What Is Silence?

 
WHAT IS SILENCE?

Recently, I came across a YouTube video (see below) where a hermitallegedly “the last hermit of Ireland”—expounds about silence, saying: 
 
One can be in a country place with no noise at all and not find silence. …In the last resort, it’s at the level of the heart, the conscience, and the will. If that is troubled, if the conscience is not at peace, one can do whatever one wants to with regard to physical silence, one will not find it. One has to get in and fix it there where the problem is. Silence is a deep affair. And if a person is troubled, especially by the conscience, he can’t really free it. It has to be handled. …No matter what’s going on outside, there is a certain deep peace anchored in the serenity of God and of the whole universe.
 
 
Stephen McElligott, “What Is Silence? Conversations with the Last Hermit of Ireland,” YouTube video, 3:21 minutes, October 13, 2018
 
The habit identifies the speaker, Father David Jones, as a Carthusian. 
 
Silence is a quality of the soul. It is acquired and deepened through physical silence, but ultimately the source of genuinely satisfying silence is grace, the gift for which we are best disposed to receive through a dedicated life of prayer, in the most complete sense of the word.
 
Father David Jones radiates silence and peace—ever conjoined in the spiritual life, they witness to the hidden life of Jesus Christ. It is very attractive.
 

Comments

  1. Public domain photos

    Praying hands link:

    https://pixabay.com/photos/praying-prayer-hands-pray-request-614374/

    Carthusian at prayer link:

    https://www.maxpixel.net/Religious-Monastic-Christianity-Christian-Religion-892682

    Gonzalinho

    ReplyDelete
  2. Silence is an oasis of refreshment in the noise and tumult of the city.

    Gonzalinho

    ReplyDelete

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