The Role of Silence in the Spiritual Life

 

THE ROLE OF SILENCE IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

God is found in silence

Elijah fled from King Ahab to Mt. Horeb. The Lord told Elijah that he would pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks, an earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was in none of these things. Then there was a soft quiet sound. When Elijah heard this, he hid his face in his cloak and stood at the entrance of the cave (1 Kg 19:11-13).

Silence disposes us for prayer

Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.’ He told them, ‘Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come” (Mk 1:35-38).

Silence facilitates contemplation

When the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, he questioned the announcement of John the Baptist. “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” Gabriel responded, “Now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.” Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah to emerge from the sanctuary (Lk 1:18-22).

Silence in the Liturgy

The Psalms periodically call for selah – a pause for reflection

“…Even before the celebration itself, it is a praiseworthy practice for silence to be observed in the church, in the sacristy, in the vesting room, and in adjacent areas, so that all may dispose themselves to carry out the sacred celebration in a devout and fitting manner (GIRM, 45).”

In some conversations with family or friends, we recognize that sometimes our full attention is required. The same is true when we spend time in communion with God.

If we are accustomed to the distractions of the world, silence will be difficult to endure, and even painful.

http://www.jgray.org/scripture/silence.pdf

—“The Role of Silence in the Spiritual Life,” St. Thomas the Apostle Church, Peoria Heights, Illinois, March 14, 2017

If silence is difficult to endure...if in order to pray we require music playing in the background or hanker for some kind of auditory stimulation, I seriously question whether we have ever developed the capacity to listen to God in silent prayer.

True, God speaks in many ways and through many channels, but he speaks in a special, inimitable way in the silent prayer that seeks our full attention.

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We live in a very noisy world. In fact, I would say it is pathologically noisy. Most people are incapable of being in silence for just one minute. It seems that there is a generalized panic about silence. Almost everyone you see walking down the street is listening to music. The radio is almost always turned on during car rides. Young people in particular seem to need to have loud music playing in their ears, all the time. I believe that all this is very much a trap of our enemy, the devil. God speaks in silence. Therefore, the more deafening the noise that surrounds us, the more difficult it is to hear the voice of the Lord, who desires to speak to us in the depths of our hearts.

In his book entitled The Power of Silence, Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect for the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, affirms that silence is an essential condition for prayer, and prayer is indispensable for Christian life. In other words, there can be no Christian life without prayer and there can be no prayer without silence.

…Jesus, our Teacher, prayed in silence. He would often retire to pray, especially at night, in places that were solitary and private like Gethsemane (Lk 6:12; 22:40). As Christians, who should we imitate, if not Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior? The saints, who are living witnesses of the Gospel, are also good examples for us. …Cardinal Sarah affirms that silence precedes, prepares, and accompanies prayer, a privileged moment when we have access to God, when He speaks with us face to face as with a friend.

…Silence, says Cardinal Sarah, is one of the principal means that allows us to enter into a spirit of prayer and disposes us to establish a vital, continuous relationship with God. It is hard to find a pious person who is always talking; on the contrary, he who possesses a spirit of prayer is a lover of silence.

https://www.homeofthemother.org/en/magazine/selected-articles/spiritual-life/11120-the-silence-in-the-christian-life  

—Fr. José Javier Martins de Passos, S.H.M., “The Importance of Silence in the Christian Life, H.M. Magazine, Thursday, April 2, 2020

In a pathologically noisy world, silent prayer is a sign of contradiction.

The objection has been raised—with which I agree—that Cardinal Sarah’s statement “there can be no prayer without silence” cannot be maintained, because even with outside noise, silence abides in our heart.

What Cardinal Sarah, who is portrayed by the press as a Roman Catholic conservative, says is consistent with a long spiritual tradition, so we should not be surprised to hear this kind of statement coming from Cardinal Sarah.

I would say that silent prayer is essential to salvation, because there is a communication between the heart and God that is by its very nature silent, so that by this token, silent prayer is essential to the spiritual life.

When we speak of silent prayer, we are not excluding prayer that is concomitantly audible or vocal. Working together, the silent prayer of the heart and vocal prayer may indeed coincide.