allows me to answer those perennial questions: Who am I?  Where am I going?  How do I get there?  Silence keeps me watchful and open to the voice of conscience, to the nudge of the Holy Spirit, and to the needs of my neighbor.
 
I often do what I don’t want and don’t do what I want.  Why?  Does a lack of silence leave me powerless so that I am thoughtlessly carried off by mere whim or passing want?  Silence gives me room to respond to reality and not merely react.
 
If all knowledge comes through the senses, the more silent I am, the more attuned each sense is to goodness, truth and beauty.  The Goodness of the Father who created me; the Truth of the Son whose obedience to death redeemed me; and the Beauty of the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying breath and overshadowing which prepares me for being Home in God, at Home in Heaven with our Lady, St. Joseph and all the angels and saints.
 
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The Poor Clare life is filled with SILENCE:  its beauty, its discipline and exercise, its paradoxes and its gift.  We all come from the ocean of God’s silence and we will one day return to its depths in the silent-music of eternity.  The SILENCE of our life readies and frees us to listen to the Word, to adore before the tabernacle and then to be sent off to speak, serve, pray and offer sacrifices for all members of the human family whether by doing dishes, cooking dinner or giving a class or countless other ordinary duties.  It becomes the atmosphere for prayer.
 
As women of silence we readily recognize its gift but also its discipline and challenges.  Being truly silent is not easy—or quick—even for us.  We are grateful for the liberating gift of our enclosure that supports our silence.  Although our expression of silence on the surface may seem very different to yours, each of us comes from silence and each life returns to silence.  We each have a Grand Canyon sized hole that craves and hungers and thirsts to be filled with God.  Silence holds challenges for Poor Clares as well as each person.
 
Although we are set apart from much hullabaloo that distracts, we are aware that the world is a noisy place from constant traffic and motors, phones and computers, incessant chatter.  Some noise can be measured in decibels and assaults our ears.  Oher noise is internal:  anxiety, fears, multi- tasking, a lack of forgiveness, curiosity and even the unnamed noise of loneliness.  Interior commotion and noise disturbs peace of heart and mind even more than exterior.   We need to diligently work for and claim spaces and times of silence.  Even if my external environment cannot be silent, at least find little crumbs of silence in our heart so we can be at HOME with ourselves, and others in God’s merciful love.
 
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It is from knowing where I come from—the silence of the eternal Trinity—and knowing where I am going that gives my life direction and its final goal.   Life on earth is a practice and exercise for eternity.  It is like a huge playground to train and ready me to be at home not only with God, but also with fellow travelers as well as myself.  At birth we are released into the great stream of humanity.  We need one another to survive that initial swim in life.  We need time and the encouragement of others to come to maturity and readiness for that final and greatest adventure of life— through death to eternal life.  For all of this, silence is essential.
 
We are given many gifts and helps for this journey through life.  But there is only one gift that even God will not force or retract.  It is the gift of our free will.  I alone am given the responsibility for my YES to God or my NO.  In God’s merciful goodness, He even gave me a gift to undo foolish NO’s and sinful choices.  He forgives only if I freely ask.  This is the gamble He took in giving us this gift of free will.  We can misuse it and are responsible for the consequences of a definitive NO to God.  Silence is scary because in it we are given the eyes to confront the choices of our free will.  Silence is a gift and exercise in this freedom to choose.  
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Truly I have set my soul in silence and peace.  As a child has rest in its mother’s arms, even so my soul.     Ps 131:2

 
Lord Jesus, I acknowledge and accept the lack of silence in my life.  I place my heart in your Heart and confess that I need help to come to quiet and trust. Silence scares me. I really do not want silence, at least much silence.  Help me want to want its discipline, exercise and gift.  
 
Lord, I know my time on earth is my opportunity to practice and be ready for eternity which is filled with the joy and paradoxes of silence.  It is from this eternal silence I come and will return.  It is from this that I will find my strength so I can rest, even now in earthly peace and eventually eternal peace.
 
Father it is your loving choice of me and from the fullness of your goodness that I have been created.   God my Father, thank you for your patience in awaiting my response to the wonder, awe and gratitude I now feel for the gift of life!  Noise distracts me.  I thank you for creating me.  Father from all eternity you spoke one Word—your Son, Jesus.  It is from the passion, death, resurrection and ascension of your Beloved Son that I am redeemed.  Your Son remains with me in His silent presence in the Blessed Sacrament.   I am grateful.  It is the Holy Spirit‘s life-giving silent breath and overshadowing care that sanctifies me so that I can truly be HOME with You in heaven:   Father, Son and Holy Spirit.   Knowing who I am in YOU and where I am going gives me great joy and peace.