Silence

I’m counting down the days (20) until my annual 8-day silent directed retreat.  Eight days of just God and me, together in the silence.

It is hard to capture in a few words how important that quiet time is for me.  Thomas Merton does a good job of explaining the importance of these times of silence with God in Honorable Reader: Reflections on My Work.  He writes: 

If there is no silence beyond and within the words of doctrine, there is no religion, only religious ideology. For religion goes beyond words and actions, and attains to the ultimate truth in silence. When this silence is lacking, where there are only the “many words” and not the One Word, then there is much bustle and activity, but no peace, no deep thought, no understanding, no inner quiet. Where there is no peace, there is no light. The mind that is hyper-active seems to itself to be awake and productive, but it is dreaming. Only in silence and solitude, in the quiet of worship, the reverent peace of prayer, the adoration in which the entire ego-self silences and abases itself in the presence of the Invisible God, only in these “activities” which are “non-actions” does the spirit truly awake from the dream of a multifarious and confused existence.

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